The EMHF is to respond to the first European Commission report on men's health in Europe with a series of expert round-table seminars.
The four planned seminars will take place in four different countries around key areas of the report including:
- Men's use of and the delivery of health services
- Clinical aspects of men's health
- Public health (including health in the workplace)
- Communicating with men on health (including education/health literacy)
The report, The First State of Men’s Health in Europe Report will be published by the European Commission later this year. It was written by a team led by EMHF board member Professor Alan White of Leeds Metropolitan University, England and including fellow board members Dr Svend Aage Madsen (Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark) and Dr Noel Richardson (IT Carlow, Ireland) along with Prof Witold Zatonski (Centrum Onkologii-Instytut, Poland), Prof Péter Makara (University of Debrecen, Hungary), Dr Bruno de Sousa (Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Portugal), Dr Richard de Visser (University of Sussex, England) and Prof Richard Hogston (Leeds Metropolitan University, England).
The brief was to outline the current the state of play rather than to suggest improvements. It is to this second stage, that of making recommendations, that the EMHF is turning its attention.
Recommendations
EMHF president Dr Ian Banks, who sat on the management advisory group alongside other EMHF board members, said: 'This is an historical and ground breaking report but it does not contain any recommendations on what needs to be done to address the often dreadful statistics contained within it. This is what we hope will emerge from our expert seminar programme.' The recommendations will then be incorporated into the summary of the report and published by the EMHF.
Urging men's health professionals and campaigners to get involved, Ian said: 'The report would not be complete without recommendations for action. We're looking for people with a breadth of expertise to take part. This is our chance to really get a message across regarding men's health in Europe.
'It is not of our choosing that we happen to be in the worst possible political and economic state for positive change but this must not deter us, nor allow us to let down the women, men and children affected by poor male health.'
