Our blog

A Scotland where we live in vibrant, healthy and safe places and communities is one of the six public health priorities for Scotland. Health Improvement Officer, Michelle McCormack, discusses the work Public Health Scotland (PHS) is doing with the Improvement Service (IS) to deliver the Shaping Places for Wellbeing Programme across seven towns in Scotland.

We talk about prevention a lot at PHS, and for good reason. In essence, prevention in public health is about keeping people healthy and avoiding the risk of poor health, illness, injury, and early death.

In this blog, Professor Adrian Davis, Edinburgh Napier University and chair of the Data and Evidence subgroup of the Public Health and Sustainable Transport partnership, discusses why a 20mph speed limit on road in Scotland can help save lives.

PHS recognises gender-based violence as a major public health and human rights issue that requires focused efforts to end it. In this blog with Zero Tolerance, we discuss how a public health approach to ending violence against women and girls (VAWG) can help.

In our latest blog, Dr Jim McMenamin, Head of Health Protection (Infection Services) at Public Health Scotland, tells us about some important things to be aware of to make sure that we keep ourselves and others healthy and well during the winter season.

PHS has recently welcomed an independently verified statistics accreditation. This blog explains why it matters to our statistics and data colleagues, and to PHS as a whole.

In this blog post, Vick Craik from the Drugs Team at Public Health Scotland, explains how the drugs market in Scotland is changing and what impact that may have on public health in Scotland.

As the UK negotiates trade agreements, PHS Consultant in Public Health Margaret Douglas explains how a health impact assessment approach can help ensure they maximise health benefits, and minimise harm.

With the tail end of the year approaching, the Respiratory Team at PHS are gearing up to increase surveillance of respiratory infections across Scotland. In our latest blog, Helen Gadegaard, Healthcare Scientist Principal, tells us how the team gathers and shares this information.

In Challenge Poverty Week, PHS Chief Executive Paul Johnston focuses on our contribution, and work with partners, to tackle child poverty by addressing the three key drivers of child poverty: income from employment, income from social security and the cost of living.