Wednesday, February 18, 2015 – The educational tools of the European program "Strengthening occupational health professionals' capacities to improve the health of the ageing workforces, e-CAPACIT8 "which have been developed in Greece were presented at a workshop provided by the Institute of Preventive Medicine, Environmental and Occupational Health, Prolepsis, at its premises.

 

The aim of the project is to qualify European occupational health professionals (OHPs) by providing them with country – specific, online educational materials. The OHPs will be given the opportunity to improve their knowledge on health problems experienced by ageing workforce in their country. Additionally, skilled OHPs, should in turn, be better able to meet the needs of older workers, bearing in mind their health status, and thus provide an age- tailored service.

Following the opening of the workshop addressed by Professor of Surgery at the Medical School of Athens University, Dimitrios Linos, the educational tools developed for Greece were presented. In particular, five case studies of common diseases of the aging population related to  work environment were presented, such as musculoskeletal and rheumatoid pain, chronic respiratory diseases, metabolic syndrome and burnout.

 

The project aims to enable health professionals to face the challenges arising due to demographic changes and the extension of retirement age. Employees’ ageing has serious implications for the employment-health relationship. According to Eurostat, Greece ranks first among the EU Member States in the aging population with a growth rate of 21.4%, versus 17.2% of the European average. People aged over 65 years in Greece account today for 14% of the population, while, according to forecasts, in 2020 they will represent over 20%, and in 2030 they will reach 30% of the population. The workshop tackled all those issues.

 

Dr. Eugenia Pantazis, Occupational physician and President of the Pan-Hellenic Association of Occupational Physicians and General Secretary of the Hellenic Society for Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Theodoros Konstantinidis, Associate Professor, Medical School, Democritus University of Thrace, Occupational Physician and Chairman of the Greek Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (ELINYAE) were among the rapporteurs.

 

The e-CAPACIT8 is a project implemented within the framework of the Health Program 2008-2013 of DG SANCO. The project coordinator is the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, NIOM. 14 Associated Partners from 13 countries have been involved in the project.