PAE News - Meeting of the MEP Interest Group on Brain, Mind, and Pain
On 21 November, the partners of the MEP Interest group on Brain, Mind, and Pain were hosted in the European Parliament by MEP Merja Kyllönen and MEP Marian Harkin for the last meeting of the group in 2018, to discuss the activity of the group, its strategy for the future and the status of the Healthcare in Europe.
Donna Walsh from EFNA welcomed the participants and informed about the decision the MEP Interest group on Brain, Mind, and Pain took, to continue its activity in the next period of 5 years and reminded the main streams that the group will explore.
The first part of the meeting was structured in three interventions:
Monique Lindhout, Stroke Alliance for Europe (SAFE), presented her organisation’s action plan for stroke in Europe.
Anca Pop, Pain Alliance Europe (PAE) and Vittoria Carraro, European Pain Federation (EFIC) informed the audience about the outcome of the one-year project the SIP platform led on the Health Policy Platform – the Thematic Network on the Societal Impact of Pain. The team presented the documents resulted from the work throughout the project timeline and invited the audience to consult, use and endorse the Joint Statement of SIP and also the Framing paper documenting it and the infographic to be used by organisations to promote the recommendations for needed policy measures on pain.
Joke Jaarsma, EFNA’s President, Jina Swarz (MSD) and Frederic Destrebecq, European Brain Council (EBC) presented their work on the Alzheimer’s Disease White Paper.
The second part of the meeting was open for the debates, moderated by Kaisa Immonen – European Patients’ Forum (EPF).
The contributions have all had a common point: the necessity that health becomes a top priority for the EU policymakers.
Joop van Griensven, President of PAE, closed the meeting thanking everyone for the participation and underlined the importance of the patient’s role in initiating the communication aimed to improve policy, and of the supporting role patients’ organisations have.
You may read the full report of the meeting on the Brain, Mind and Pain website
