Public health

The Government's reviewed public health policy highlights social exclusion as a major threat to public health and seeks to promote peoples' ability to make healthy choices. Furthermore, it builds on joint responsibility and involvement of different societal actors and supports the development of evidence-based health promotion methods.

Secure and favourable conditions to grow up in are crucial for the health and wellbeing of children and young people. The Government prioritises general parental support and wants to extend support for parenting to apply to the child's entire upbringing.

The Government is setting up a forum for dialogue with all relevant actors in the fields of nutrition and physical activities on ways in which society can contribute to healthy eating-habits and physical activities. Society's preventive measures to counteract mental ill health and suicide must be improved.

The Government has set up an advisory board (ANT-rådet) to give advice on alcohol, drugs, doping and tobacco policy, and a secretariat to coordinate its work. Initiatives to reduce alcohol-related harm are needed, through measures to both reduce overall alcohol consumption and combat the harmful use of alcohol. To achieve a drug-free society there are three objectives: reduce recruitment to drug abuse; induce people to give up their abuse and reduce the supply of drugs. The aim of the Government's tobacco policy is to reduce tobacco consumption, encouraging smoking cessation and stepping up enforcement of legislation.

Measures are needed to maintain good protection against communicable diseases, partly through coordinated efforts against antibiotics resistance, and partly through preventing the spread of communicable diseases such as HIV. Work preparing for a possible influenza pandemic is ongoing at national level, within the European Union and at international level.

The current objectives and monitoring structure enables good and considerably active public health work to be done.