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European Women’s Health Network
EWHNET
2nd
transnational meeting in the project year 2000/2001, 23rd - 25th
of March 2001 in Naples/Italy
Suggested
agenda:
Friday, 23rd of March 2001
6:00
– 7:00 pm
coming together: introduction of the participants and brief exchange of news and recent
developments in the organisations
7:30
pm
dinner
Saturday,
24th of March 2001
9:30
am
beginning
9:30-10:00
am
conferences
in the project-year 2000/2001 – information about the state of realisation:
a)
enquête on mental health in Vienna (6th of April 2001)
b)
conference on Gender Based Analysis (GBA) in Public Health Research,
Policy and Practice in Berlin 7th –8th of June 2001
10:00-11:00
am
planned activities in the current project-year - state of
development, news, input:
a)
trainee-exchange-programme:
flyer, funding
b)
brochure on network-structures
11:00-11:15
am
coffee-break
11:15–12:15 pm
planned activities in the current project-
year - state of development, news, input:
c)
poster-presentation
d)
comparative
documentation „guidelines„
12:15–1:30
pm
lunch-break
1:30 – 2:30 pm
reports
from the working groups
a)
trends, foci, political strategies
a)
women, work and health
b)
health promotion for girls
c)
mental health
2:30 - 3:30 pm
mental health as an issue of EWHNET
input
by Elvira Reale
3:30 – 4:00 pm
coffee-break
4:00 - 4:30 pm
mental health as an issue of
EWHNET
discussion
4:30 - 5:30 pm
EWHNET-press release on the topic
women and mental health for the world
health day (7th of April)
5:30 - 6:30 pm
further lobbying activities:
a)
the
email-activity in January 2001
b)
publishing
about EWHNET in the countries
c)
lobbying on
the political level in the countries
d)
lobbying
in Europe
7:30 pm
dinner
Sunday,
25th of March
9:30 - 10:00 am
the last transnational meeting of the
project year (8th-10th June): wishes, planning
10:00 - 12:00 pm
Future of EWHNET:
(with
coffee-break)
The EU-funding within the frame of the
Community Action Programme on Equal
Opportunities for Women and Men will end
in June 2001. How to go forward?
a) EWHNET-partners overtake the organisa
tion of one meeting and organise financing
from their country
b)
EWHNET
will meet after interesting
conferences
c)
external
funding in the new public health programme: which foci?
12:00
- 1:15 pm evaluation, feedback and
good-bye - end of the conference
Protocol
of the 2nd transnational meeting of the European Women’s Health
Network (EWHNET) in the funding-year 2000/2001 in Naples/Italy 23rd
to 25th of March 2001
Participants
(in alphabetical order):
Sabine
Bohne
(University of Osnabrück, Education and Feminist Studies), Lea den Broeder (Netherlands School of Public Health; Unit Gender
and Health), Katja Eichler
(Association for Health Promotion in Lower Saxony, Hanover/Germany), Patrizia
Giffoni (women’s mental health prevention centre in Naples/Italy), Joke
Haafkens (CORONEL institute AMC/ UVA Amsterdam/Netherlands), Carol
Hagemann-White (University of Osnabrück, Education and Feminist Studies), Birgitta Hovelius (Department of Community Medicine; Lund
University/Sweden), Margarita Korai
(Research Centre of Women’s Affairs in Athens/Greece), Vera Lasch (International women’s University, Hanover/Germany), Ida
Marano (women’s mental health prevention centre in Naples/Italy), Marion
Meier (Medusana-Foundation, Bünde/Germany), Elvira Reale (women’s mental health prevention centre in
Naples/Italy), Maria Ricciotti (women’s mental health prevention centre in
Naples/Italy), Vittoria Sardelli
(women’s mental health prevention centre in Naples/Italy), Susanne Schmölzer (F.E.M.-Women’s Health Centres in
Vienna/Austria), Ute Sonntag (Association
for Health Promotion in Lower Saxony, Hanover/Germany), Regina Stolzenberg (breast cancer initiative Germany), Angelika
Zollmann (umbrella organisation of the women’s health centres in Germany)
·
The concepts of the two planned conferences are presented: The
conference on Gender Based Analysis (GBA) in Public Health, Research, Policy and
Practice that will take place 7th to 8th of June, 2001 in
Berlin; and the Enquête on Mental Health in the frame of the world health day,
„Psychiatry and women. A psychiatry for women?“ that was organised by the
women’s health office in Vienna.
