Dr James Reilly, Minister for Health, will open the 15th Annual Health Promotion conference on Mainstreaming Health Promotion: Promoting Health Across Sectors at NUI Galway. The conference, which commences at 9.30am on Thursday, 30 June, takes place in Áras Moyola, NUI Galway.

This year’s conference addresses strategies for placing health promotion at the centre of public health policy and strengthening work across sectors to promote the health and wellbeing of all population groups in society.

Dr Reilly will deliver his talk on the Government’s commitment to place the health of the population high on its agenda. The Minister said, “The Government is making health an essential component of a programme for recovery for a vibrant and dynamic society.”

Dr Tony Holohan, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at the Department of Health and Children, will address this meeting on the development of a new National Public Health Policy Framework 2010-2020. Speaking ahead of the meeting Dr Holohan said, “At a time of major health reform, this framework recognises the importance of ensuring that the public health function is supported, maintained and strengthened. The framework will set out how the public health function will operate over the coming years in order to achieve this vision.”

The conference delegates will be engaged in a consultation on the development of the national public health policy during this meeting and will hear from health promotion specialists in statutory and voluntary agencies on their experience and successes in building capacity for health promotion across different sectors.

The meeting will be addressed by leading international speakers including; Dr Gauden Galea, Director, Non-communicable Diseases and Health Promotion, WHO Regional Office for Europe and Clive Needle, Director, EuroHealthNet who will address the WHO and European policy perspectives on responding to health promotion and disease prevention challenges in Europe.

Professor Margaret Barry of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Health Promotion Research Centre at NUI Galway commented, “This year’s meeting brings an important focus on how health can be promoted across all sectors in society and builds on the growing evidence that supports a population approach to improving health, and the economic and social benefits that accrue from effective health promotion strategies.”