The INPES Health Promotion Chair at the EHESP is a joint project between the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Santé Publique (EHESP – School of Public Health) and the Institut National de Prévention et d’Education pour la Santé (INPES – National Health Promotion and Education Institute) which began working together on 1 September 2010.
INPES is financing the activities of the Chair for a 4 year period to help the EHESP in its endeavour to set the standard as the leader in health promotion research and education, both for students at the EHESP and for health professionals in the field, in France and, more generally, in French-speaking countries .
The Chair, held by Professor Eric Breton, assisted by Anne Le Fustec and research engineer, Marion Porcherie, is attached to the EHESP’s Department of human and social sciences and health behaviour, Director Jean-Marie André.
The Chair has the resources required to achieve its ambitions, with leading edge expertise at the EHESP, as well as in France and more generally in Europe and elsewhere in the world, and close relationships with practitioners. It will be able to make a unique contribution as it is guided by a vision and principles which set it apart, the work of its Professor being part of a network of contacts, both national and international.
Principles
To provide a clear definition of the subjects that might be treated by the holder of the Chair and associated organisations, the selection and formulation of research projects will be governed by a series of principles and preferences set out in detail elsewhere. These are that:
1. Questions related to the quality and characteristics of the living conditions should have priority
2. No significant increase in health is possible without the use of state powers
3. Beyond diagnosis … it is now time to provide solutions and study their deployment
4. Practitioners are the main sources of innovation
5. Health promotion requires epistemology which must divest itself of postpositivism and look resolutely towards methodological pluralism
6. The practice of health promotion which has the effect of substantially increasing social health inequalities cannot be considered a success regardless of the resulting improvement in health
Research programme
The INPES Health Promotion Chair at the EHESP intends to deploy a research programme with 3 main axes:
- Professional health promotion practice
- Health promoting environments
- The process of change in government policies at local and regional level
To these research axes must be added an across the board interest in the primordial question of social health inequalities. No research project will be undertaken unless its protocol includes the question of inequality. The research programme is based on the contributions from researchers at the EHESP in collaboration with scientists from other research institutions in France, Europe and elsewhere in the world. The Chair welcomes visiting professors who will boost its scientific capacity.
Other missions
The INPES Health Promotion Chair at the EHESP also intends to be a place for training and discussion for current and future practitioners. These aims are threefold:
- Contribute towards training a new generation of practitioners aware of health inequalities equipped with the means to take action on the determining factors of the health of the population
- Highlight and encourage the adoption of innovative health promotion practices in France
- Contribute towards the development of an approach and professional identity specific to health promotion in France.
These targets will be achieved by setting up a certain number of initiatives such as:
- Setting up courses for the Public Health Master and PhD
- Supervising students taking Masters and PhD
- Welcoming visiting professors and post doctoral students
- Setting up training workshops for public health practitioners
- Organising special events on subjects of major interest
- Setting up pages on this website to provide information and links to various resources.
The INPES Health Promotion Chair at the EHESP meets a need expressed by practitioners for a centre for research, education and discussion on health promotion actions, in particular the social factors of health.
Team
Eric Breton
Professor and Chair’s Titular
Marion Porcherie
Research Engineer
Cécile You
Research Engineer
Anthony Lacouture
Research Engineer
Anne Le Fustec
Assistant
Thomas W Valente
Professor visitor at EHESP
Professor at Department of Preventive Medicine
Keck School of Medicine,
University of Southern California.
Julia Walsh
Professor visitor at EHESP,
Adjunct Professor Maternal and Child Health and International Health
School of Public Health
University of California at Berkeley
Trainees:
Ngosse Diop
Elara Lima
Farrukh Malik
Caroline Hugues
Tatjana Makovski
Dominique Pataut
Stéfanie Vidal
Lucia Isabel Fiestas Navarrete
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