Læknablaðið - 15.02.1985, Blaðsíða 56

36
LÆKNABLAÐIÐ
Many millions of people in Europe live in grossly
substandard housing. While this is particularly true of
the developing countries, a serious problem also exists
in the more developed ones. Thus, several million
people live in decaying city centres or recently built
substandard flats. In many countries of the Region,
there is also a lack of reasonably priced dwellings.
People, especially young couples, may have to wait for
years before they have an opportunity to occupy their
own dwelling, while low-income groups such as the
elderly may never be able to afford one. Owing to the
housing shortage or excessive prices, more than one
family may have to share the same flat or members of
the same family may be obliged to live apart.
Thus, it is clear that this sector represents a major
problem for the European Region as a whole, and
Chapter 4 sets a health related target in this respect.
1.3.5. Secure work and a useful role in society
Having secure work and a useful role in society has
always represented a fundamental human need. Unem-
ployment and underemployment therefore take a
human and social toll on individuals, their families and
communities, and evidence is now accumulating that
this can be damaging to health.
The long-term economic prospect is uncertain. It
would be extremely rash to plan on the assumption that
there will be a return, even in the 1990s, to the rapid
growh rates of the 1950s and 1960s. The older industries
of the Region are facing powerful competition from
third world countries, and new technology is making it
possible for both industry and many services to produce
more with less or the same manpower. Unemployment
in the Region has reached persistently high levels
unknown for two generations. Any realistic plan for
health must therefore be based on the assumption that
the average annual rate of economic growth in the
Region up to the year 2000 will be modest.
The bleaker overall economic prospect does not,
however, necessarily mean that continued high levels of
poverty and of unemployment must be passively
accepted. The health and social care services are, and
will remain, labour-intensive, partly because they rely
on personal relationships and personal services. Expan-
sion of the health sector can provide satisfying and
useful jobs, paid or unpaid, and thus offers a way of
reducing unemployment if there is the political will to
do so.
In response to economic difficulties, education and
training for young people have been mainly provided in
the economic sector, but among the jobs for which
young people need to be prepared is the provision of
social care. An important factor in this context is that in
the past, educational systems have not done much to
combat the sexual division of social roles. One
consequence of that policy is that women tend to end up
with skills suited only to poorly paid jobs. This is of
special importance in the case of family breakdown,
which often leads to the establishment of low-income
families consisting of a divorced mother and her
children.
Employment policies, including responses to the
economic crisis in the training of young people, should
provide an opportunity for choosing satisfying social
and economic activities, while maintaining living
standards and fulfilling social and family roles. Serious
attempts should be made to provide the disabled and the
elderly with useful occupations that make the best of
their talents. Research efforts should be devoted to
finding new ways of redistributing work and work
opportunities as economic and industrial patterns
change. The political challenge is to find acceptable
means of promoting this development.
This is in line with the aims and purposes of the
International Labour Organization to further among
the nations’ programmes the achievement of full
employment in occupations which provide people the
satisfaction of giving the fullest measure of their skill
and attainments, a basic income to all in need of such
protection and conditions of work to ensure a just share
of the fruits of progress to all.
1.4. POLITICAL WILL AND PUBLIC SUPPORT
Given the magnitude of the task of attaining health for
all, strong political will and the mobilization of public
support are fundamental prerequisites for launching
the necessary action. The ministry of health or other
government authority responsible for promoting and
sustaining national health policies should take a strong
line in ensuring the clear commitment of the country as
a whole to the objective of health for all. This is in
conformity with resolutions adopted by the United
Nations General Assembly and the World Health
Assembly, calling upon countries to develop their
national health for all strategies and take the necessary
steps to ensure their implementation. The process of
mobilizing support should preferably be set in motion
by political decisions taken at the highest level and
confirmed in all sectors throughout the country. This
should result in all sectors with an impact on health
acknowledging that safeguarding the people’s health is
an overriding concern in their own particular field as
well.
The way people are mobilized depends on the cultural
and social patterns and the political system in the
country concerned. Efforts should be made to ensure
the strong support of religious and civic leaders and
other public figures, trade unions and influential
nongovernmental organizations. Such popular support
could be mobilized by setting up special national
associations solely to promote the health for all goal
and its attainment. Meahs must be found to make the
health professions, other social groups and particular
community organizations active collaborators in a wide
national movement for health for all, and extensive and
sustained mass campaigns should be undertaken to
ensure wide and active support among the general
public.
In the European Region, a strong, collective political
commitment of Member States must be maintained in
order to provide the impetus for the collective action
required. It was the adoption of the health for all goal
by the World Health Assembly in 1977 that provided
the first stimulus, later reinforced by the endorsement
of the regional strategy for health for all by the Regional
Committee in 1980; it will be further strengthened by
the adoption by the Regional Committee in 1984 of
specific regional health for all targets in support of the