> Resources and Publications > PHC RIS infonet > April 2007 > Conference Report: Panel in the Pub

Conference Reports: Panel in the Pub

Thinker in Residence Program
15 February 2007, Adelaide

South Australia's innovative Thinker in Residence Program provides a wonderful opportunity for politicians, policy advisors, workers and citizens to “listen to people who know what they're talking about” in the words of Jay Weatherill, SA Minister of Community Services. Thinkers undertake residencies of two to six months. The program can be seen as a particular form of knowledge brokering, connecting people from different sectors to exchange ideas and stimulate action.

On a very hot February afternoon hundreds of people came to a pub to hear two current Thinkers in Residence discuss a way forward to address the social determinants of early childhood, as part of a larger panel facilitated by Professor Fran Baum.

Professor Ilona Kickbusch from Switzerland is one of the architects of the Ottawa Charter, which aimed to create health in the context of everyday life where people live, love, work and play. Ilona spoke of the importance of health literacy to help people navigate their own health and function as citizens, consumers, patients and parents. She suggested we significantly overestimate functional literacy in developed societies. Dr J Fraser Mustard regards the brain as an exquisitely dynamic organ early in life, to be protected and nurtured through excellent early childhood development centres with staff whose excellent training included neuroscience.

The panel concluded that political will is essential for action on investment in early childhood to follow the evidence. However, health and community workers as well as the rest of the community are responsible for creating the political will for change using processes of citizenship.

References:
Web: www.thinkers.sa.gov.au/home.html
Professor Ilona Kickbusch - Health Literacy: addressing the health and education divide
Web: http://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/16/3/289
J Fraser Mustard - The Brookings Institution: Early Child Development and Experience-based Brain Development – The Scientific Underpinnings of the Importance of early Child Development in a Globalised World – February 2006. Web: http://www.brookings.edu/views/papers/200602mustard.htm