Insight into positive health of the different age groups and evaluation of prevention approaches aimed at this, to feed both policy and practice.
Academic Workshop Public Health
The Academic Workplace of Public Health Brabant promotes the scientific foundation of policy and practice in local public health care. In this way, municipalities can achieve better prevention. The research team organized the scientific symposium of this Werkplaats in May 2022, under the title Getting better from a pandemic. In a presentation we summarized the experiences with data-driven management of the corona practice.
Growing up in a Promising Environment
Young people can develop better when they grow up in a positive, healthy and safe living environment. Growing up in this environment also makes them less likely to start drinking, smoking or using drugs. With Growing Up in a Promising Environment (OKO), everyone in the municipality works together to create a positive living environment for young people: at home, at school, in the circle of friends and in their free time. In West Brabant, the municipality of Altena participates in OKO. Pupils of class 4 of secondary education completed a questionnaire about their lifestyle and well-being. The results will be discussed with stakeholders in the municipality in February 2023.
Integral approach to mental health in secondary education
In 2023, various secondary schools in the region will start with an integrated approach to mental health. After the initial situation has been mapped out with a school scan, the schools will start working step by step on further shaping an integrated approach at their school. They work on the pillars of signaling & support, education, school environment and policy. The implementation of a preventive GGZ support center is an important part of this approach. The research team has investigated a pilot of this approach and will monitor and evaluate the approach at the various schools from 2023.
NPO-monitor
NPO is the National Program Education. NPO funds are currently being used to eliminate problems caused by the COVID pandemic. An important goal of the NPO program is the sustainable improvement of the connection between assistance, care and education. The research team will monitor four themes in the municipality of Breda:
- the VVE care structure;
- the deployment of HBO coaches;
- strengthening parental involvement in primary education;
- Circular Empowerment in youth and youth work.
The monitoring will start in the year 2023 and will last until 2025. Every year, a round is held, consisting of group discussions with care providers and individual or duo conversations with parents and children.
Time of your life
Time of your life is an intervention in which cultural activities are used to reduce loneliness. People are brought into contact with each other, offer social support to each other and are challenged by, among other things, learning new skills. The intervention has been scientifically investigated with quantitative, qualitative and observational research. These studies show that participation in Time of Your Life leads to a reduction in emotional loneliness. People feel seen, heard, dare more and support each other.
In the coming year, the research team will work, with the help of a grant from ZonMw, to make the active elements of Time of your life explicit and to further describe the intervention. This will work towards inclusion in the Effective Social Interventions Database.
Dementia
The research team of the GGD West-Brabant has mapped out the situation regarding people with dementia on the basis of available (sub) regional and national data. This is part of two projects financed by ZonMw within the program ‘Strengthening the range of daytime activities for people with dementia living at home’ in the municipalities of Altena, Oosterhout and Etten-Leur, Zundert. The regional picture of dementia is made up of four components: people with dementia, use of care/daytime activities by people with dementia, risk factors for the onset of dementia, informal carers of people with dementia, use of care/daytime activities by people with dementia. View the regional picture of dementia.
In 2021, GGD West Brabant organized the campaign ‘We are the medicine ourselves’ in collaboration with the Dementia Network Breda eo and the Dementia Network West Brabant. The aim of the campaign was to raise awareness of the options available to residents themselves to reduce the risk of dementia, such as healthy eating and regular exercise. Research team asked the GGD Health Panel about their knowledge of dementia. View the results of this panel study on dementia. They were also asked what they thought of the campaign and whether the campaign changed their way of life. View the campaign website ‘We are the medicine ourselves’.
Preventive home visits for 85-year-olds
In the municipality of Etten-Leur, the elderly aged 85 are visited at home by volunteers from Avoord. By means of a discussion board aimed at positive health, various topics are discussed, such as mental well-being and meaning. It is also discussed whether improvements are desired. The research team bundles the results in a fact sheet, so that the municipality can see at a glance how the home visits are appreciated and what can be improved for the 85-year-olds in the municipality in the field of health and well-being.
Volunteering by the elderly and welfare
Older people who volunteer generally feel healthier, happier and have a lower risk of depressive symptoms. The research team investigated this among the over-65s. This relationship is partly explained by increased self-direction and sense of purpose. As part of this research, discussions were also held with municipalities and voluntary organizations in West Brabant and the opinion of the target group was asked via a panel. Certainly not all municipalities in West Brabant are actively engaged in voluntary work, while there are opportunities here to maintain or promote the health of the elderly. Think, for example, of encouraging voluntary work among lonely elderly people. More information about this research can be found in the factsheet Voluntary work among the elderly.