Health: from here to where? A dystopian story on the future of wellbeing and health

From Here to Where - trailer from The Health Foundation on Vimeo.

In 2017 the Health Foundation embarked on a collaboration with the Royal Society for Public Health to develop a series of creative projects aimed at reframing the dialogue around health and health care.

Our first collaboration is a short story that imagines a dystopian future where the consequences, for us as individuals and as a society, of not taking action on the social determinants of health and widening health inequalities are played out.

In April we launched a competition, inviting writers to submit short story entries that envisaged this world. After receiving nearly 100 entries, our judging panel selected an exceptional and original winner.

The story aims to shed light on the lack of choice people currently face about the factors that shape their health and wellbeing such as work, education, housing, social networks and communities – factors which are largely outside of individual control and are influenced by political, social, economic, environmental and cultural factors.

The winning story, What You Want by Tim Byrne, and narrated by BAFTA-nominated actor Michael Sheen, is available online. We are also working with PHSE to develop lesson plans for the secondary school curriculum in the UK.

Enter the dystopian world: www.fromheretowhere.org.