Central and territorial governmental institutions involved in health promotion for older people in European Union countries

Abstract

Defining, planning and achieving health goals including health promotion and health promotion for older people (HP4OP) are always the responsibility of the public authority. In European countries the public health and health promotion strategic framework, including HP4OP is provided by the ministry of health or others national public health organisations, which are responsible for defining of legal regulations on the different aspects of health promotion.

The goal of this article is the analysis of the central and territorial government (CTG) sector’s involvement in the issue of HP4OP, their functions, activities and responsibilities in this area. The analysis is focused on the main differences and similarities between CTG’s institutions.

The authors triangulated data collected using varied methods: literature review, questionnaire research (conducted in European Pro-Health 65+ project’s countries) and in-depth interviews with national experts from selected countries.

In the majority of analysed countries, the central government and municipalities are the main stakeholders responsible for providing funding for these programs. The operational level for the implementation of majority HP4OP is the local level. Research countries have been identified as strongly varying in institutional, legal and political specificity. The analysis shows the increasing position of HP4OP in public health policy.  Many of the identified problems come from the implementation of a fragmented approach, the duplication of efforts undertaken by different stakeholders and the lack of a co-ordinated strategy and dedicated legal regulations at both the national and regional/local levels.