VOICE-OVER: The Public Health Foresight Study 2018 shows how public health in the Netherlands will develop
if we continue down the current path without change.
The prospects for future public health in the Netherlands are good.
Nevertheless, we face some major future challenges.
Here, we highlight a few of these challenges.
An ageing population means the number of elderly people will increase.
An increasing number of elderly people will live alone at home, and healthcare will become more complex.
In the future, more people will suffer from chronic diseases such as dementia, cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
Healthcare for these people will change, as a result of technological developments, and because patients will increasingly do more themselves.
These developments will increase the pressure on informal care providers.
We also experience stress from a busy city life and flexible working arrangements...
and young people feel more and more pressure to perform.
To deal with the complex challenges we are facing, we need to develop a new way of working.
We need to collaborate more, and the focus should be on people’s personal situations.
This also means that we need to look beyond the borders of public health and healthcare.
A healthy living environment, school and workplace are vital for a healthy future.
So, we need to develop a new way of working.
Fortunately, professionals and organizations have already started to do this.
We can build on these experiences.
A healthy prospect!