Life&Health: activities on health and primary prevention continue
The training and exchange of good practices of Life&Health, the project that promotes health and the improvement of the current situation of primary prevention, continues through the implementation of different tools for representatives of local care communities and all other stakeholders. Some of the open educational resources have already been published. These and the others to come, serve to provide training on a healthy lifestyle and thus to create a network and exchange of good practices at European level.
The first result of the project was a research on competence gaps that will help to identify available structures, best practices, funding and organisations dealing with health promotion, prevention or both. Following this, a first handbook was published which can be used by experienced coaches from regions and member countries for a pilot course or workshop on a healthy lifestyle.
Life&Health sets practical and crucial goals in a Europe where the average age is increasingly high. The project aims to help people take action to improve their health. But first, it is fundamental to make people understand how dangerous so-called non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are and how they are associated with the lifestyle we adopt from early childhood (as well as with genetic, physiological and environmental factors).
Non-communicable diseases are widespread. They include all those non-infectious medical conditions. They can last for long periods and progress slowly. The best-known types are cardiovascular, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. The risk factors are many: smoking, lack of physical activity, alcohol abuse or an unhealthy diet.
Identifying and controlling these diseases and providing access to palliative care to those who need it are the most effective responses to NCDs. Through primary health care, early diagnosis and early treatment can be achieved, thus reducing the need for more expensive treatment.
With this in mind, CESIE carried out a demonstration at its premises, selecting a sample from among the staff members and carrying out a check on their state of health. This, like the other Life&Health activities, are actions that symbolize the importance of prevention, but are also messages to raise awareness, among the whole community, about the risk factors of non-communicable diseases.
About the project
Life & Health – Health promoting communities is a project co-funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus + program, Strategic Partnerships for Adult Education.
Partners
The project holds together 4 organisation:
- Coordinator: SÍBS - Samband íslenskra berkla- og brjóstholssjúklinga (Islanda),
- LHL- Norwegian Heart and Lung Patient Organisation (Norvegia),
- CESIE (Italy),
- Austurbru (Islanda).
For further information
Contact Giovanni Barbieri,giovanni.barbieri@cesie.org.