ASPHER Working Group on Public Health Advocacy and Communication
Chair: Paulo Moreira
ECDC (Stockholm), National School of Public Health (Lisbon)
Tel: +46 858 60 1622, mailto:paulo.moreira@aspher.org
Co-chair: Robert Otok
ASPHER Brussels Office
Tel: +32 2 229 5391, mailto:robert.otok@aspher.org
Mission
The Health Advocacy and Communication Working Group is dedicated to foster awareness of key health advocacy themes as defined by ASPHER members including a focus on the current challenges related to communicable diseases. This activity is to be considered and promoted in balance with a process of developing curricula for education programmes to improve communication skills for health advocacy amongst public health professionals in Europe.
One fundamental aim of the Working Group is to motivate the European schools of public health to promote academic and advanced training programmes based on evidence and research related to advocacy and communication challenges as well as to promote students discussions and engagement in the public health debate.
Objectives
1. To develop the Public Health Advocacy and Communication WG at ASPHER (incl. a dedicated space at aspher.org)
The above would include the following activities:
1.1 to promote dialogue between schools interested in developing the topic both as content of public health education programmes (or advanced professional training) and in the dynamics of academic work; this will be supported by identifying schools which have or are interest in having modules totally or partially dedicated to health advocacy topics;
1.1.1 a technical meeting of interested members and partners can take place during 2010 focusing on fostering evidence and tools on health advocacy and communication related to education and research with a special focus on the current challenges of communicable disease as a source of relevant data and case studies;
1.2 to initiate a dedicated webpage and a blog (to be updated on a regular basis by all the ASPHER member schools);
1.2.1 initial content can include short texts by invited members of the committee and all the other schools (open to issues proposed by schools); invite all members to submit proposals for themes/texts (it could be monthly);
1.2.2 also summaries of current policy documents under public consultation to be discussed online by Committee members and, where appropriate, other ASPHER members;
1.3 to support one literature review on health advocacy to promote the process of sharing international evidence and debate around trends and developments as well as gaps and further research on health advocacy effectiveness;
1.4 to promote some space at least in one International Journal dedicated to promoting the topics developed by the committee;
1.5 to support the development of policy statements as requested by ASPHER members as well as out of the committee’s initiative;
2. To assist and work closely with other ASPHER committees (incl. communication/dissemination of the material produced)
2.1 to support “Public Health Reviews”, the journal being developed by the EHESP Press in collaboration with ASPHER as a tool to promote the theme;
3. To maintain close relations with other partners including EUPHA/EUPHA sections and EPHA; this may include:
3.1 joint responses to relevant consultations/joint statements on relevant issues; responses/statements on the ad-hoc basis;
3.2 regular face-to-face meetings of the Chair/co-Chair with partners when deemed appropriate;
3.3 communication with the relevant EUPHA section(s) as necessary;
4. To continue working closely with the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
4.1 to prepare the ground, structure and team of authors to produce a joint policy brief focusing on policy options to strengthen the role of Public Health Education in Europe (aiming at publication in 2011); by the end of May 2010 the topic and possible structure should be discussed at the planned ASPHER deans and directors retreat in Rennes (26-30 May 2010); policy brief proposal to be ready in time for the annual conference (European Public Health Conference 2010, Amsterdam, 10-13 November];]
4.2 to engage the schools involved in the committee's work in dissemination of the Observatory reports and policy briefs as well as to motivate academic debates around the briefs on the committee's blog (also, by inviting the schools to identify students and to invite them to produce their own analysis of the topics selected);
4.3 to disseminate the Observatory materials to ASPHER member schools;
EUPHA/ASPHER European Public Health Conference 2010, Amsterdam, 10-13 November
Progress on this project should be reviewed at a meeting held at the time of this conference. A session, associated with the theme and related issues to be organised by participating Schools; to prepare content for the Conference based on working group’s outputs (i.e. presence in one panel).
