well being

UNICEF Innocenti Report Card: Child Well-being in Rich Countries.

The Report card considers five dimensions of children’s lives: material well-being, health and safety, education, behaviours and risks, and housing and environment. The report is a good example of indicators to be taken into account when developing and monitoring policies that have direct and indirect effect on child well-being, including cross-sectorally. The paper key findings can be summarised as follows: The Netherlands is the leader and the only country ranked among the top (...)

EU Mental Health Compass update: economic analysis of workplace mental health promotion and disorders prevention

Mental health disorders impose significant barriers for the EU realising its policy objectives for improved public health and recovered economic growth. But what is the estimated contribution good mental health can add to EU economy? What numbers are to convince policy-makers and employers to invest in mental health promotion and mental disorders prevention actions? This Economic Analysis of Workplace Programmes gives answers to these questions. After launch of the Joint Action on Mental (...)

Join proposal to support Recommendations on Child Poverty & Well-being

An Ad hoc group including ATD fourth World, Caritas Europa, Coface, Eurochild, EAPN, Eurodaconia and PICUM have sent a letter to the László Andor, European Commissioner responsible for employment, social affairs and inclusion, calling to better fight child poverty and promote child well-being. The letter has proposed set of guidelines on how to achieve more effective implementation of the Recommendation on Child Poverty and Well-being, by engaging stakeholders and government on local, (...)

Children’s well-being: investing in a healthy future - a silent emergency in Europe

On 27 March, the Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Daciana Octavia SÂRBU (S & D, RO) hosted a seminar on child health, nutrition and education policies. In her speech, EPHA Secretary General Monika Kosińska highlighted why is it important to put child well-being at the heart of EU policies. In her speech, MEP Daciana Octavia SÂRBU (S&D, RO) stressed that good and healthy nutrition have a crucial impact on children life expectancy and that the role of the parents in (...)

“Investing in children: breaking the cycle of disadvantage” recommends EU’s Social Investment Package

The European Commission has recently proposed a Social Investment Package - a framework that sets up a number of recommendations to promote social protection and investments in people skills and capability. One of the elements of the package is to ”Invest in Children and Break the cycle of Disadvantages” which encourages regional and local authorities to follow EU guidelines on reducing child poverty and social exclusion, and promote well-being. Reducing the risk of poverty (...)

Health improves unequally within and among European countries

Every three years the World Health Organisation (WHO) publishes its report on European Health. This year its report has a special focus on well-being. "The European Health Report 2012: Charting the Way to Well-Being", released by the WHO Regional Office for Europe on March 13, reveals some bitter-sweet data: even if there have been important health improvements in the European Region, the inequities across and within the countries are persistent. According to the WHO Regional Director for (...)

Amnesty International urges EU Institutions to end Female Genital Mutilation

Amnesty International Ireland, together with 15 other organisations from across Europe, has been running the END Female Genital mutilation (FGM) European Campaign since 2009 to promote awareness and challenge the EU to end FGM and other forms of violence against women. On 27 February 2013 the Seminar "Towards European Action to end Female Genital Mutilation" took place in the European Parliament, as part of the END FGM-European Campaign aiming "to put female genital mutilation high on the (...)

Ireland’s Presidency Health Priorities

Ireland, in collaboration with Lithuania and Greece (the countries that follow Ireland in taking up the Presidency of the Council of EU), has made a commitment to using its resources to prioritise solid progress on a number of key legislative dossiers in health. Dublin calls on EU Member States to work together, sharing ideas, information and best practices. The Irish Presidency Programme, whose cornerstone is to advance the legislative agenda, contains a series of health priorities as (...)

EPHA Report on the Impact of the Crisis on the Population Mental Health

Economic crises such as the one Europe has been going through since late 2007 have a considerable impact on the society as a whole. Sky-rocking unemployment, the use and abuse of unhealthy substances, and mental illnesses are just some of the areas EPHA looked at in its just-released "Report on the impact of the crisis on the population mental health". “The economic crisis should not turn into a health crisis”, John Dalli, ex EU Commissioner in charge of health and consumer (...)

Children and Their Connection with Nature

The working group meeting hosted by MEP Judith Merkies (S&D, NL) and Gerald Häfner (Greens, DE) examined why children’s connection with nature is important and how can it be stimulated. During the Meeting, Tim Gill, British author and public speaker, presented the outcomes of the ’Sowing the Seeds’ project. Previous research has suggested that a child’s contact with nature is particularly important. Natural environments are said to have restorative qualities (...)