Making Europe Fit for Work
The aim behind this European conference is to determine to what extent the EU health sector is properly equipped to provide rapid intervention for people affected by these problems, possible reinsertion in employment and other forms of assistance.
The conference will hold discussions on the nature and type of early intervention which those politically responsible can set in place in order to ensure the following for people affected by musculoskeletal pains:
- improving their quality of life;
- improving their contribution to society;
- preserving, protecting and helping them find new access to employment.
The rapid increase in the prevalence of musculoskeletal problems associated with work plus the socio-economical impact has drawn the concern of political decision-makers at EU, national and regional level as well as their social partners.
According to recent studies, chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) affects 100 million people around Europe (Veale et al., 2008). Musculoskeletal Pain (MP) in turn affects more than four million employees in the EU and constitutes about half of all work-related complaints in the EU (ETUI, 2007). This means a cost of between 2.6 – 3.8% of the GNP in the European Union. The EU Commission moreover considers than MP is responsible for 49.9% of all work absences lasting less than 3 days and 60% of permanent unfitness for work (EC, 2007).
Conference objectives :
In the area of public health, all three EU presidencies (Spain, Belgium and Hungary) have said they will be encouraging measures towards improving the health of EU citizens in line with a 2006 declaration on common values and principles in EU health systems and 2008-2013 EU health strategy.
All three presidencies have moreover indicated that they would look into questions such as innovations in healthcare, particularly in the context of an ageing population, the quality of healthcare and the approach to be adopted in the future with regard to chronic illnesses.
In this context, for the purposes of creating awareness among the decision-makers at European, state and regional level, and to highlight the practical values offered in the European Union and in Belgium in particular, the 2010 Fit for Work annual conference will focus on the theme of preventing and managing musculo-skeletal illnesses in the EU.
To be specific, the aim behind this European conference is to determine to what extent the EU health sector is properly equipped to provide rapid intervention for people affected by these problems, possible reinsertion in employment, and other forms of assistance.
The conference intends to highlight mechanisms for rapid intervention and to present practices which have proved notably effective in Belgium.
The conference will hold discussions on the nature and type of early intervention which those politically responsible can set in place in order to ensure the following for people affected by musculoskeletal pains:
- improving their quality of life;
- improving their contribution to society;
-
preserving, protecting and helping them find new access to employment.