Options
ASPHER's Values, Vision, Mission and Aims: A Working Paper
Tulchinsky, Theodore H. | Hebrew University, Jerusalem and Rehovot, Israel |
Birt, Christopher | University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom |
Meijer, Andre | Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands |
Date Issued |
---|
2008-11-05 |
The peoples of Europe have benefited greatly from the startling successes of modern public health of the 19th and 20th centuries, which has brought sanitation, environmental and occupational health, vaccination, control of infectious diseases, safer and healthier foods, healthier mothers and babies, family planning, declining mortality from coronary heart disease and stroke, as well as from motorvehicle crashes, and recognition of tobacco use as a major health hazard. The result is increased longevity, with improved health standards and quality of life for the peoples of the industrialized countries. But this improvement is far from uniform for all population groups and countries across Europe, with many countries in post-Soviet transition and other poor and developing countries still suffering from low health standards; in many such countries the New Public Health remains a novel and challenging concept. [...] This paper presents the values, mission, and current aims of the organisation such that they reflect full and active participation in improving the health of the peoples of Europe. This is of key significance, not only for the many countries still in transition or development with currently poor standards of public health, but throughout the whole European Region. This Working Paper outlines professional and ethical aspects of public health which are vital, not only to the educational goals of participating members, but also to the public health movement as a whole: these should set the context for all public health educational activity.