Welcome to WHCA Online
Welcome to the WHCA website. Our aim is to use this platform both to keep you informed about our activities and as a resource for health and environment communicators.
CURRENT INITIATIVES
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WHCA holds the secretariat of the World Health Editors Network (WHEN). This important initiative in health communication is active on several fronts. Full reports, with video and presentation downloads, can be seen under the WHEN link. Recent projects include:
WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY 2009
WHEN's latest consultation meeting was held on 17th and 18th May in Geneva todiscuss issues of the 62nd World Health Assembly (WHA). Various specialists, active in the topics of the assembly were invited to meet the journalists and editors and present to the meeting. These expert presentations are now available in streaming video on this site, along with the PowerPoint presentations, where used. More...
WHEN applies for Wellcome Grant for work in Africa and Asia
WHCA, as Secretariat of WHEN, has applied (with ICN, WMA, FIP and FDI), for Wellcome Grants for WHEN projects in target countries in Africa and Asia. The projects aim to enhance the capacities of key leaders in African and Asian national health professional associations (nursing, medical, pharmacy and/or dentistry) to serve as "interMediaries" who would disseminate evidence-based research findings to association membership, policy makers and health advocates and secondarily to broader public audiences. The projects will give priority to selecting participants from members of the World Health Editors' Network (WHEN).
Click here to view project proposal.
Anyone interested in being involved in the projects, please contact Franklin Apfel: franklin@whcaonline.org or +44 (0)1934 732353 or +44 (0)7970 632320 (mobile).
Oral Health-Pioneering Prevention - International Health Briefing, Stockholm, 24 September 2008
This WHEN Briefing on Oral Health took place on the occasion of the 2008 FDI World Dental Congress in Stockholm. The briefing provide participants with a concise overview of key topics of interest to an inter-professional audience that were discussed at the FDI congress, using oral health prevention and treatment case studies. Additionally, experts from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Karolinska Institute and the Swedish Red Cross provided updates on infectious disease threats in Europe, new public health training approaches and international disaster relief.
World Health Youth Environment and Health Communication Network, 20-21 October, Madrid
The WHO Regional Office for Europe, with the assistance of World Health Communication Associates (WHCA), ran a workshop for a new World Health Youth (WHY) Communication Network on Environment and Health as a parallel event to the International Public Health Symposium in Madrid, 20-21 October.
The key objective was to catalyse the involvement of young journalists from each European country in the Environment and Health process and in so doing develop capacity, enhance quality and quantity of coverage and build sustainable communications across the European Region. Young journalists were given exclusive briefings and supported with information and contacts for their reporting on Environment and Health in Europe. A competition will be held and selected stories will be included in a new WHO Environment and Health in Europe book planned for publication at the end of 2009. Winning journalists will receive a WHO Media Award at the Fifth Ministerial Conference in Italy.
The report from the meeting will be coming soon!
For Young Media Development Project proposal, click here. For details of the WHY Media Award, click here.
Climate Change and Health
WHCA is working with WHO Department of Public Health and Environment on developing a global awareness campaign to catalyse and mobilise the health community to take a more active role in shaping and guiding national policy positions that advocate for protecting health from climate change in post-Kyoto framework discussions (COP 15) in Copenhagen Nov/Dec 2009 and beyond. It draws on WHA and EB resolutions and briefs and aims to utilise and strengthen communication tools and materials developed to date and take full advantage of a changing political and economic landscape. In particular, it addresses the communication activities needed to support objectives noted in the recent WHO Executive Board paper 124/11 for advocacy and awareness raising, partnerships, evidence promotion and health system strengthening. To this end the strategy calls for a proactive, cross-cutting, multi-stakeholder, 'lead-by-example' oriented communication strategy.
Watch this space for more information.
Call for Health Professional Pledge to Action
WHCA has joined the Climate and Health Council. The Council is an international group of doctors and other health professionals that aim to raise awareness and share knowledge about the impact on health of climate change. It is part of part of a registered charity, Knowledge into Action and is chaired by Professor Mike Gill, a Fellow of the Faculty of public health; Dr Robin Stott, vice chair of Medact; and Dr Fiona Godlee, Editor of the British Medical Journal. Its primary objective is to mobilise health professionals to take personal and professional action to ensure that governments across the world agree to mitigate climate change, as a matter of extreme urgency, due to the potentially catastrophic effects on human health if current trends in greenhouse gas emissions are not reversed.The Council is calling for all professionals to sign a pledge to action.
To sign the pledge: click on http://www.climateandhealth.org/pledge/.
For more information: visit http://www.climateandhealth.org/.
Writing Projects
The Social Safety Divide
WHCA has been contracted by WHO Regional Office for Europe, Rome, to prepare a summary of a report by Lucie Laflamme et al of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, entitled Socioeconomic Differences in Injury Risks: A review of findings and a discussion of potential countermeasures. The report sets out the results of a major literature review, which looked at over 300 studies from Europe and beyond, and paints a compelling picture of the importance of socioeconomic factors in injuries and violence. The summary, aimed at policy makers, researchers and advocates, packages this information in a concise format, extracting key messages regarding policy action and evidence needed to reduce the inequalities and burden of disease from injuries and violence.
Advocacy Guide for the International Council of Nurses
WHCA assisted the ICN in preparing Promoting Health: Advocacy Guide for Health Professionals. To access the online version of this guide, go to http://www.ichrn.org/, then click on News and Events, Campaigns. There is a link to the Guide under the Positive Practice Environment Campaign, Other Tools and Resources.
Slovenian and EU Chemical Safety Campaign
WHCA is working with staff of the Austria/Slovenia Transitional Facility "Chemical Safety 3" Project (No. SI 06 IB EC 02) to help provide for a public awareness raising process related to chemical safety. WHCA is helping to identify strengths and lessons learned from previous campaigns (2006 and 2007) and outline development steps for new initiatives.
Anyone interested in linking with this activity please contact franklin@whcaonline.org or Andrej.Troha1@gov.si.
Click here to see the Mission Report for September 2007.
Click here for information about the Exhibition.
As part of this project, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the first Chemical ACT of the Republic of Slovenia, WHCA is facilitating a unique Chemical Safety "Catalyst" Initiative. This initiative is dedicated to strengthening Chemical Safety communication and advocacy capacities of key stakeholders in Slovenia and aims to provide a robust set of national awareness raising actions around the Slovene Chemical Safety Week at the end of May 2009.
At the centre of the initiative are three 1½-day training workshops which will provide participants with a state of the art review of key skills and tools. In addition to presenting theoretical material, the workshops will focus on real-time learning and help each participant to apply the approaches discussed to the development of some target-specific chemical safety activity to take place during Chemical Safety Week. As a result of the training, it is hoped that collectively "catalysts" can disseminate evidence-based research findings to a wide variety of publics; facilitate behavioural changes utilising social marketing techniques; and help their colleagues and communities advocate for appropriate local, regional, national and international policies.
The ICN Advocacy Guide (see above) will provide the framework for the workshops, which we are also intending to film with a view to using the footage to make a series of advocacy training films.
Click here to view the detailed project proposal. See also Choosing our future, which is a joint project between HEAL's Chemical Health Monitor and the MDRGF (Mouvement pour les droits et le Respect des Générations Futures).
In Brief
WHO Healthy Cities Network Workshop
WHCA will be running an Advocacy Communications workshop at the training and networking meeting for WHO European Healthy Cities National Network coordinators in Cyprus, 5-7 March 2009. The meeting will be focusing on Advocacy Communications and Social Marketing, to strengthen Network capacities to work with the media and other partners in campaigning for behavioural and policy change.