Many thanks Gonca for sharing your powerful account of the social determinants of adolescent health.
You raise the question "should we get political?" I knew the quote from Rudolf Virchow that "Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing more than medicine on a large scale".
However, I wasn't aware of the rest of the full quote below:
"Medicine, as a social science, as the science of human beings, has the obligation to point out problems and to attempt their theoretical solution: the politician, the practical anthropologist, must find the means for their actual solution. The physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and social problems fall to a large extent within their jurisdiction."
As Virchow indicates we should regard our work as political, not in terms of political parties but as advocates for policies that promote the health and well-being of populations and, in our case, children, and against those that are barriers to health as you suggest.
All best wishes for 2025,
Nick Spencer
ISSOP Past President
CHIFA profile: Nick Spencer is Emeritus Professor of Child Health at the School of Health and Social Studies, University of Warwick in the UK. N.J.Spencer AT warwick.ac.uk
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