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May 12-13 2014
VM3 (2nd floor) Van Maerlant Bulding, 2, rue Van Maerlant, 1040
Brussels

Active Citizenship Network (ACN) has decided to dedicate the 8th celebration of the European Patients’ Rights Day 2014 (launched by ACN in 2003) to:

“The role of citizens' organisations in the empowerment of patients with chronic diseases”.

The patient empowerment does have two different but complementary dimensions:
1. Improvement of a person’s capabilities to effectively self-manage his/her chronic disease;
2. Enhancement of patient groups’ capacities to participate efficiently in health policies.  
In both cases, citizens’ organisations – which include self-help groups, associations of patients with a chronic disease, networks and umbrella organisations - play an essential role. Patients’ organisations educate and support individual patients and their families, while networks and umbrella organisations contribute to build their capacities to participate in the policy-making. 

General objectives of the conference:
1.Increase awareness and information on the concept of patient empowerment, in its two complementary dimensions;

2.Bring together and compare the different models of networks, both at national and EU level, and analyse their respective structures, ways to work and the main results (how they engage a wide scope of organisations, overcoming their differences and potential conflicts; identify and efficiently voice the common interests of patients in the health policy-making; empower local & national patient organisations etc..)

3.Encourage organisations of patients with chronic diseases to take the lead in the debate on patient empowerment and to actively participate in the health policies at national & at EU levels.

Specific objectives:
a) share best practices (BP) of different citizens and patients’ organisations, coming from a wide range of EU countries on:
- empowerment of individual patients: information, support and capacity-building of individual patients with chronic diseases and chronic pain, as well as their relatives, who usually play an essential role in helping them to deal with their conditions, including their social, psychological, and other impacts. This includes partnerships between patients’ organisations and other stakeholders, i.e. health professionals, public institutions, media, healthcare industry, etc.  
- empowerment of patients’ organisations by the creation of national or Eu. networks,  which transfer to them competences and tools, help them create partnerships, identify common objectives, etc., so as to have an effective impact on the health policy-making.
Download THE BEST PRACTICES FORM

b) Produce a shared MANIFESTO FOR THE  EMPOWERMENT from the civic association point of view (addressed to the new MEPs and in general to the EU Institutions) about the importance of empowerment of chronic patients and their associations and how this could be better taken into account in the framework of the EU reflection process on chronic diseases.
The manifesto will be produced and subscribed by all the organizations involved in the conference and sent to the new MEPs.

It is important to consider the strategic moment in which the conference will be held: less than one month after the EU Summit on chronic Disease organized by the DG SANCO and only two weeks before the European Elections.

This conference will be an occasion for national and EU associations working in chronic diseases to meet with each other, share experiences and enhance their collaboration at EU level. Also this year the conference will be supported by the European Commission in the framework of the Public Health Programme.
The program will published soon

As the places available are limited, the registration is needed, please fill in the registration form attached and send it by e-mail to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For further information please write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

With the support of:
Public Health Programme
European Economic and Social Committee
and
Pfizer

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