In a global effort, every year, we celebrate World Hypertension Day, to promote public awareness of the causes and consequences of raised blood pressure (BP), and to mobilize national and local authorities to create enabling environments conducive to healthy behaviours.
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This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Hypertension League (WHL) is celebrating World Hypertension Day on October 17th, and the dedicated theme is Measure Your Blood Pressure, Control It, Live Longer.
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Hypertension is the leading cause of mortality and disability all over the world and is at the top of the list among single risk factors accounting for cardiovascular disease deaths and second after smoking as a preventable cause of death.
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Furthermore, emerging reports have demonstrated a high prevalence of hypertension among patients with COVID-19.
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Hypertension is an important avoidable risk factor and one of the goals of the United Nations 2025 agenda is the achievement of a 25% reduction in uncontrolled hypertension. Enhanced community Blood Pressure (BP) screening programs and routine measurement of BP by health‐care professionals at all clinical encounters will contribute to achieving this goal.
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SEE Health Network supports the global efforts and the promotion of awareness about the risks of hypertension in the South Eastern Europe Region.
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The 39th SEEHN plenary meeting included joint work on hypertension and deaths from cardiovascular diseases in an effort to reduce the burden of NCDs within the region.
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A dedicated RHDC (Regional Health Development Center) on NCDs (Non Communicable Disease), hosted by Montenegro, is mandated to coordinate regional initiatives highlighting that cost-effective interventions can have a significant impact on prevention and reduction of high blood pressure and the diseases it causes.
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The SEEHN joins the WHL challenge and encourages its Member States to participate in the WHD celebration. Rigorous BP measurement and NCD awareness endeavors in the community and clinical settings, and the acquired results of the screening activities will contribute to the efforts in the reduction of uncontrolled hypertension.
This year’s World Mental Health Day, comes at a time of great preassure on our daily lives as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, its celebration on the 10th of October as a tool for global education, awareness and advocacy on mental illness and its major effects on peoples’ lives worldwide is more timely than ever before.
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Mental health conditions are highly prevalent and represent one of the leading causes of suffering and disability in the European Region.
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Nowadays challenges
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The outbreak has further exposed the limitations of our mental health care systems in particular worsening of the existing mental health conditions, triggering new ones, and making access to mental health services even more scarce. The crisis has had a huge psychological impact. Most populations have experienced uncertainty in recent months, when trying to find meaning in rapidly changing events, and being unable to follow the familiar patterns of daily life. With the rise of the burnout among health workers from the frontlines of the pandemic there is an urgent call to confront the mental health fallout of the COVID-19 crisis and to support the resilience of communities experiencing lockdowns.
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Therefore, these exceptional circumstances are a timely reminder of the importance of investing in mental health for societies to prosper.
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SEEHN & Mental Health
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For over a decade, SEEHN has been the undisputed vehicle of health development in the area of mental health in the Region, the thematic area being assumed as of outmost priority on the agenda of the health ministries across the SEE region. The nine SEE ministries of health committed their governments to reform the old psychiatric hospital system to the new community mental health centers aimed to help people live better lives. A dedicated RHDC to mental health was also established in Bosnia and Herzegovina to accelerate change in the region.
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A key initiative of the SEE Health Network, recently launched, focus on generating knowledge necessary for health workers to respond rapidly and efficiently to COVID-19 through assessment of the stress and burn out among the healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Strong partnerships
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Strong partnerships are needed to improve services and change societal attitudes about mental health, to support new initiatives, including raising awareness. In this sense, much is expected from the new WHO European Programme of Work. SEEHN welcomes that mental health has a central position within it and on behalf of its Member States, strongly supported it at the 70th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe.
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The inclusion of mental health as one of the flagship initiatives complementing the European Programme of Work, shaping a mental health coalition within the region is an encouraging effort meant to trigger change, and to mobilize around critical issues and for which high-visibility, high-level political commitment can be transformative.
Today the South East Europe Health Network was represented at the European Health Forum Gastein by dr. Andrei Baciu, Secretary of State within the Ministry of Health of Romania, on behalf of the Romanian Presidency to the SEEHN.
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The plenary debate focused on tackling the COVID-19 Infodemic, a major challenge that all our Governments of the SEE Region experienced with the spread of the novel coronavirus.
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The avalanche of information about the virus spreading rapidly on social media platforms created confusion and mistrust and undermined an effective public health response. Disinformation erodes trust in institutions and harms democracies by hampering the ability of citizens to take informed decisions. It may have far-reaching consequences, cause public harm, be a threat to democratic political and policy-making processes, and may even put the protection of citizens’ health, security and their environment at risk.
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The Secretary of State addressed questions on the impact of the infodemia in countries in South East Europe and on strategies to address vaccine hesitancy in the context of a new COVID-19 vaccine.
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The South Eastern European Region is no exception to the invasion of an infodemia as contagious as the novel coronavirus, the official mentioned during his intervention and shared national experiences from the SEE region to reflect the challenges the SEE Governments faced.