·
conference
on mental health:
Since the joint organisation of this event with the Vienna office for women’s
health was not as cooperative as the EWHNET-coordinators have expected it to be,
there will be no funding of it on sides of the network. The EWHNET-coordinators
had not seen the programme and the lay-out before it had been printed. The fact,
that the EWHNET-logo emerges on the back of the invitation-flyer together with
the logo of the company Janssen-Cilag, was critisized by all of the participants
of this Neaples-meeting. The participants of the transnational meeting decide
that in the opening speech, that Ute Sonntag as the representative of the EWHNET
will hold, the attitude of the network towards medicalisation of women should be
mentioned clearly. As a second point the tendency of pharmaceutical companies to
fund women’s health activities should be stressed critically. Birgitta
Hovelius, Susanne Schmölzer (and Claudia Czerwinski?) offer some support, if
needed, in the elaboration of the opening speech.
Ute will let know the organisers in Vienna,
that the use of the logo in that way was unacceptable. In the future we all have
to pay attention very carefully how and in which context the logo is used.
Please contact the EWHNET-coordinators and inform them in time.
·
conference
on Gender Based Analysis (GBA):
a)
We
are pleased that so many EWHNET-members will support the GBA-conference in
presenting a speech or impulse lecture. Beneath Lea den Broeder, Kaisa Kauppinen
and Beate Wimmer-Puchinger three more women of EWHNET could be found on this
transnational meeting: Vittoria Sardelli will hold an impulse lecture in the
workshop on mental health promotion and prevention; Joke Haafkens in the
workshop on Health Care and Carol Hagemann-White in the working group on Health
Promotion and Prevention.
b)
It
is suggested that the women who hold an impulse lecture in the workshops should
receive the lectures of the speakers that present their paper in the morning.
c)
Birgitta
Hovelius suggests that Ann Hammarström could overtake an item of the agenda.
Birgitta will follow this up and get in contact with Katja or Ute.
d)
The
invitation-flyer will be sent to all EWHNET-partners and also to the
participants in the Dialogue-Workshop by e-mail with a hyperlink to the website
of the Berlin Centre of Public Health where the registration form is located.
2.
Trainee-Programme:
Angelika Zollmann presents the concept and brochure of the Trainee-Programme.
Lea den Broeder and Joke Haafkens would like to describe their offer in more
detail. Since structures should be built up which function without the
coordination of Ute and Katja for the time after EU-funding, it is decided that
more detailed information should be located on the websites of the participating
organisations. Links from the EWHNET-homepage to the organisations should be
provided.
3.
Brochure on network-structures:
Ute presents the concept of the brochure and the questionnaire she has
developed for the production of it. As a main objective of the brochure Ute
emphasises that by making the structures in the field of women’s health
transparent, lobbying-activities of EWHNET will be facilitated. This remark
triggers a discussion on the term „lobbying“. Object of the discussion is
the definition of lobbying. It is mentioned by the participants that also
fundraising and exercising influence on the media is lobbying. The discussion
results in the decision to rename the documentation by including the name
„pressure groups“ in the title. As a preface to the documentation the
purpose and aim of it have to be clearly described.
·
Vera Lasch will support Ute and Katja in writing the preface.
·
The EWHNET-partners should decide for contact persons who will be
responsible for the production of the part of the brochure referring to their
country (one contact person per country). Ute and Katja will send an e-mail to
everyone with information on the payment for the contact-women. The coordinators
should be informed about the contact persons as soon as possible.
·
Joke Haafkens will prepare the part for the Netherlands based on a
published report of the Men/Women Programme.
·
The part of the brochure referring to Greece will be the result of a
meeting that Nadia Georgakopolou and Margarita Korai will organise. Aim
of this meeting will be to build up a national network in the field of women’s
health in Greece.
4.
Working-groups
Before the meetings took place at the beginning of the project year we asked for getting a protocoll about the transnational similarities and differences of the topics, the working groups discussed. Because we need it for the brochure about the guidelines, we would like to remind all partners of it.
·
working
group on women, work and health
Results of this working-group will be a poster presentation which also will be available as a power-point presentation for which Margarita Korai will overtake the technical implementation and the design. In addition to this the group plans the production of a brochure for users. Ute and Katja will use parts of this brochure for the comparative documentation on guidelines.
A first draft of the poster-presentation will be sent to Ute and Katja
by Lea den Broeder. The group will continue the work on the poster by
e-mail. They will report news and details of their work back to the
coordinators.
The working-group will meet in Berlin 7th of June in the
afternoon. The presentation will be shown in the frame of the last transnational
meeting.
·
working
group on health promotion on girls
(not presented and discussed in the meeting)
Participants: Marion Meier, Medusana Foundation, Bünde/Germany
Susanne Schmölzer, women’s health centre F.E.M., Vienna/Austria
·
Development of guidelines for health promotion for Girls at school.
·
Development of guidelines for the further education and training of
teachers.
·
Development of guidelines for parent-information.
·
Collecting of models of good practice in Europe.
·
Possibly founding of a European network on „Gender based health
promotion at school“.
