Fit for the Future

I came across this document from the brilliant Forum for the Future and the NHS Sustainable Development Unit called Fit for the Future.

This document looks at the social, political and economic responses to climate change that we might see over the next 20 years and the impacts that these will have on our health and the types of healthcare provision available to us. The report presents four scenarios describing radically different worlds in which the NHS might operate.

Helen Clarkson of Forum for the Future suggests that:

• ‘We strongly believe that this isn’t necessarily bad news. By focusing on our wellbeing and leading more sustainable lifestyles we can find the low-carbon/high quality-of-life sweet spot. That’s something not just for the NHS to consider but other organisations in the public sector, and all of us as individuals.’

This document echos with respect to health much of the logic that we have employed in developing approaches to sustainable social care, specifically:

• Helping people to take much greater responsibility over their lives and their services, and supporting communities to be more assisting of it’s members.
• Developing a far more effective model for early intervention and creating resilience rather than dependance.
• Ensuring that public services do not just adjust themselves to the potential impacts of climate change but become the conduit for wide-scale community behaviour change with respect to sustainability.