It is essential to invest in better working conditions, a more attractive work environment, quality leadership and improved opportunities for personnel to take part in and influence their work,” said Member of Parliament Veronica Rehn-Kivi at the Swedish Parliamentary Group’s summer meeting in Porvoo.
“In the long run it is essential to understand that investments into preventive, health-promoting measures are the only way to stem the growing need for significant, costly health care measures, which require higher numbers of personnel. The wellbeing services counties will face great challenges from day one, and so the municipalities’ efforts in organising overarching health-promoting actions are vital when it comes to ensuring their citizens’ wellbeing,” Rehn-Kivi says.
Last spring, Rehn-Kivi made a legislative motion to include senior citizens’ clinics in the statutory responsibilities of wellbeing services counties. The aim is to offer all elderly citizens the opportunity for health and living condition check-ups, so that they may receive advice and counselling on their wellbeing, as well as care and assistance as needed. The motion was widely supported among MPs.
“Prenatal and early childhood clinics are well-established in our society as effective forms of preventive action, but we must expand on this success story with advice clinics for the adult and senior portions of the population. Similarly, an extended national vaccination programme and investments into pneumococcal vaccines for the elderly, among others, will quickly pay for themselves,” Rehn-Kivi says.
