Gaining health : analysis of policy development in European ...

Chapter 4
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• health care and general care
• advocacy.
The provisions of the Charter and the recommendations
of the Committee are intended to be included in future
legislation on the care of elderly people.
The National Institute for Health Development has developed
a National Implementation Plan for Healthy Ageing.
An information day was held in September 2007 to
raise awareness about the programme, and the Institute
launched a pilot project in Budapest for retired people to
walk together. Seven regional conferences have been organized
in seven large cities, together with a walking festival
in the capital involving the leaders of 50 walking clubs from
all parts of Hungary. A booklet has been published with
detailed information on walking clubs. Other information
booklets have been launched on healthy nutrition, physical
activity and mental health, together with advice for organizers
of activities specifically for the elderly. The publication
Community-based actions for healthy ageing (13) also provides
useful information and contacts for elderly people.
The Scientific Association for Healthy Ageing is an NGO
whose activities include supporting scientific research on
ageing and age-related diseases and health care for elderly
people.
3. Infrastructure and resources for policies
to tackle NCD
3.1. Human resources
The existing human resources available to the Government
may be sufficient in quantitative terms. In each region,
there is a health promotion department in the Regional
Public Health Office with a staff of 10, and in each district
there is at least one health coordinator. At the same time,
the public health culture of the staff is often outdated The
skills needed for flexible, broad, multilateral cooperation
and for negotiating with policy-makers are generally lacking,
as are an up-to date technical knowledge and proficiency
in English. In the coming years, the National Development
Framework (based on the EU structural funds) will place
strong emphasis on human resource development in this
field. In the next two or three years we can expect a radical
change in the public health culture of both governmental
and nongovernmental practitioners in the field of health
promotion and disease prevention.
The human capacity of universities, colleges and other
educational institutions has a growing importance and influence.
Public health/health education training at the bachelor
level is provided by three colleges in Budapest, Szeged and
Szombathely, supported by government funding. Masterlevel
training in health education is available at the Semmelweis
University in Budapest. Postgraduate training in public
health, environmental health, epidemiology and health
promotion (separate courses) is provided by the School
of Public Health of the University of Debrecen, which is
unique as such in central and eastern Europe. The School of
Public Health carries out broad research and training activities
in the field of health promotion and disease prevention,
and has produced a new generation of public health
experts with contemporary knowledge and skills.
The development of human resources at local, subregional
and regional levels is a great challenge for the future of
health promotion and disease prevention in Hungary. The
planned measures of human resource development and
capacity building in this field may offer an important step
forward in the forthcoming 3–5 years.
3.2. Financial resources
Concerning financial and technical resources, the basic conditions
of work are provided by core funding from different
public health institutions. Nonetheless, resources for cooperation
between different actors in the field are limited.
Case studies: policy development in countries for tackling noncommunicable diseases