2. International Activities
3.3.12 The Netherlands
Contact: Paul Baart / Inge van den Borne E-mail: centrum.@gbw.nl
The Dutch NCO undertook various initiatives in 1999. The third national survey on WHP in the Netherlands was completed. The results demonstrated the need of employers and employees need for WHP (75%). In ARBO services the Centre and its products became quite well known, over 80% of the respondents are familiar with the material and goals.
Important issues
A major issue in 1999 was stress. A conference on stress organised by the Centre, took place on February 4th 1999. This opportunity was also used to reward the four Dutch Models of Good Practice which had been chosen to be presented for the pan-European project “Success Factors and Quality in Workplace health Promotion” with a certificate “Dutch MOGP”. The Dutch Governmental Policy on stress and changes
in the Working Conditions Act and Disablement Insurance Act were presented by the State Secretary Mr. Hoogervorst. Reports on the most recent statistical figures on stress in the Netherlands and on intervention schemes in innovative practices were also drawn up.
Further activities have included the start of a training programme, WHP-Consultant, aiming to train 40 consultants (on behalf of the Ministry of Welfare and Sports) and the introduction of new programmes and materials on dangerous substances on behalf of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Netherlands Cancer Society. Three pilot interventions on the reduction of diesel engine emission in the docking industry started.
The impact of the Luxembourg Declaration
The introduction of the Luxembourg Declaration (LD) was promoted by the identification of the Models of good practice and their reward and participation in the final European Conference held in Bonn. Meanwhile twelve enterprises endorsed the principles of the LD and first steps towards a “Netherlands Network of Health Promoting Enterprises” have been taken.
Information/public relations
The Centre has various publications concerning different items of WHP. Their
“seven-steps” brochures are very good tools for the implementation of health promoting measures into enterprises. In 1999 more than 25.000 general brochures and 50.000 employee brochures were sent by request. The homepage is updated regularly.
Future plans/objectives for 2000
The Centre GBW is preparing future strategies for the continuation of WHP activities.
A merger between the Dutch Centre GBW and the National Institute for Health Promotion and Sickness Prevention is being discussed.
3.3.13 Norway
Contact: Odd Bjørnstad
E-mail: odd.bjornstad@stami.no
National situation
The national situation in Norway has not really changed yet, there are still no regulations or laws concerning WHP in Norway, but health professionals have made many efforts to make significant improvements to the working environment.
Participation and personal factors are more and more integrated into WHP – although this term is still not really accepted.
Major activities
Besides the collection of MOGP, one of the main activities was the organisation of a international course on “Workplace Health Promotion – Healthy People in Healthy Organisations” together with the NIVA (Nordic Institute for Advanced Training in Occupational Health) and the Finnish Institute for Occupational Health. This course was held 29 February – 3 March 2000 in Oslo. Some of the main topics in the course included: need assessment and strategies of WHP and the maintenance of work ability, the role and collaboration of occupational health and safety professionals with management and employees, development and evaluation of models of good practice as well as specific challenges in promoting health at work (small and medium-sized enterprises, ageing, globalisations, downsizing and outsourcing).
The NCO published various articles in professional papers and participated in several meetings and workshops, making contributions on WHP. An internet web-site was developed.
Future plans/objectives for 2000
The issue of WHP will be presented at two major conferences:
- a national conference for physicians in occupational medicine - a national conference for OHS professionals
A course is to be arranged on “Healthy people in healthy organisations”, to be held 29 February – 3 March 2000 in Oslo as mentioned above. The Internet web-site which was mentioned before will be established.
3.3.14 Portugal
Contact: Dr. Emília Natário and Dr. Álvaro Durão ;
E-mail: emilan@dgsaude.min-saude.pt and adurao@dgsaude.min-saude.pt
New regulations/laws
During 1999, the Framework Law on Occupational Health and Safety was revised, representing an important entrance for WHP into public, private and co-operative sectors. The regulation of Occupational Health and Safety for the Public Administration has changed. A new decree law established that all public sectors should create and support the Occupational Health and Safety Services and Activities for Public Servants to come into force on 1st January 2000. The General Directorate of Work Conditions is preparing the text for transpositions of the European Directives related to workers' health – the NCO is involved in this task.