Addressees:
·
Parents
·
Teachers
·
Girls at school
·
Supporting and decisive institutions in politics and administration
(ministries, public health service...)
·
Medical doctors who set up a practice
·
Counselling-centres etc.
What to do – list:
·
Ask Carol Hagemann-White for contacts (models of good practice)
·
Acquire the report of the EU-commission on the „health situation of
the children and adolescents in Europe“
·
Reflect and discuss the standards that already were developed by the
group (see the paper from the meeting in Lund)
·
Ask Vittoria Sardelli for an english short version of her book.
·
Organise transnational meetings of the group (also for the time after
funding): When, where, who?
·
working
group on ethical committees
A contact between Joke Haafkens, Lea den Broeder, Sylvia Groth and Birgitta Hovelius will be established concerning this topic. Lea will forward a document she received from Margarete Söderström to Joke. The aim of this working group will be the formulation of recommendations for ethical committees telling them how to fail decisions under the consideration of gender. The group will meet for preparing a proposal. New developments and decisions will be reported back to the EWHNET coordinators. In May the group will inform the coordinators about the further proceeding.
·
working
group on trends, foci, political strategies
This
working group was formed at the transnational meeting in Vienna 17th
to 19th of November 2000 and met the first time before the second
transnational meeting in Naples on Friday, 23rd of March 2001.
Report:
The
working group originated at the Vienna meeting, which brought to the fore a
pressing need to develop political strategies and to work on a European level to
influence policies. At the same time, the participants were not able to
formulate clear and well-defined demands or goals that they could agree on and
would also have the energy to work on. Recalling this, the conveners of the
working group had collected ideas on potential „hot topics“ for the coming
meeting. In Naples, the group reviewed these under the aspects of whether the
network members have the necessary knowledge and skills, share a consensus on
the needed change, and have the feeling that the issue could „fly“
politically.
The
group discussed at length why identifying such issues seems to be difficult
despite the extensive store of knowledge and experience within the network. For
one thing, much time is needed to be sure that real mutual understanding is
reached (simple slogans are no longer enough, the issues are complex). The
organisations within EWHNET also resist the pragmatic simplifications such as
those that have unified women’s health movements in the US. Furthermore, most
partner organisations are firmly grounded in local practice and often find
consensus is difficult even within one country. The working group concluded that
no topic, however „hot“, would sweep away these obstacles. Instead, the
group began by looking at the future of EWHNET. Different levels of problems
need to be addressed if better ways of influencing policy are to be found.
Possible
working methods without EU-funded project-coordination might include:
·
a series of
“dialogue workshops”: several members of the group found this approach
extraordinarily valuable and would like to see it continued:
·
including the
network in a variety of conferences or meetings on topics in local
responsibility
·
knowledge
management projects: designing, translating, organising information, e.g. per
Internet or CD-Rom
·
educating
decision-makers: for example, meetings with or for politicians and practitioners
on specific issues.
Topics
that were named as currently of high political interest were:
·
violence (both
physical and psychological) and health
·
women and
medication
·
health of
migrant/refugee women
·
knowledge
management and dissemination of 20 years of women’s health research
·
occupational
health
·
breast cancer
Possible
strategies of influencing policy were discussed. The participants agreed that it
is probably too early in the network process for lobbying. Perhaps the EWHNET
should focus instead on basic rights, in the sense of cross-cutting demands.
As individual
rights the following examples were named: The right to
·
choose one’s
own doctor, in hospital as well as outside; this should be framed as an issue of
access to health care
·
be treated by
someone of the preferred sex (this is a specific right to choice referring to
the entire range of practitioners, such as physiotherapy, counselling, etc.)
·
protection from
sexual discrimination, harassment or violence within health care
·
the best
available standard of health care, which should mean health care without gender
bias
·
access to
health care in the country in which she is resident even temporarily, regardless
of legal status.
Along
with these individual rights there are also very important collective and
social rights; these are always the result of a negotiation process, so that
it is vital to look at the collective actors who define the issues and influence
the balance of power. Collective rights might be:
·
women have the
right to social policies that actively further their health rather than putting
them at risk
·
information
must be available in ways that women can understand and discuss (this does not
only apply to the individual woman consulting a doctor, but also to women’s
social networks and the public sphere).
