10.M. Workshop: Community Health Practice and Research in Europe: Up front and centre!
Authors:   Organised by: EHESP (France),   Chair persons: Eric Breton (France), Luís Saboga-Nunes (EUPHA-HP)
Published: October 2023

Community Health (CH) is one of the most undervalued and poorly funded domains of action of health systems. Although evidence is strong on its contribution to population health, well-being and equity, national and regional health systems, and to some extent public health institutions, tend to pay little attention to its contribution. Community health encompasses the application of health promotion principles and strategies at the local level to improve equity and resilience of a community. It does so through three fundamental means: cross-sectoral collaborations, community involvement/engagement, and community health workers (CHW). It engages and works with communities in a culturally appropriate manner in order to implement effective strategies. In community health, capacity building is essential.

The aim of this workshop is three-fold: 1) to generate a discussion among participants on the state of practice and research, 2) to reflect on strategies to strengthen and improve community health in Europe and, 3) to enhance the visibility of this domain within the ranks of the European Public Health Association (EUPHA).

The workshop will provide a space for reflections and discussions. Each of our speakers, who are researchers from 5 different countries (Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, and UK), will have 5 minutes to provide some elements of answers to the two following questions:

• What is the state of community health practice and research in your country?

• What difference does it make for health systems to implement community health strategies?

Eric Breton (France) will briefly introduce the workshop providing a conceptual framework for community health and an overview of the different perspectives that drive practices and policies. Manfred Cassens (Germany) and Caroline Masquillier (Belgium) will discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has enhanced the shortfalls of health systems and lead their countries to experiment community health strategies. Camila Picchio (Spain) will demonstrate how CHWs are essential in reaching out marginalised communities as will Ekaterina Volevach (Czech Republic) drawing lessons from a programme targeting the Roma population. Both will highlight the difficulties health systems face in answering the need of vulnerable population. Catherine Jenkins (United Kingdom), will describe a city-region intervention for galvanising community-level innovation to reduce gambling-related harms. Luis Saboga-Nunes, President of the EUPHA Health Promotion Section and Goof Buijs, Manager of the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education will conclude the session. We trust that this very interactive workshop will help attendees of the EUPHA conference in Dublin working in community health to find each other and facilitate the development of partnerships.

Key messages

• Community Health strategies are essential in improving populations’ health and well-being. Yet, this contribution is hardly reflected in national health policies and in the resources invested locally.

• The COVID-19 pandemic cast a harsh light on the limits of health systems under-investing in community engagement, community health workers and in the mobilisation of local stakeholders.