Publications

Jo Eirik Asvall’s memorial guide 1931–2010

 

This memorial guide draws on Jo Asvall’s memoirs, dictated for a WHO history project (2006–2008) and interviews with 60 witnesses to his life and achievements, in order to provide a profile, life history and rules of the road for public health leadership. The WHO Regional Office for Europe has tried to create in this guide a communication platform that will both allow a new generation of public health advocates and leaders to get to know, as well as old hands to reacquaint themselves with, Jo Asvall and learn from his values, approaches, life work, challenges and achievements.

The publication was presented during the Memorial session at the 60th Regional Committee for Europe in Moscow on 14th September.  [read more...]

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Jo Eirik Asvall’s memorial guide 1931–2010

Franklin Apfel, EURO’s head of communications during the last years of Jo Eirik Asvall’s tenure as RD, coordinated on behalf of the Regional Office the writing of a reflective biographical booklet that tells ‘Jo’s story’. With guidance from Jo’s family, Franklin used texts from Jo’s memoirs, speeches and interviews and complemented them with reflections of key ‘witnesses’ who provided first hand reflections on his life and times.



Franklin Apfel with Anne Staehr-Johansen, daughter of Kirsten-Staehr Johansen Asvall, at the launch of the Memorial Guide in Moscow on 14 September 2010.
[Photograph WHCA ©]

 

 

Working With The Media

Communication is a determinant of health and is at the heart of advocacy. Health and environment organisations and community groups need to be able to communicate as widely and effectively as possible in order to get their message across, gain support and stimulate policy change. This guide aims to provide a simple roadmap for health professionals, advocates and organisations of all sizes on how to approach this task. Based upon experience from the 'other side' of the newsdesk, it offers practical advice on developing media strategies and effective ways to package and present information through press releases, conferences and interviews. It looks at ways of proactively sensitising the media to key issues such as stigmatisation and identifies some health communication ethical guidelines developed by journalists themselves, as well as covering media advocacy for policy change, crisis communication, campaign planning and evaluation.

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The World Health Communication Associates’ (WHCA) guide is presented as a practical resource for use by local, national and international health, education and development advocates and agencies that are working on and/or planning to take action to enhance people’s health literacy.

This reprinting and updating is based on demand from individuals and organisers who found it “a clear, short, well-presented” review of concepts and intervention ideas.

The guide contributed to UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) discussions on health literacy and the inclusion of a call in the conference declaration” to “enhance health literacy on all levels”. Since then, health literacy has been included in multiple national action plans, including in China and the USA (e.g. health literacy is specifically mentioned in President Obama’s national health plan), in EU and WHO actions to address health.

[Click on the cover of the book to download PDF]

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Guide Fact Sheet 1

Health Literacy -A critically important, often overlooked, determinant of health

Health literacy is the capacity to obtain, interpret and understand basic health information and services and the competence to use such information and services to enhance health. People’s health behaviors and choices, and ultimately health and well-being are significantly shaped by the ability to obtain, process, and turn good information into action.

[Click on the cover of the book to download PDF]

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Health Literacy Guide, Part 2

The World Health Communication Associates (WHCA) Action Guide on Health Literacy introduces a new interactive action framework for strengthening individual and societal health literacy. Health literacy is defined as “the capacity to obtain, interpret and understand basic health information and services and the competence to use such information and services to enhance health.” The guide’s primary aim is to be a “how to” manual. To this end it presents case study examples of practical interventions that people and agencies in a wide variety of settings are taking (and can take) to enhance their own and other’s health literacy. The actions described not only focus on individual behaviour changes but also look at initiatives being taken to strengthen and adjust systems in order to address institutional and structural deterrents to health literacy, make information more accessible and understandable, and make navigation easier.

[Click on the cover of the book to download PDF]

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The Journey to Parma: a tale of 20 years of environment and health action in Europe

The Journey to Parma: a tale of 20 years of environment and health action in Europe tells the story of the WHO European environment and health process, which has been marked by a series of ministerial conferences, from Frankfurt in 1989 to Parma in 2010, via Helsinki (1994), London (1999) and Budapest (2004). It draws on key documents, declarations and commitments connected with these ministerial gatherings and, importantly, on the recollections and insights of people who have been intimately involved in the process.
The story reveals how the process has been shaped by the input and engagement of a wide variety of stakeholders, including different sectors at country level, WHO and other United Nations agencies, the European Commission, nongovernmental organizations, media and the business community. It also reveals how the journey has shaped the actions of these groups and has helped define and give expression to many core public health development functions.

Key lessons learned are identified. Overall, the process provided an unique opportunity for all participants to go beyond personal and national interests and participate in a dynamic and sustained regional development process, significantly enhanced cooperative environment and health action in Europe, and engaged new actors and sectors in the process of addressing the challenges of both today and tomorrow in building a healthier, safer, fairer and greener future for all. [...read more]

[Click on the cover of the book to download PDF from WHO Regional Office for Europe website] 

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Health Literacy Guide, Part 1, The Basics

The guide’s primary aim is to fill this gap and be a ‘how to’ manual. Actions described not only focus on individual behaviour changes but also look at initiatives being taken to strengthen and adjust systems in order to address institutional and structural deterrents to health literacy, make information more accessible and understandable, and make ‘navigation’ through health, education systems and work, community and policy-making settings easier.

