Ahead of International Men’s Day on Sunday 19 November the Public Health Agency (PHA) is encouraging men with feelings of anxiety or distress, or who may be in crisis, to start the conversation about their thoughts and feelings. The theme for International Men’s Day 2023 is ‘zero male suicide’. Fiona Teague, Regional Lead for Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing at the PHA said: “ Suicide is preventable, it is not inevitable, people of all ages and walks of life can experience suicidal thoughts. It is so important that if men are struggling with their feelings that they can talk to someone

During this year’s World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week (WAAW), the Public Health Agency (PHA) has joined with Northern Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer and Chief Veterinary Officer in asking everyone to join the collective effort to help prevent the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The theme for this year’s WAAW (18-24 November) is Preventing Antimicrobial Resistance Together . AMR occurs when microbes (bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites) change over time and no longer respond to medicines making infections harder to treat. The more we use antibiotics, such as penicillin

Smoking is the single most entirely preventable cause of ill-health, disability, and death in the UK. It is responsible for around 2,200 deaths per year in Northern Ireland. No other consumer product kills up to two-thirds of its users. On 4 October 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) published a command paper ‘Stopping the start: our new plan to create a smokefree generation’ setting out proposed actions to help protect future generations from the harms of smoking by creating the first “smokefree generation”, which the UK government and devolved administrations are now