The PHA - an informed, collaborative and strong advocate for public health.

Influencing Public Health

Public health is the science and art of promoting health, preventing disease and prolonging life through the organised efforts of society.

The PHA seeks to be instrumental in helping to shape the development of sensible and effective public health policy. On this page you can find information about influencing public health policy at a local and regional level, other organisations akin to the PHA and public health events.

PHA position statements are available in our Health Topics section.

Supporting a public health perspective in local and regional government

Local and regional government can control a large number of factors that determine the health of people in their areas.

The Public Health Association has developed a package to help you influence your local and regional government so that they become excellent partners in improving health and reducing health inequalities. It contains advice on making submissions to council plans. The package is available here ( 133Kb).

The Cancer Society of New Zealand Social and Behavioural Research Unit of Otago University has put together some of the evidence base for activity and health to help when you make submissions to Annual plans and LTCCPs. This document is available here ( 2Mb).

You need to know when your Local and Regional Councils are calling for public input to their plans and processes, so we've gathered together the Council websites ( 195Kb).

We've also produced a submission template ( 51Kb) that may be useful for those approaching their local or regional authorities.

Local Government New Zealand has a paper on community outcomes and sustainable improvements in community wellbeing.

Contact the office for more advice and assistance, or if you have suggestions for keeping this material up-to-date.

Working with the media

The PHA offers free media training/communications sessions for health organisations that are not in a position to fund this type of training. For further information, please contact the Communications Manager.

Letters to the editor guide

Do you feel strongly about a public health issue? Write a letter to the editor using our simple letter writing techniques, list of email addresses and examples of sample letters (alcohol, housing, tobacco, oral health and preventing family violence). You can download the guide here ( 25Kb).