 

[Click on the covers of the books to download them in PDF]

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 Protecting Health in Europe from Climate Change

There is now scientific consensus that climate change affects health through changing weather patterns (for example, more intense and frequent extreme events) and indirectly through changes in water, air, food quality and quantity, ecosystems, agriculture, livelihoods and infrastructure. The effects will be unevenly distributed, and the people at greatest risk include people who are poor, very young, elderly and/or ill. Climate change can also pose a threat to health security. Failure to respond could be very costly in terms of disease, health care expenditure and lost productivity. This publication intends to stimulate debate and support an active response by providing up-to-date information on the health effects of climate change, as well as practical guidance on specific actions that decision-makers at different levels in health and other sectors can take now. As long as climate change is not too rapid or strong, many of the health effects can be controlled by strengthening health systems. This can include strengthening preparedness, public health services and health security, advocating action in other sectors to benefit health, better informing citizens and leading by example. Health systems need to strengthen their capacity to assess potential climate-related health effects, to review their capacities to cope, and develop and implement adaptation and mitigation strategies, and to strengthen a range of key areas of work from disease surveillance and control to disaster risk reduction—that are essential for rapid detection of and action against climate-related risks.

By Bettina Menne, Franklin Apfel, Sari Kovats and Francesca Racioppi, 2008,
51 pages, ISBN 978 92 890 7187 1, CHF 15.00/US$ 15.00

[Click on the cover of the book to download PDF from WHO Regional Office for Europe website]

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Medical Ethics Manual

Up until now the medical profession has not had a basic, universally used curriculum for the teaching of medical ethics. This first WMA Ethics Manual aims to fill that void. The result of a comprehensive global developmental and consultative process, guided and coordinated by the WMA Ethics Unit, this manual is intended as a basic teaching aid on medical ethics for all medical students and physicians that is based on WMA policies, but is not a policy document itself. It is specifically structured to reinforce and strengthen the ethical mindset and practice of physicians and provide tools to find ethical solutions to the extremely complex and multifaceted ethical dilemmas to which modern healthcare has given rise. It is not a list of "rights and wrongs" but an attempt to sensitise the conscience of the physician, which is the basis for all sound and ethical decision-making, and is structured to address issues related to the different relationships in which physicians are involved - with the primary aim of helping medical students and physicians find effective ways to put the patient first. The production and design of the manual were undertaken by WHCA.

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Injuries and Violence in Europe

Every day in the WHO European Region, injuries and violence kill over 2,000 people, put 60,000 others in hospital and necessitate Outpatient emergency treatment for another 600,000. This booklet summarizes the findings given in a larger publication, which show that adopting a broader public health approach and implementing successful interventions more widely can significantly reduce the toll of injuries and violence on health. If all countries in the Region equalled the performance of the safest, more than two-thirds of these injuries would be prevented and 500,000 lives saved each year. WHCA helped WHO to summarise the findings of the larger publication (Sethi, D, et al. Injuries and violence in Europe. Why they matter and what can be done. Copenhagen, WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2006). Put the patient first. The production and design of the manual were undertaken by WHCA.

[Click on the cover of the book to download PDF from WHO Regional Office for Europe website]
 

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Health and climate change: the “now and how”. A policy action guide

This document presents a brief summary of the results of the research project "Climate change and adaptation strategies for human health in Europe” (cCASHh) (May 2001-July 2004), coordinated by WHO and supported by the Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Programme in the frame of the Fifth European Union Framework Programme for Research and Development. Current climate trends point to the likelihood that southern Europe will become drier in the future, while northern Europe is likely to become warmer and wetter. Extreme events are expected to increase in frequency and severity, particularly heat-waves, droughts and intense rainfall events. cCASHh identified a range of options that have been taken or could be taken by European policy-makers to prevent, prepare and respond to the effects of weather and climate variability on people’s health. These measures are classified into general and specific. General measures include better cooperation between health and climate institutions, building capacity for action now and communication. The specific measures include information for the prevention of health effects from heat stress, floods, vector, rodent and food borne diseases.

[Click on the cover of the book to download PDF from WHO Regional Office for Europe website]

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Making preparation count: lessons from the avian influenza outbreak in Turkey

In December 2005, four children in Doðubeyazit, a poor rural town in eastern Turkey, brought their chickens inside to protect them from the cold. Unknown to the children, the chickens were harbouring H5N1, an avian influenza virus. Whether it came from migratory birds or the village market remains unclear. What is clear is that the children’s close contact with the infected poultry – sleeping next to the chickens in cramped quarters, and slaughtering and cleaning birds that became ill – contributed to the deaths of the three oldest. This booklet examines the factors that contributed to these deaths, the first H5N1 deaths recorded outside eastern Asia, and analyses the national and international response they triggered. Its goal is to identify practical lessons for public health agencies and policymakers, both national and international. The report draws on interviews with some of the key health workers who oversaw the Turkish and international responses to the outbreak, treated affected people, traced contacts and communicated with the public.

2006, vii + 47 pages, ISBN 92 890 1386 9, CHF 18.00/US$ 18.00

[Click on the cover of the book to download PDF from WHO Regional Office for Europe website]