EUROPREV POLICY STATEMENT 2012 LJUBLJANA
Preventive activities might seem expensive, but in the long run they provide added value to the population's quality of life. However, unnecessary prevention may also cause harm. The present financial crisis may endanger prevention and health promotion budgets in European countries. Therefore, EUROPREV during its autumn meeting held in Ljubljana on 12–13 October 2012, called for an enlargement of the EUROPREV network base and an increase in activities between Wonca meetings. Participants discussed the mission of the network thoroughly and they proposed to strengthen the role of this European platform on prevention and health promotion. The decisions summarized below aim for the development of an active policy plan that will be endorsed at the 2013 Wonca World meeting in Prague.
Individual membership should be promoted by active EUROPREV members, by direct contacts with national societies and academies of general practice/family medicine (GP/FM) and with other Wonca networks. Approaching other international networks active in the field of health promotion and disease prevention was also considered. Any professional working on prevention and health promotion in primary health care can be involved as an individual EUROPREV member.
Institutional membership will be offered to national organizations such as societies and academies in GP/FM. Research groups, health promotion and prevention institutes, etc. oriented towards primary health care may apply for individual membership.
Country representation: Individual members and institutional members, who have paid their membership fees, will be able to elect every fourth year their national representative on the General Council. National representatives should meet at least annually and assist the General Council in developing an up-to-date database of country initiatives on health promotion and disease prevention, as well as a list of members and potential candidates for membership.
Working groups will be constituted in the main areas of interest of the EUROPREV network. Working groups should update the network about state-of-the-art practice, based on literature reviews and review of available guidance and implementation policies of European countries or European study groups. Working groups will inform the General Council of ongoing projects of European study groups. These groups will work independently and propose a specific working plan to the Coordinating Group and to the General Council. They may develop specific research or implementation projects and submit to the General Council through the Coordinating Group for endorsement.
Annual meetings will be held at different locations, independently from Wonca meetings, in order to attract gradually more people to the EUROPREV network. They will be organized by a local organizer appointed two years beforehand from volunteering societies or academies.
The Coordinating Group consists of the chairman, secretary, treasurer, public relations officer (PRO) and the chairs of all active working groups. They will communicate mainly via Internet facilities. Their primary task will be to assist the chair in contacting national bodies to enlarge the network, develop the policy plan, plan annual meetings and set up active working groups. A Website Editorial Board to maintain the website will be chaired by the PRO.
EUROPREV @ WONCA EUROPE 2012 VIENNA
At the 18th Wonca Europe conference held in Vienna, Austria on 4–7 July 2012, EUROPREV organized no less than five workshops, two of which in collaboration with other organizations:
— How to communicate benefits and harms in cancer screening (Martins, et al.).
— The new approach to preventive activities in EUROPREV countries (Bulc, Drenthen, Durrer).
— Is the preventive attitude of a patient related to the gender? (Bulc, Vučak).
— How we teach students, trainees and trainers on preventive activities in family medicine. Joint EUROPREV/EURACT workshop (Bulc, Kersnik, et al.).
— Risk assessment for partner violence. Joint EUROPREV/Special Interest Group on Family Violence workshop. (Pas, et al.).