The recent governmental change brought Prof. José Luís Castanheira into power as Director General of Health, who confirmed the designation of Dr. Emília Natário and Dr. Álvaro Durão as contact members and experts of the Portuguese NCO.
Important issues / activities
In 1999 two lines of action were developed by the NCO to achieve the main Network objectives:
1. At European level
The NCO supported the preparation of the new European projects on WHP for 2000:
- WHP in small and medium-sized enterprises - WHP in Latin and southern European countries
The active participation in the European project “Success Factors and Quality of WHP” was a major task in 1999.
2. At national level
The project “Active and Healthy Life at the Workplace” was organised mainly by the NCO, which also participated in training activities on workers' health together with the Regional Health Administrations. It has facilitated the assessment of WHP at the 16 enterprises involved and has offered a sequential process of evaluation. Since it was institutionalised, the group of enterprise experts, the representatives of the General Directorate of Health and the five Regional Health Administrations have had regular contact and participate in the interchange of information. An update picture was achieved, by periodic information sheets, questionnaires, discussions in meetings and interim seminars, as well as by informal contacts. Interim seminars have been set up to guarantee a regular exchange of information. The use of the Internet has been foreseen to facilitate and enlarge the dissemination.
Other activities were the assessment of WHP in Portuguese enterprises, to identify models and needs in order to reinforce their programmes and advice was offered to the regional Health administrations and enterprises to improve ability, participation and practices on WHP.
Information/public relations
As well as producing the usual publications, the NCO also participated in the V Forum on Occupational health held in Lisbon November 10-12 1999. The third National Meeting on Workplace Health Promotion which is to be held in 2000 was planned.
Future perspectives
The active participation in the SME project is foreseen and will be closely linked to national activities. The Portuguese NCO will also be actively involved in planning and organising the 9th Network meeting which will be held in Lisbon on June 16th – 18th 2000.
3.3.15 Spain
Contact: Maria Dolores Solé E-Mail: DoloresS@mtas.es
Meetings/conferences and seminars
The NCO was participated in the 7th network meeting as well as the European conference “Healthy employees in healthy organisations”
(May/June 1999) in Bonn and in the 8th network meeting hold in Helsinki in December 1999.
WHP-NET-NEWS/Internet
The NCO wrote and sent the article “Training occupational health and safety matters in temporary employment agencies: two models of good practice”.
A draft for a modification of our WHP-web in the web of INSHT was produced.
Copies of each WHP-Net-News are sent to a list of around 50 WHP experts and organisms, and some copies were distributed in INSHT library and other libraries.
The results of Bonn conference have been disseminated by the Institutes journals, courses and ordinary mail to key and interested people.
Other activities
We continuously offer the network for sharing and looking for information about WHP in our publications, course. Therefore, we’ve received some demands which were transposed to other NCO’s by e-mail.
We are requested, as INDSHT but also as NCO of WHP-Network, to enter as collaborator in another EU-project about WHP: “Prevention of cancer in the workplace: study of feasibility ” (PREWORK).
We began a collaboration with the Department of psychology (Unit of methodology of behavioural sciences) of the Autonomous Barcelona University in order to develop documents and strategies about the design of preventive information and its impact in the results of WHP.
We enhanced the number of receivers of Net-News from 50 to 125.
We developed training material for a course of “Marketing” for Workplace Health Promotion and fixed the date of the course for September 2000. This course is also designed to be introduced in Internet.