To
secure such collective rights, both participation and a certain amount of power
in the negotiation process must be ensured. Thus, rather than going straight for
specific goals, attention should be given to the process by which they (may)
come about. Some possible process demands could be:
·
the WHO plans
to set up an advisory panel on mainstreaming women’s health. EWHNET should be
included
·
EWHNET (and/or
its members) should be involved in the process of standard-setting
·
the relevant
grass-roots women’s organisations with experience in counselling and in
meeting the needs of women should be included in any such process
·
the
implementation of Art. 152 Amsterdam treaty must be gender-sensitive
General
demands for rights need to be made concrete through examples in order to be
understood by the women who need to use them, and to become politically
effective. Thus, rather than identifying “the” (single or central) hot topic
on which EWHNET raises its voice, it could be more useful to look at vital
rights on which all members agree and find specific, locally grounded examples
illustrating “worst practice” or “best practice”; these examples could
be drawn from a high-profile topical area such as breast cancer or violence, but
would not obligate the whole network to focus on this topic, since they
illustrate a more general principle. The working methods listed above might be
instruments for developing such examples (in the sense of a “case study”
method) and making them available to the whole network.
5.
Press release for the World Health Day, 7th
of April 2001
The press release shortly is discussed by the participants. The draft doesn’t fulfil some criteria in regard to contents and formal aspects. The following women will get involved in the revision of the press release together with Ute during next week:
·
Birgitta Hovelius provides (an) opening sentence(s) for the press
release
·
Lea den Broeder will send a paragraph that emphasises the need to fully
considering the diversity of women.
·
Elvira Reale produces a small text covering social prevention.
·
Carol Hagemann-White has already provided some smaller changes in the
text.
·
Susanne Schmölzer will give support in regard to the formal needs that
have to be met if a press release is planned to be published in the daily press
This informing article will be released in Italy (Naples), Germany
(Hanover) and Austria (Vienna)
6.
Mental Health
Vittoria Sardelli and Elvira Reale present the principles and work of the Women’s Mental Health Prevention Centre in Naples.
·
They will send an english description of the centre to the participants
of the meeting.
The Italian network-partners are planning to produce a project-proposal
on the topic „Mental Health Promotion of Women at an age between 15 and 44“.
This proposal could be discussed in the frame of the meeting of the
working-group on mental health, that will meet 7th of April 2001 in
Vienna.
The Italian partners propose to develop a statement concerning the
DSM-IV manual about psychic disorders. There are some aspects that discriminate
against women. Joke gives the information that there is a group in the
Netherlands (?) which is working intensively on this subject. Joke is asked to
give the address of this group. The EWHNET-group suggests to also discuss this
aspect in Vienna during the meeting about women and mental health.
7.
Preparations for the end of funding and organisation
of the last transnational meeting in the project year 2000/2001 in Berlin, 9th
–10th of June 2001
·
A final material list of the network-publication will be disseminated in
Berlin among the EWHNET-partners.
·
Also a final address list (with e-mail) of the EWHNET and its involved
women will be distributed to all members.
·
Also a CD-Rom will be produced. It will contain the webpage and all
documentations and broschures which are not on the webpage.
·
It is suggested to add the working-groups with the addresses of the
members on the website, also a new design and organisation of the webpage is
decided. A working-group „website“ is founded: Margarita Korai, Vera
Lasch and Ute Sonntag will optimize the homepage. This working-group will meet
the first time in Berlin.
·
The working-group on women, work and health will meet in Berlin 7th
of June in the afternoon. The presentation of the group will be shown at the
transnational meeting.
·
Another really important topic for the agenda in Berlin is the new
programme for public health and the direction of a new application form for this
programme. (Ute and Vera will be the first two participants of this group. Who
will join them?)
·
A working-group „publication strategies“ will be founded
(Vera, Regina, Ute, Katja, Susanne or Marion, a Greek member)
8.
Future of the network
·
Elvira Reale offers to have a meeting on mental health in October 2001
after the nomination of women’s mental health centre/Naples by the WHO (as a
collaborating centre). This meeting would present a follow-up meeting of the
working-group meeting in Vienna, 7th of April.
·
In spring 2002 a conference on the topic „gender mainstreaming in
ethical committees“ would be possible in Lund or The Netherlands. (Did we
understand this correctly???)
·
Carol Hagemann-White will talk to Mrs. Olafsdottier about a possible
meeting in Greece (fall 2002) on the topic „women and violence“. The
„Network on gender research on conflict and violence“ as well as the EWHNET
could be involved.
·
Marion Meier offers to organise an extensive meeting on the topic
„health promotion for girls and boys“ that could be financed by Johnson
& Johnson. This rises a discussion about sponsoring-principles. For a
decision, Marion will prepare a paper on the frame conditions that a
sponsoring by J & J would have. The paper will be presented in Berlin. A
decision will be failed then.
·
In 2003 a meeting in Lund/Sweden on feminist research will take place.
This meeting will be organised by the Nordic Institute of gender and women,
Oslo. For information about this conference, please contact Birgitta. We thought
about organising a EWHNET meeting around this conference.
9.
Poster
The actualised draft of the poster version about general information of EWHNET was presented during the meeting. Everybody accepted this version. The layout and production of the poster is being organised in Hanover by Ute and Katja.
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