Welcome by the European Network for Workplace Health Promotion Dear guest speakers, participants, readers of the ENWHP Newsletter, This Special Edit

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Welcome by the European Network for Workplace Health Promotion

Dear guest speakers, participants, readers of the ENWHP Newsletter,

This Special Edition of the Newsletter from the European Network for Workplace Health Promotion is devoted to the results of the conference on "Workplace Health Practices for Employees with Chronic Illness (22-23 October 2013, Brussels).

On behalf of ENWHP and Prevent-Foundation, we are delighted to present these results to you.
We were also extremely pleased with the presence of renowned scientists, leading European politicians, decision makers, stakeholders and other participants from various countries, who were part of what has been called a "great" conference! After exchanging experiences and knowledge at the conference, it is now pertinent - with the words of John Griffiths (Work2Health) - to apply what has been learned, to commit to raising the topic of workplace health practices for employees with
a chronic illness, and to make the healthy choice the easy choice for employers...

If you wish to be kept informed on the activities of the European Network for Workplace Health Promotion, please subscribe to our newsletter via enwhp@prevent.be

The ENWHP Secretariat

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PH Work - the ENWHP's ninth initiative

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The conference on "Workplace Health Practices for Employees with Chronic Illness" held in Brussels on 22-23 October 2013 concluded the 9th initiative by the European Network for Workplace Health Promotion, under the slogan "Work. Adapted for all. Move Europe". The initiative focused on promoting healthy work for employees with chronic illness (Public Health and Work, or PH Work).

During the PH Work initiative, a European campaign was launched in 17 countries, encouraging enterprises to implement comprehensive health strategies with regard to the retention or return-to-work of chronically ill employees. Good practice examples were collected and guidelines were developed to set up workplace health practices. The main objective of the campaigns at national / regional level was to develop and maintain a community of interested stakeholders, both involving end user enterprises and supra-enterprise level stakeholders who commit themselves to actively promoting values, knowledge and good practices which enhance job retention and return-to-work of chronically ill employees.

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The PH Work closing conference presented the outcomes of the initiative, the guidelines and some models of good practice, which were considered the best for transfer to other countries. During the opening and closing session, representatives from the Belgian and European authorities respon-
sible for the policy domains of workplace health and public health, as well as representatives of the major European organisations and institutes invested in the topic from a workplace or public health perspective – such as the International Social Security Association, the OECD, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, Eurofound and WHO-Europe – addressed the audience.

At the round table, a representative of the European Men’s Health Forum and representatives of Belgian stakeholders discussed the possibilities to create synergies for a sustainable working life. Before the signing of the Brussels Declaration, the models of good practice selected under the
PH Work initiative received a certificate for "Partner of Excellence" during the awarding ceremony.

Award
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Results of the conference

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The Brussels Declaration
At the end of the conference, on 23 October, the delegates of the European Network for Workplace Health Promotion - co-chairs Maria Dolores Solé Gomez and prof. dr. Karl Kuhn, as well as Marc De Greef from the ENWHP Secretariat - signed the "Brussels Declaration on Workplace Health Practices for Employees with Chronic Illness”. The Brussels Declaration contains recommendations for politicians, employer organisations and unions at EU and national level. The recommendations in the Declaration are based on the Recommendation Paper, which was created and published under the PH Work initiative.

Conclusions of the conference
John Griffiths from Work2Health was asked to participate to the PH Work closing conference, follow it attentively, and put together conclusions at the end of the conference. His presentation of the conclusions was very well received by the audience. The presentation is available here.

Presentations and pictures available now!
All presentations by our guest speakers and the PH Work models of good practice are now available online via GoogleDocs (click here). A selection of pictures taken at the conference by our photogra-
pher, Mrs. Nancy Deboutez, has been made accessible to you as a three-page Flickr-album which is easy to go through (click here).

Press release & article
After the conference, the ENWHP Secretariat at Prevent-Foundation prepared a press release and a layman article to be disseminated to a wider public. We very much welcome any effort on your behalf to further spread these two publications. You can download them here:
- Press release
- Layman article

Conference proceedings
We are still working on a complete, textual overview of the conference. The proceedings are to be expected at the beginning of next year. We will keep you posted, and in the mean time, we wish you lovely Christmas Holidays, a bright 2014 and an excellent health!

Please note that these results are also available on the conference website www.workadaptedforall.eu

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