Well-being Services@Work

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[edit] About Well-being Services@Work community

Well-being Services@Work is the name given by the European Commission's New Working Environments Unit to Next Generation Health and Well-being Working Environments, comprising innovative technical solutions as well as socioeconomic and policy- related aspects.

"Health Continuum" – Vision of Future Health Services The change pressures and issues discussed above have lead to a redefinition of the content of healthcare, the “health continuum” defined as follows (see Figure 1 below): Being able to manage one's health, well-being and illnesses with support of information and expert services when needed independent of location. The rationale behind this definition is that there is a widely shared understanding that well-being, health and illnesses form a continuum. They need to be handled as an integrated whole. However, healthcare systems have been created to treat illnesses. Turning them around to be citizen centric and proactive is a major challenge.

The health continuum is characterised by two axes. One deals with how much health professionals are involved in the provision of the services and the other with whether the actions taken are proactively seeking to prevent illness episodes or reactively seeking to care for and cure illnesses. Acute illness episodes form the other end of the continuum, whereas wellness management and active sports form the other. In between these is the region where so called risk factors are elevated and some proactive and reactive measures are taken (like exercise, diet and medication) to prevent an illness to develop. The management of chronic degenerative diseases is also in the middle ground. Here the role of the patient is still central as (s)he has to follow a rather strict set of rules of behaviour (called compliance) in order to manage her / his chronic condition and to avoid illness episodes. The last segment of this future health continuum covers home care and independent living. The former refers to medical procedures (diagnostic, therapeutic and monitoring) that can be performed outside hospital walls in the homes and even location independently. Developments in medical devices and ICT allow a large number of procedures to be performed in this way while still being overseen by healthcare professionals. Independent living support stretches this concept even further by seeking to bring services to the homes of elderly and disabled individuals that allow them to lead independent lives and be integrated with the society.

Parallel to these changes in traditional healthcare services a more radical change is taking place. This emerging trend can be called “health continuum” where the citizen and patient also is expected to play an active role together with the healthcare team of specialised professionals. With the ageing population and current life styles chronic degenerative diseases are becoming more prevalent. The proper management of such conditions based on clinical evidence mandates active interventions to change life styles, diet and to increase exercise. Wellness management (Active Health) is seen as a highly important instrument to maintain an acceptable level of health. The role of the individual in carrying out these interventions is of course central for success. A further extension of health relates to facilitating the independent living of elderly in their natural surroundings by means of technology and technology based services. The widened scope of health services calls for new means to finance and provide the services. Whereas in the past healthcare could be characterised as mostly a publicly funded service environment, in the future there will be larger mix of financing schemes and public and private providers.