The Public Health Agency (PHA) is using Self-Harm Awareness Day (1 March), to encourage people who are affected by self-harm to seek help. Dr Denise O’ Hagan, Public Health Consultant with the PHA, said: “People self-harm for various reasons and are usually experiencing severe emotional distress. Self-harm is when a person harms themselves through injury or poisoning. For some people, self-harm is a way of coping with and communicating their distress, but for others it can be associated with a wish to end their lives and therefore it should always be taken seriously.

It is just less than one month until No Smoking Day on Wednesday March 8 with thousands of smokers across Northern Ireland today being urged to stub out their cigarettes and become ‘Proud Quitters’. Cancer Focus Northern Ireland and the Public Health Agency (PHA) have teamed up with other organisations – all members of the local No Smoking Day Coordinating Committee - to urge smokers to quit on March 8 by seeking the help of their local stop smoking service.

With more than two in five households here in fuel poverty, the Public Health Agency (PHA) is using Fuel Poverty Awareness Day (Friday 17 February) to highlight energy efficiency tips and services that many people may find useful in helping to tackle the issue. A household is in fuel poverty if it needs to spend more than 10% of income on energy costs to adequately heat the home, and Northern Ireland has the highest percentage of fuel poverty households than any other region in the UK. Tracey Colgan, Senior Health and Wellbeing Improvement Officer at the PHA, said:

The Public Health Agency (PHA) Health Protection (HP) Symposium is scheduled for Monday 13th March 2017 in QUB, Riddel Hall, Stranmillis, Belfast. The HP Symposium will include an overview of the work of the PHA, health protection service. There will also be a series of presentations and parallel sessions throughout the day. There is no charge for attending this event but numbers will be limited so to avoid disappointment book early. There is a small number of places open to members of the public these will be offered on a first come basis.

Health and Social Care NI organisations, in partnership with BSO (PaLS), plan to deliver a series of procurement awareness events across Northern Ireland. These events are targeted at service providers who deliver health and social care service interventions to individuals and aim to raise awareness of public procurement requirements. These procurement awareness events will run at a range of locations across the region during the period March to May 2017.

At least one in three of us will get cancer, and with an increasing number of cases each year in Northern Ireland, the Public Health Agency (PHA) is using World Cancer Day (4 February) to raise awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer and encourage people to speak to their GP if they experience any of them.

Joe Brogan, Head of Pharmacy, Health and Social Care Board shares why pharmacies are for more than just medicine.

The value of helplines will be emphasised on 6 February the first Northern Ireland Helplines Awareness Day. The Helplines Network NI is hosting the awareness day and an event at Belfast City Hall to highlight the extensive range of helplines providing vital support, advice and information to the public across Northern Ireland. Helplines Network NI is membership-led and includes 26 member organisations delivering 30 helplines.

Chinese New Year celebrations take place this Saturday and the Public Health Agency (PHA) is making travellers to festivities in Asia aware that avian influenza is circulating in the region. Human cases of influenza are being reported in China, and at this time of year are expected to rise. The PHA is reminding travellers to festivities in mainland China, Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan of the risks associated with avian flu and how to protect themselves.