ABOUT
In April 2024, Dr Rebecca Foljambe, an NHS GP and passionate campaigner for safer smartphone use in children, started a group to establish whether other health professionals felt as strongly about this issue.
The response was immediate, with consultant paediatricians, speech and language therapists, child psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists, public health consultants, social workers, dieticians, and GPs all sharing observations and concerns from their clinical practice regarding the impacts of children’s addictive screen use and access to harmful content online. Health Professionals for Safer Screens was born.
OUR AIMS & MISSION
This group’s ambition is to present the need for adopting the precautionary principle and help our colleagues understand that smartphones and screens are negative social and health determinants. We will do this by:
Educating the professional world about the risks of screens through evidenced-based briefings, resources and engagement with the Royal Colleges and the Chief Medical Officers.
Support the public with a public health campaign. We will create resources that our health professionals can use to educate them. Use media opportunities to raise awareness.
Support campaigns (as individuals and a group) which encourage safer screens
our members
Since our formation in April 2024, new health professionals have been joining our campaign: consultant paediatricians, speech and language therapists, child psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists, public health consultants, social workers, dieticians, and GPs, all sharing observations and concerns regarding the impacts of children’s addictive screen use and access to harmful content online. Join Us!
Dr Rebecca Foljambe
MBBS BSc DRCOG DFSRH MRCGP
Dr Sanjiv Nichani
Senior Consultant Paediatrician, Leicester Children’s Hospital, Founder “Healing Little Hearts Global Foundation” OBE MRCP Paediatrics
Dr Shamila Wanninayake
GP with Special Interest in Child Health Weights BSc MBBS MRCGP PgDiP DCH DFSRH LOC(IUD)
Dr Charlotte Armitage
Psychologist & Psychotherapist, Founder of “No Phones at Home” and “Be Device Wise” BSc (Hons) PG Cert GMBPsS CSci PPABP FRSA MBACP Psy.D
Dr Alex Fergusson
NHS GP MBBS DRCOG
Georgina Anderson
Dip Humanistic Therapist for Adults and Children
Dr Helen Thomas
MBBS DRCOG MRCEM MRCGP
Prof. Matthew Sadlier
MB; MSc; MRCPI; MICGP; MRCPsych; FFSEM, Consultant Liaison Psychiatrist Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin. Former president of Irish Medical Organisation.
