RESUMO
The European Commission (DG SANTE) launched a call for proposals in November 2017 on strategic initiatives for a Joint Statement in 2018. Ten proposals were voted until December 7th in the European Union Health Policy Platform[1]; the proposal under the theme Smart Healthy Age-Friendly Environments (SHAFE)[2] was the most voted and was confirmed by the European Commission in March 2018. In this context, since March 2018, Cáritas Coimbra and AFEdemy Ltd are thus coordinating one of the three Thematic Networks for 2018, SHAFE, in close cooperation with main partners, such as the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA), the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC), the Reference Sites Collaborative Network, the European Covenant on Demographic Change, Eurocities, the European Health Telematics Association (EHTEL), the European Connected Health Alliance (ECHAlliance), the European Construction, Built Environment and Energy Efficient Building Technology Platform (ECTP) and the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research. SHAFE aims to facilitate the creation of healthy and friendly environments for all ages through the use of new technologies, towards the production of a comprehensive and participatory Joint Statement. This document was presented to the European Commission on 12 November 2018, with five main areas of recommendations to the EC, Member States and other local, regional and national organisations and is open for endorsement and implementation from this date onwards.
RESUMO
In February 2017, the "Programma Mattone Internazionale Salute" (ProMis), that is the Italian Program for Internationalization of Regional Health Systems of the Ministry of Health (MoH), presented the first version of its Position Paper on Health Tourism, which embeds a first shared approach to the recommendations expressed by the European Committee of Regions (CoR) on "Age-Friendly" tourism. The CoR stresses the importance of local and regional authorities in the coordination of multi-sectoral policies such as healthcare, social assistance, transport, urban planning and rural development in relation to the promotion of mobility, security, accessibility of services, including health care and social services. "Age-friendly" tourism is an example of an innovative tourist offer that strives to meet the health needs of the entire "traveling" population, with an integrated and cross-sector approach that involves various organizations operating in sectors such as healthcare, accessibility and transport. The aim of the workshop was to explore the interest of the stakeholders to participate in a systemic action in the field of "health" tourism, and to identify priority implementation areas that offer opportunities to take advantage of validated, innovative experiences that strengthen the accessibility to health and social services in regional, national and international contexts. This effort provides the opportunity to take advantage of aligning the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) to the development of tourism, coherently with the needs and resources of local and regional health authorities.
