Ebook Being Healthy and Staying Healthy: A Vision of Health and Prevention The Netherlands
The Netherlands is not as healthy as it could be. The figures are clear: the Netherlands is less healthy than many other countries, and health inequalities between population groups are not diminishing. In this document, the government outlines how it sees health policy being reformed and what principles will apply in the context of that reform. What is provided here is a vision: clear pictures of the present and target situations, plus directions for moving from the one to the other.
In 2006, the government published its policy document Opting for a Healthy Life (Kiezen voor gezond leven) as part of the statutory prevention cycle. The main focus of the document was health promotion. On the basis of a thorough analysis of the problems, the following priorities for preventive policy were identified: smoking, problematic drinking, overweight, diabetes and depression. The importance of addressing these issues remains as great as ever. The document also made the point that new strategies, and in some cases new actors and parties to implement them, were needed in order to tackle the health problems of the twenty-first century. It is primarily this point that is developed in the document now before you. It projects long-term policy lines and defines conceptual frameworks, within which both the ministry and, crucially, its partners can develop strategies and action plans for a healthy nation. A nation in which we do justice to the phrase ‘health care’, rather than merely providing care to those who are unwell; a nation in which health is one of a number of reasonable aspirations.
Much of the content of this document is likely to seem familiar. Numerous advisory reports have been produced by authoritative bodies in recent years, indicating the form that health policy should take. The present document draws heavily on such reports, particularly those published by the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), the Health Council of the Netherlands, the Netherlands Public Health Federation (NPHF), the Public Health Forum, the Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP) and the recent report Public Health by the Council for Public Health and Health Care. Furthermore, various organisations that have traditionally concerned themselves primarily with curative care have in recent times published documents devoted to prevention. So, for example, the Royal Netherlands Society for the Advancement of Medicine (KNMG) has placed its vision of preventive care in the public domain, in July the Health Care Insurance Board (CVZ) brought out an advisory report on prevention, and the views of the Federation of Patients’ and Consumer Organisations in the Netherlands (NPCF) on this subject are to be published towards the end of 2007. Wherever possible, the VWS vision takes account of these recent publications as well.
This vision document begins with an analysis of the present health status of the Netherlands and the implications (sections 2 and 3). The ministry’s vision for the future is then presented in the context of two key themes: the relationship between the individual and his/her environment and the links between preventive health care and other forms of health care (sections 4 and 5). Section 6 identifies a number of ways in which the governmental setting must be improved and modernised. This vision will guide the way that the VWS and its partners work towards a healthy nation in the years ahead.
Contents
Foreword – Being Healthy and Staying Healthy
1. Introduction
2. Health in the Netherlands
- 2.1 Introduction
2.2 Health: a core social value
2.3 Health in the Netherlands
2.4 The increasing prevalence of chronic disease
2.5 Health inequalities
3. Stakes, responsibilities and forms of prevention
- 3.1 Introduction
3.2 Analysis of stakes and responsibilities
3.3 Parallelism of reasonable aspirations and cooperation
3.4 Forms of prevention
4. The association between setting and behaviour
- 4.1 Introduction
4.2 The promotion of health protection and disease prevention
4.3 Individual behaviour
4.4 Setting
4.5 The workplace setting and occupation as a factor in health
4.6 Long-term commitment and action on several fronts
5. The association between preventive and curative care
- 5.1 Introduction
5.2 Providing for basic prevention
5.3 Prevention in the mainstream care system
5.4 Measures, parameters and innovation
6. The administrative setting: integration, cooperation and modernisation
- 6.1 Introduction
6.2 The prevention cycle
6.3 Local policy
6.4 Modernisation of the public health care system
6.5 Better knowledge management as part of the central government’s supervisory role
6.6 Knowledge about cost-effectiveness
6.7 Health as a condition for and a consequence of participation
6.8 Centres for Youth and Families
6.9 Improving enforcement and supervision
6.10 International cooperation and making use of international contacts
7. Conclusion
Main sources consulted
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