Torbay welcomes new Director of Public Health
Dr Lincoln Sargeant was previously the Director of Public Health for North Yorkshire County Council
Torbay’s new Director of Public Health says there are "three broad themes" he wants to focus on.
Dr Lincoln Sargeant wants to direct his attention to COVID, mental health and poverty, ensuring that "everyone has the best chance in life to be fulfilling for whatever they want to do".
Dr Sargeant will be joining the local NHS Trust this month, replacing the current Director of Public Health - Dr Caroline Dimond.
He told Greatest Hits Radio that he is inheriting "a really strong team":
"Tributes to Dr Caroline Dimond who has been a real pillar of strength and has built a really strong team. She’s led Torbay - from a public health point of view - through the difficult year that has been COVID so far.
"I think that there’s a lot to build on. The partners certainly are ready and willing and have been working together consistently over long periods of time, so it’s a good place to start; good legacies to build on."
Dr Lincoln Sargeant was previously the Director of Public Health for North Yorkshire County Council.
As well as developing and improving North Yorkshire’s Healthy Child and Sexual Health and Substance Misuse services, he also played an important role in creating, funding and supporting programmes such as:
- Stronger Communities
- Living Well (social prescribing)
- Discoveries on your Doorstep (physical activity)
- Falls Prevention
- Adult Weight Management
More recently, he worked to provide Public Health leadership and expertise in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Sargeant explains his plans he steps into this new role – and the three broad themes he will be focusing on:
"I want to work with our colleagues across the Bay to move into that pace where COVID is no longer something we respond to acutely, but it’s something we live with."
"I think once we get the levels down, once we create a new baseline, we can hopefully keep those levels low.
"The vaccine programme will help, but we will have a really strong public health response to identify cases quickly, ensure people are isolated, ensure that any single cases to not lead to an outbreak.
"The second is to work with our partners again in terms of mental health. We know that a lot of people will have experienced less than optimal mental health because of the challenges and stresses of COVID.
"Most people will bounce back, most people have resilience, but we need to keep an eye out for individuals who may not have the support systems, and we know that people with established mental health diagnosis are particularly vulnerable.
"Finally, I think that COVID has exposed the issues around poverty. We knew that there were pockets of deprivation in Torbay, but I think what COVID has done has exposed that to the extent that I think that the turning the tide on poverty approach becomes even more pressing.
"What we should do is to ensure not only that we focus on people who may be losing jobs or may be at risk of losing jobs, but also to think of people who may have never had a job or whose normal was income insecurity, job insecurity, and this is an opportunity for us in the bay to look at the situation as a whole."