With less than a week to go to the start of the World Cup in Russia, the Public Health Agency (PHA) is encouraging people to use the competition as inspiration to kick off some healthy habits. Mary Black, Assistant Director for Health and Social Wellbeing Improvement at the PHA, said: “The World Cup will see many sporting heroes take to the field in peak condition and it’s a good opportunity for us to think about our own levels of activity.

The Public Health Agency (PHA) is urging smokers to think about making use of the tailored, free, one-to-one support that community pharmacies can offer to help them stop smoking. The call comes on World No Tobacco Day as the agency highlights over 600 PHA-funded stop smoking services that are available free to current smokers across Northern Ireland.

Each year the HSC R&D Division of the Public Health Agency, along with Health and Social Care (HSC) partners, celebrates the ‘I Am Research’ campaign to mark International Clinical Trials Day. This year the national campaign on 25 May is running in collaboration with additional celebrations around the NHS’s 70th birthday.

The Public Health Agency (PHA) has hosted an event to promote good emotional health and wellbeing amongst the residents in the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council and Mid and East Antrim Borough Council areas. The community planning event held in the Valley Leisure Centre recently encouraged residents to build the Take 5 steps to wellbeing into their everyday lives.