3.3.16 Sweden
Contact: Ewa Menckel E-mail: ewa.menckel@niwl.se
One of the main activities of the Swedish NCO was the involvement in the European project “Success Factors and Quality of WHP”, identifying Models of Good Practice and participating in the final conference “Healthy Employees in Healthy Organisations” held in Bonn, June 1999. This included the evaluation of questionnaires as well as site visits and producing the final report. On national level, a conference on WHP was held on August 23, 1999 at the National Institute for Working Life in Stockholm. On this occasion the four companies chosen as 'Models of Good Practice' presented their health promotion strategies. Around 50 key people, including media representatives, attended the conference at the new Institute library.
Also invited were the head of the Unit for Small-Scale Enterprises at the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in Örebro and the managers of the project ”Health, Working Life, Women’s Lives” at the National Institute of Public Health, who are also interested in workplace health promotion.
The objective of the conference was to raise the profile of WHP and to generate more interest. It also provided an opportunity to show what is presently being done in different organisations, and to give examples of how health-promoting work can be organised. In closing, the newly appointed director-general of NIWL, Inger Olsson, gave her comments on this issue and the work being done.
Future
The NCO is participating in the second joint project of the ENWHP “Workplace Health Promotion in Small and medium-sized Enterprises” co-ordinated by the Portuguese experts.
A national conference was held on 21st January, 2000. The Swedish network plans to
produce a report focusing on three areas: management, resources and personal power, the three fundamentals for implementing health promotion processes at the workplace. The working title of the report is ”To create health promoting processes at work – management, resources and personal power”. It will be distributed to the 360 people who attended the national conference and to other interested parties in Sweden.
Another forthcoming activity will be a workshop on WHP to be held in Brussels in September 2000. The workshop is one of several to be held in preparation for the
”Worklife 2000” conference to take place in January 2001. The workshop will be organised by the Liaison Office for the EU WHP Network (The Federal Institute for Occupational Health & Safety in Dortmund, Germany; Professor Karl Kuhn). The title will be: ”Gender aspects in WHP: a EU perspective”. An abstract has been sent to the 26th International Congress on Occupational Health in Singapore August 2000 with the title: ”Gender approaches in the EU Workplace Health Promotion Network”.
5. Summary
1999 was an important year in the history of the ENWHP. Somehow for many National Contact Offices it was a kind of coming-out which was initiated by the participation in the European Conference hold in Bonn. This was an important step in placing WHP on national and European agendas.
The Amsterdam treaty considering health promoting measures more than it has been done in the past, brought the need of the ENWHP to a kind of re-thinking about its future. This fruitful discussion has been fixed in the Position Paper in June 1999.
An agreement has been developed and signed by nearly every member of the network defining the role and responsibility of both the Liaison Office and the NCOs.
The following activities have helped to achieve positive results.
- Organisation of and participation in conferences (7th and 8th network meeting, various presentations of the ENWHP at national and international conferences) - Presentation of the ENWHP (articles in journals and newsletters, Internet) - Publication of the WHP-NET-NEWS
- Co-operation with other networks ( e.g. ENHPA, ENSP, ENPA, Mental Health Europe)
- Participation in other European projects ( e.g. Success Factors and Quality in WHP, Unemployment & Mental Health, WHP in SME´s)
Development of WHP in the different countries
The main task of the NCOs was the participation in the project “Success factors and quality in WHP” and in the organisation of the final conference. Nearly every NCO was able to use the results and the material collected in their country for national marketing purposes and to support their public relation activities, such as giving conferences, press releases, interviews and in publications. This fits well into the new strategy for advocating the ENWHP.
Governmental support also appears to be increasing in some of the countries (e.g.
Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal ).
All the network members have agreed to participate in the second joint project “WHP in SME´s” which began in 1999. There is clearly a need for action in Small and medium-sized enterprises. The integration of WHP into management systems has also been an important development and other issues have included:
- Ageing
- Gender Aspects in WHP - Mental Health
- Smoking at the Workplace - Stress
Nearly all the NCO have clearly made a great effort in undertaking activities to promote WHP. Nearly all are now represented in the Internet, but unfortunately many are not accessible in English and are not easily found on their institute homepage.
There is still a need for improvement in this field.