BLOG: Special seminar on poverty and health inequalities

During Challenge Poverty Week (06-12 October 2025), Emilie McSwiggan shares reflections on organising a special seminar for Usher staff and students with a focus on poverty and health inequalities.

by Emilie McSwiggan | MPH (online) Teaching Fellow and ACRC Academy PhD student

Poverty shapes our health and our life chances profoundly. For those of us who work in public health and health-related disciplines, we can see its impact everywhere – whatever you study or research, you’ll almost certainly notice ‘deprivation’ as one of the risk factors for worse health outcomes and shorter lifespans. In fact, in this year’s Usher Institute Annual Lecture and Showcase, every single speaker referred to poverty or deprivation as a driver of poor health, across a really diverse range of research.

Inspired by Challenge Poverty Week in Scotland, I was keen to provide students and staff at Usher with an opportunity to explore this important topic. We held a special seminar on Tuesday 30 September, bringing together speakers from Public Health Scotland, the Scottish Community Development Centre, and The University of Edinburgh.

We had a wonderful, engaged audience, with more than 50 participants joining in person at the Usher Building, and more listening in online. It was fantastic to be able to provide students with a space to explore this important topic, and inspiring guest speakers who shared a great variety of practical responses to poverty and health inequalities.

Photograph of Darren Rocks (Public Health Scotland), Sarah Boath (Community Health Exchange), Emily Adams (ACRC Academy) at the Special Seminar on Poverty and Health Inequalities, Usher Building, 2025
Left to right: Darren Rocks (Public Health Scotland), Sarah Boath (Community Health Exchange), Emily Adams (ACRC Academy)

Students and staff enjoyed a wide variety of presentations, from a range of different perspectives and across the life course – from insights into the work of Public Health Scotland’s Fairer Healthier Economies team on tackling child poverty in Scotland, as shared by Health Improvement Manager, Darren Rocks; to exploring inclusive research with older adults experiencing homelessness, thanks to ACRC (Advanced Care Research Centre) PhD student, Emily Adams.

Sarah Boath introduced students to the principles of community-led health, and the work of the Community Health Exchange (part of the Scottish Community Development Centre) – with participants reflecting afterwards on the importance of building relationships and listening to people, in order to do better research. The session closed with an introduction to the Edinburgh Community Plan, thanks to Sarah Anderson, who provided attendees with practical steps they could take to make a difference in their own community.

Although we designed the seminar to fit in with the on-campus Master of Public Health (MPH) students’ learning, it was open to all staff and students with an interest in poverty and health inequalities. The hybrid format allowed online students to take part and feel included – with very few tech hiccups, thanks to the generous support of Matt Sanders and Mavis Frempong in the Usher Teaching Organisation. The event has already led to some exciting conversations about using poverty- and health-related resources in other Masters programmes; part of a ripple of hopeful positive longer-term impact.

I’m especially grateful to our fantastic speakers, and to the on-campus MPH team – Christine Evans, Markéta Keller and Eric Chen – whose support made it possible to hold this event.

To request access to slides or recordings from the seminar, email Emilie McSwiggan at emilie.mcswiggan@ed.ac.uk

Challenge Poverty Week takes place in Scotland in early October each year – it’s led by the Poverty Alliance, with community groups and universities organising a jam-packed calendar of events throughout the week, on topics related to poverty and actions to address it.

Poverty and Health Inequalities Forum | 13 November 2025 | 12.30-17.00 | Usher Building

I’m really excited to build on the conversations that started at last week’s Poverty and Health Inequalities seminar – and, in particular, to be part of a small team who are organising a (free) half-day Poverty and Health Inequalities Forum later this autumn; together with Emily Adams, Dr Livvy Swann, Dr Carey Lunan and Professor Stewart Mercer. This will also take place at the Usher Building in November – with staff, students, partner organisations and lived experience contributors all warmly welcome to join us.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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