The Council of Public Health & Society is an independent advisory body to the government and parliament. The Council consists of 10 members and is chaired by Jet Bussemaker. Together with a team of advisers and other employees they make up the Council of Public Health & Society.
Vission and mission
Health. It is something you cherish, something you wish for everyone. Something that affects you individually and that we handle collectively. And a field in which we, as a society, have made enormous progress. We have improved living conditions so much over recent decades. Together, we make up a resilient and adaptable society, although we are vulnerable too.
A society in development
Our society seems to be in a state of flux, more than ever. Digitization is accelerating development and reducing distances. But all those new possibilities are also making life more complex: it has all got to be made more flexible, faster and better. If you do not keep up, you get left behind permanently. This results in stress, as the acknowledgement that not everything can be feasible and perfect becomes more and more difficult to accept. On top of that, we live longer with larger differences in health and welfare. That leads to fundamental new questions about what is medically possible and ethically desirable. And about who decides upon this and who bear the costs. That puts a strain on our individual and collective health.
Inspiring and advising about how we can live & care in tomorrow’s world.
Promising health innovations
Societal challenges like these are awash with innovations, hypes and breakthroughs. The trick is to make sure that the gains from all that innovation find their way to both the man in the street and into healthcare practice. That requires room for entrepreneurship, the general public, social initiatives and new forms of cooperation between science, the government and health care.
Safeguarding the social dimension
We also have to safeguard the social dimension, with an eye on the vulnerable and the growing yearning for simplicity in our ever more complex society. In a context in which members of the public are becoming ever more demanding, knowledge is often a source of debate and professionals are trying to find new ways of meeting all those wishes and needs. It affects society as a whole and public health in particular.
Public Health & Society
That is why we bring those worlds together. We are a strategic advisory body for the government & and inspirational advisor for the Netherlands. We focus on questions that also arise outside treatment rooms and consultation tables, in the healthcare sector and social domain. Beyond funding models and healthcare protocols. The Council does research & produces outlines of the perspectives, combines strengths & brings people together. Underpinned by solid knowledge & with scope for surprising new perspectives and ideas. For ourselves & for each other.