Since the Maastricht University ‘This is Public Health Campaign’ launched in October, a campaign committee of twelve dedicated master students from the Governance and Leadership in European Public Health program has been formed. The committee has been split up into six subgroups that focus on different key areas of public health: nutrition, healthy cities, cross-border health, mental health, physical activity, and digital health. A TIPH campaign planning sheet was created in order to plan, schedule and coordinate the various activities of each of the subgroups (link provided below). Each activity aims to raise awareness of the different initiatives, activities, and infrastructure in place in Maastricht which promote public health. These initiatives are to be documented using videos and/or photos, interviews, TIPH stickers, and informational captions with campaign hashtags which are being shared widely with the public through various social media channels and platforms. 

Campaign planning document: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1q1pvP_1SShtfJfznlJmuRUtijAY71bwks5I_CB_WfqM/edit?usp=sharing 

Over the past month, some highlights of the campaign include interviewing a meditation teacher about how mindfulness meditation reduces stress and promotes mental wellbeing, highlighting an initiative where people can write Christmas cards for the elderly to help combat loneliness over the holidays, interviewing students about how they take care of their mental wellbeing during exams, highlighting how infrastructure for trains promotes interconnectedness between cities, showcasing greenspaces in the city such as the ´groene loper’ which encourages people to walk/bike instead of drive, contributing healthy and nutritious meal options to a Christmas breakfast at an elementary school, and linking smartwatches with wellness as a digital health device. Additionally, appointments were scheduled for January to interview staff members at the University’s sports facility to discuss physical activity breaks at the workplace, staff at the university hospital involved with a physical activity app, study advisors that help students navigate life at university, and volunteers helping at a “Serve our City” service event, among others. Additionally, efforts to prevent firework related accidents (many of which occur over New Year’s Eve) will be highlighted, including the Dutch government’s efforts to gradually increase regulations and launch annual awareness campaigns as well as the challenges with cross-border firework sales. Furthermore, the committee has been working to establish partnerships with other influential groups and public health figures who would be willing to support the campaign by sharing our social media posts on their platforms in order to further increase awareness of our activities and get the message out to more people. 

We look forward to continuing documenting our campaign activities in January and forming collaborative partnerships to spread the word to more people and guarantee the success of our campaign in the newyear!

- Maastricht University TIPH Campaign Team