How to become a public health official: Poppy's story

Hi. My name's Poppy. I'm a public health officer at Hounslow Council.

Mother of baby:

I was wondering if other people in the borough are like that like certain communities might like…

Poppy:

Public health is all about keeping people healthy and making services accessible for those who need them. You might be an academic advising the government or a school nurse.

I work in the children and young people team and we're looking to make sure that children are born healthily into happy families. My particular area is infant feeding, so I speak to mums in the borough about their experiences with breastfeeding or bottle feeding.

My role is to find the gaps in the public health services or issues that are arising in the borough.

We make sure we offer and services to fill those gaps and to reduce those problems, for example we were seeing low levels of breastfeeding in the borough, so I was going out and speaking to mums and as a result we've had an increase in people accessing breastfeeding clinics, and we've had a new antenatal service provided.

I love that a lot of my work includes community development and I can work quite closely with those who benefit from the services I help to commission, so I can see over quite a short time, how my work is helping people.

So I always wanted to do Art, I actually wanted to be a tattoo artist when I was a teenager, so when it came to choosing my GCSEs I chose creative subjects like Art, Music and Textiles.

I decided then that I wanted to have the option of a securer career for A-levels, so I chose Art, but I also did English Language and Biology as well to give me writing and scientific skills.

I've always looked after people. Every single job that I've had has been taking care of people. I've been babysitting since the age of 15, and my first job was being a carer for elderly and disabled people.

I decided to do a degree in Midwifery at the University of West London, but the shift work wasn't really for me, so I switched to a degree in Public Health. I then went on to do a master's in Public Health and Wellbeing.

(to young baby) Well done Niamh.

I really wanted to work in public health at a local authority as I have an interest in politics and I wanted to be part of local government decision making.

My midwifery studies meant that I also had an understanding about the challenges new mothers face and I was keen to work with children and young people, although public health does cover all ages.

I signed up to Hounslow council's job notification service and I applied and got an interview. I actually thought that I'd done really badly in the interview so when she called me later that day and said I'd got the job I was so chuffed.

Kelly, employer:

Hello. Hi, how are you? I'm good, thank you. Just wanted to ask you how…

Poppy has real comion, prior to working in public health she spent a year working as a carer with people who have disabilities and the elderly. This is a really solid foundation for a career in public health because she demonstrates that she wants to make a difference to people's lives.

Poppy:

I care about people and their health, but I knew I didn't want to work in a hospital or a healthcare centre, I wanted to be a bit more broad and this job allows for that.

It was not a requirement for the job, but the skills I learnt on my master's degree and in my previous job help me to interpret data better, so I can make the best choices for the people in our borough.

I wish I had known that you can still end up with a really great job that you love even if you end up picking things that didn't actually take you down the path you wanted. I think, knowing that there are lots of options ahead is really important.

My top tip is to find your niche. Find your interests and work out what it is that you're really into kind of hone in on that. Of course, you don't want to put yourself in a box, but if you've got an interest, follow that interest.