Workshop begins on addressing social factors that affect health

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

A three day workshop on addressing the factors that affect human health has begun yesterday.

The workshop titled, “Addressing social determinants of health” has been organized by Ministry of Health and participated by concerned authorities. The social determinants of health are the circumstances in which people are born; grow up, live, work and age, and the systems put in place to deal with illness. These circumstances are in turn shaped by a wider set of forces: economics, social policies, and politics.

It was inaugurated yesterday by Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan.

Speaking at the ceremony, Dr Waheed reflected on the delicate problems faced by the health sector in the country. Highlighting the traditional, social and financial problems faced by the people in relation to the health sector, Dr Waheed said that children and women were most vulnerable to health issues that arise out of these problems.

The main purpose of this workshop is to identify the social factors that affect health and to find out its relation with different sectors. The workshop will also discuss steps that can be taken by different sectors in coordination with the government to reduce the negative social influence on people’s health.

In addition to this, these discussions will also try to determine different concerned authorities’ roles in reducing the obstacles faced by public in acquiring health services. Information will also be disseminated on how some countries in this region deal with this problem.

The workshop was attended by Minister of Health Aminath Jameel, senior officials from World Health Organization (WHO) regional as well as headquarters, representatives from countries like Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Bangladesh who will be participating in this workshop as well as officials from the health sector and other concerned authorities in Maldives.

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