HUS as a promoter of health and wellbeing

Promoting health and wellbeing is a value-based and goal-oriented activity. The goal is to maintain and improve health and wellbeing, and to prevent illness by increasing the ability and opportunity of individuals, the community and the general population to take care of their own health and that of their environment. Promoting health and wellbeing requires extensive cooperation between different actors as well as meticulous planning of resource allocation. 

Inclusion is a key factor in determining health and wellbeing and therefore involves all of us. It is about working as a part of the social systems, such as education and labor market systems. The areas of inclusion are participation in one’s own life, participation in influence processes, and involvement in the local good. Inclusion is manifested as appreciation, as an individual’s experience of belonging to a group or entity that is relevant to themselves, and as an opportunity to make a difference. 

We can decrease the gap between differences in health and wellbeing through measures that promote health and wellbeing. If socioeconomic health inequalities were eliminated, the savings in direct health care costs would be around EUR 1.5–2 billion or 15% of total health care expenditure. 

We work in the health and wellbeing group at the Uusimaa level together with the wellbeing services counties in Uusimaa and Helsinki. The group’s goal is to collaborate in an effective way to promote the health, wellbeing, and everyday safety of the residents of Uusimaa. The group’s activities support the shift in focus from extensive services to preventive work. We collaborate regionally with educational institutions, organizations and stakeholders in health and wellbeing research, development, and training. 

We coordinate a network of regional health and wellbeing professionals and experts generated during the Good Spiral project (2019–2023). The aim is to learn and develop together and introduce effective operating models for promoting health and wellbeing. The network is being developed with the wellbeing services counties, the City of Helsinki and HUS to meet the changing needs of the citizens and professionals of the Uusimaa region.  

The network brings together professionals and experts in health and social welfare and promotion of health and wellbeing to develop their operations and the services they produce through collaborative methods and by utilizing the network. You can also join the network, if you are interested in learning, sharing good practices, or obtaining peer support. 

The Good Spiral network meets once a year in a development workshop for each of the network’s themes. In addition, we organize a networking day in the spring and a Good Spiral day in the fall, where the members of the network meet, exchange experiences and learn from the successes of promoting health and wellbeing. On the last Tuesday of each month, we organize a morning meeting on health promotion with a topical theme. 

In the network including professionals and experts from primary health care, specialized healthcare, and the third sector, we promote cooperation between professions as well as multiprofessional cooperation to support weaning off from tobacco and nicotine. Contents include: 

• Support for mobilization of the Current Care Guideline for prevention and treatment of tobacco and nicotine addiction:  
• Strengthening the availability of support for weaning off from tobacco and nicotine for different patient/client groups 
• Implementation of the Tobacco-free Finland 2030 and Smoke-free Hospital programs 

Contact person: Heli Kaira

The network consists of professionals and experts who are interested in the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents and who are committed to promoting it in their work. The network promotes the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents in Uusimaa by sharing good practices and operating models and by learning together. Currently, the network is particularly focused on building services that promote the wellbeing of children and adolescents as a collaborative effort in the wellbeing services counties, municipalities and specialized healthcare in the new health and social services structures. 

Contact person:Paula Häkkänen 

The network consists of professionals and experts working in social welfare and health care and in employment services in the promotion of health and wellbeing for the long-term unemployed. The network operates in Uusimaa.   
 
The objective of the network is to support the work done in municipalities, organizations and health and social services organizations to promote the health and wellbeing of the long-term unemployed by means of sharing knowledge, experience, and skills. The viewpoint for the work of the network is to provide extensive support for the ability to work and functional capacity as well as for services that promote employment. The key is to strengthen the inclusion and engagement in society of the long-term unemployed through supporting employment.  

Contact person:Paula Häkkänen 

A network of professionals, experts and managers in primary health care, specialized healthcare and the third sector who are invested in the prevention and treatment of obesity in children and adults provides the opportunity to ask a colleague, learn together, share new information and good practices, and work jointly to develop solutions. We want to be a part of creating a unified obesity care chain in the HUS area for both children and adults.  

The content is support for the implementation of the Current Care Guideline for the prevention and treatment of obesity 

• Meeting with customers, bringing issues up, and decreasing the stigma 
• Regional care chains for children, adolescents, and adults 
• Policies and tools to support the integration of primary health care and specialized healthcare in the treatment of obesity and as part of treatment chains 
• Strengthening the customer/patient focus 
• Strengthening prevention 

Other operating models and lifestyle interventions that support health and wellbeing are also of interest, such as: 

• Digital care pathways in the treatment of obesity 
• StopDia operating model (THL) 
• Tulppa rehabilitation for Uusimaa (Finnish Heart Association) 

Contact person:Paula Häkkänen 

• Self-assessment of the risk of falling and a risk assessment carried out by a healthcare professional as part of health and social services and organizational activities. 
• Introduction of measures to prevent falls in health and social services and in organizational activities, such as 
• Safe environment and suitable assistive equipment 
• Balance and muscle function exercises and maintenance of functional capacity 
• Suitable medication and appropriate treatment of illnesses 
• The activities are guided by the action plan of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health:Programme for the Prevention of Home and Leisure Injuries 2021–2030 and a description of the costs.
• Safely at All Ages: Programme for the Prevention of Home and Leisure Injuries 2021–2030 and a study on costs – Valto Institutional Repository for the Government (valtioneuvosto.fi) 

The network provides its members with the opportunity to strengthen their fall prevention competencies through peer support and support for projects in their areas. Members have the opportunity to share good practices and work together to create descriptions of service chains and care pathways to support fall prevention.  

 
Contact person: Anniina Heikkilä