Presentation  Presentation  

Summary

Link: Networks e Synergies

Social Development Networks

Chapter 1

Housing quality

Chapter 2

The centre and the suburbs: different systems of mobility

Chapter 3

The family and solidarity

Chapter 4

Quality of education network

Chapter 5

Living the employment network

Economic Networks

Chapter 6

Links within the economic system

Chapter 7

The trade network

Chapter 8

Veneto agriculture network

Chapter 9

Mountain synergies

Chapter 10

Production networks

Chapter 11

The distribution network

Chapter 12

Tourism: synergy between sectors and networks between individuals

Institutional services and
networks

Chapter 13

The network for workplace health prevention

Chapter 14

The Veneto model for the integration of social and healthcare services

Chapter 15

Public Administration: services for citizens and businesses

Chapter 16

Telematic networks in Veneto

Chapter 17

The environmental and territorial checking networks

Chapter 18

Cross-border institutional networks

Chapter 19

Inter-institutional local models




13.2 - The GenitoriPiù programme: an integrated network

GenitoriPiù is a social communication campaign devised by Azienda ULSS 20 and then implemented by Regione Veneto between 2006 and 2007; it was then extended to a national level by the Ministry of Health. It is designed to guide parents towards conscious and practical health choices and to raise awareness among citizens and health workers by integrating and improving current prevention programmes on priority perinatal health determinants. It promotes seven measures with scientifically proven benefits that help fight the main causes of infant mortality and illness; these measures are shown in the following diagram (Figure 13.2.1).
This project envisages an integrated network and the optimisation of resources so that each measure is consistent in terms of content (what) and communication style (how) throughout the entire process: from the national, regional and local mass-media campaign to information given to parents by midwives.
One of the innovative aspects of the national GenitoriPiù campaign was including an assessment phase of the campaign itself, which was based on various stages of data collection and analysis, facilitated by a consolidated network of health workers. Four regions, including Veneto, participated in the pilot assessment project. The figures provide a snapshot of the behaviour of parents towards the seven measures before the intervention promoted by the campaign; information was collected with questionnaires to new parents when they brought their child for the first vaccination (5,819 questionnaires on a national level, 1,196 in Veneto). (Table 13.2.1)
Regione Veneto has been actively involved in supporting these seven children's health determinants for a number of years. Some of the determinants were devised in Veneto and then extended to a national level by the Ministry of Health, with the coordination of Regione Veneto; one such campaign and project was the "Mamme Libere dal Fumo", which encouraged mothers not to smoke during pregnancy or in front of their children. In regard to the first measure, taking folic acid, Veneto promoted the "Pensiamoci prima" project, which was devised by the Ministry of Health's Illness Control and Prevention Centre (CCM); it is coordinated by the Alessandra Lisi International Centre on Birth Defects (ICBD), which is devoted to women and couples who wish to have a child. Veneto also participates in a study on folic acid by the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA).
The third measure promoted by the campaign, breast-feeding, has seen Veneto involved for some years now in the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (Ospedale Amico dei Bambini), a project run by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.
There are no specific programmes regarding babies sleeping on their backs, but the foundations for future work have been laid thanks to the GenitoriPiù programme; however, Veneto has for some time now been spearheading car-safety programmes both for adults and children.
The sixth measure, i.e. having all of the recommended vaccinations, is promoted via the GenitoriPiù campaign. Last, but by no means, least, reading babies a book is supported by the national project "Nati per leggere".
Thirteen Italian regions took part in the national campaign (Veneto - leader, Piemonte, Valle d'Aosta, Emilia Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Umbria, Abruzzo, Molise, Calabria, Puglia and Sardegna), as did the Local Health Authority (ASL) for Milano and the ASL no. 2 for the province of Milano. In Veneto, all 21 Aziende ULSS, plus the two hospitals in Padova and Verona, joined and took part in the campaign. During the training carried out in the two years of the project, 370 trainers and more than 10,000 midwives were trained at a national level (170 trainers and about 2,400 midwives in Veneto) in 60 training meetings that involved 50 national experts (Note 1).
Not only did the GenitoriPiù campaign highlight the need to set up an effective network, but it also illustrated the opportunities, and indeed the difficulties, of this network, as well as useful pointers for health workers and decision-makers.

Top  Building the network

The fairly rapid formation of a network of regions was the result of non-linear growth that brought to light major disjointedness at a range of levels (national, interregional, intraregional, etc.). The launch of the Interregional Health Prevention Round Table, which brought together an initial group of regions, saw the extension and involvement of other supraregional and interregional round tables (Mother-and-Child, Nursing, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) as well as other project groups, such as "Passi", "Nati per Leggere", "Pensiamoci Prima", "Mamme Libere del Fumo" and "Guadagnare Salute", which undoubtedly encouraged membership.
Regarding the dissemination of campaign issues, partners the Italian Federation of Paediatricians (FIMP) and the Italian branch of UNICEF (which used its extensive local network) were joined by scientific and cultural associations, such as the Cultural Association of Paediatricians (ACP), Italian Society of Neonatology (SIN), Italian Society of Paediatrics (SIP) and Italian Society of Hygiene (SITI); synergies went beyond granting sponsorship.
This building of a network at a national level made it easier to build a similar network at intraregional level between services and health workers, which, on more than one occasion, met and liaised for the first time, in particular in the fields of prevention and mother-and-child health; this was unquestionably one of the major results of the process and one of the results most participants pointed out.
These two institutional levels of the network (operational and professional) also enabled a strong bond to be forged between theory (clinical research, evidence, suggestions, etc.) and its translation into practice (filters and times, messages, communication methodologies, counselling, etc.), a fundamental link for the sustainability and effectiveness of individual projects.
In addition to the contribution made by formal networks, a further contribution was made by the informal networks that sprang up with the GenitoriPiù programme: awareness, trust and mutual support among professionals could not be overlooked as the incisiveness of a project is generally closely related with the professional and personal motivation of health workers, not to mention the authoritativeness of the institutions where supervisors work. The GentioriPiù programme makes both these levels of the network available.
The work carried out within this network shows that we need to overcome the current parcelling of mother-and-child health policies governed by parallel round tables focusing on individual determinants so as to build an area for thought and shared organisation on converging issues; this will provide a unitary vision centred on people and their needs.

Figure 13.2.1
Measures promoted by the GenitoriPiù campaign
Table 13.2.1
Behaviour of parents towards the seven health determinants in the campaign (percentage values) and measures taken by Regione Veneto to support these determinants. Veneto and Italy - Year 2008


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English translation by the University of Padova Language Centre.