Authors

• Finnish Centre for Health Promotion

Keywords

decision making, health services, mayors, municipalities, neighbourhoods, public health, social services

Abstract

The survey focused on the health promotion strategies and activities of Finnish municipalities (local government) at the time of the survey and in the future. The respondents were municipal managers, directors of health services or chairmen of municipal executive boards.

The respondents were asked to estimate the state of health promotion in their municipality/federation of municipalities in various issues at the time of the survey and 5 years from then. The issues mentioned included, for instance, the attractiveness and safety of the municipality, access to social and health services, help provided for alcohol or drugs misusers and smokers, leisure facilities, taking families with children and the aged into account in decision-making, support for the disadvantaged, and citizens' possibilities to participate in decision-making. Views were probed on factors facilitating and preventing health promotion, how well certain aspects of health promotion were handled by the municipality, and how good various methods were in promoting health or citizen well-being.

Further questions covered views on the functionality of the municipality's cooperation with other actors in health promotion issues and on the most useful methods of promoting health. The respondents were also asked whether they thought the general state (finances, operational environment) of various municipal services and operations would improve or weaken over the following year. The year 2010 was the European year for combating poverty and social exclusion, and the respondents were asked how the situation in Finland would develop over the next five years regarding the objectives of the theme year. Finally, the use of art and culture in health promotion was investigated.

Background variables included the respondent's role in the municipality, province where the municipality was situated, and number of inhabitants in the municipality.