Bupa hosts its first Lecture Series event

Last week I was delighted to be at the very first lecture in the brand new Bupa Lecture Series. This is a programme of clinical lectures delivered in partnership with educational institutions. This first lecture was held in partnership with University College London at the Institute of Child Health. Experts from University College and from Bupa UK gave a series of talks on the topic of ‘Behaviour Change in Large Organisations’. The speakers were Professor Susan Michie – Prof. of Health Psychology at UCL, Dr. Paul Chadwick – a chartered clinical and health psychologist, Dr. Luke James – Bupa UK’s Medical Director for Health Clinics and Dr. Rachel Carey who is a Senior Behaviour Change Research Advisor at Bupa. The audience consisted of colleagues from both organisations, external health and care professionals and business representatives. 

The four speakers brought diverse experience and perspectives to the topic. The combination of academic thinking and rigour with the practical challenges of implementing behaviour change made for an interesting discussion and there were many questions from the audience.  

My key takeaways from the evening include:

? It is important to focus on proximal indicators of behaviour change, not only on the target behaviour of interest

? Behavioural science provides a versatile methodology for understanding and approaching behaviour change in the context of complex realities

? The workplace, and specifically large organisations, have great potential as vehicles for change

The evening was a fantastic start to our series of lectures. You can see comments from the Behaviour Change in Large Organisations event at #BupaLectureSeries on Twitter. 

These lectures are on topical issues and are intended to stimulate thought and debate. 

The next lectures are:

- 20th July: Salford University : ‘Exercise as Medicine’

- 6th September: Leeds University : ‘Sustaining and developing a care home workforce’

For further information on the lectures please visit our clinical community’s website at www.ourbupa.co.uk