Balkan SCOPH Weekend 4 – Croatia (CroMSIC); Slovenia (SloMSIC); Bosnia and Herzegovina – Republic of Srpska (SaMSIC); Bosnia and Herzegovina (BoHeMSA); Serbia (IFMSA-Serbia); Montenegro (MoMSIC); Macedonia (MMSA); Bulgaria (AMSB); Romania (FASMR)

Name of the activity: Balkan SCOPH Weekend 4

Country/NMO: Croatia (CroMSIC); Slovenia (SloMSIC); Bosnia and Herzegovina – Republic of Srpska (SaMSIC); Bosnia and Herzegovina (BoHeMSA); Serbia (IFMSA-Serbia); Montenegro (MoMSIC); Macedonia (MMSA); Bulgaria (AMSB); Romania (FASMR)

Program: Health Systems

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Education

General description:

BSW is an international project born after MM15. It brings together medical students from Southeastern European region interested in public health who recognized the similarity in problems the healthcare in their country is dealing with.

This year’s topic is of great importance internationally since the gap in life expectancy between rural and urbal areas is steadily rising. This project works on pin-pointing problems leading to this fenomenon, but also on improving quality of life among rural population.

Focus area:

Rural/community health

Problem statement:

People living in rural area don’t have as good access to medical care as people living in urban areas. Also, both children and elderly population are less involved in health system, the main reasons being insufficient education, mistrust in the system and sparse medical services. Aim of this project is to target specific problems that are linked with living in rural regions.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

Target group – medical students interested in public health

Beneficiaries – population living in rural areas; health system which benefits from improved, more suitable healthcare

Objectives and indicators of success:

Acknowledge the gap between healthcare in urban and rural population

Find common problems shared with the neighbouring countries and work toward solving them through small working groups

Work on improvement of mental health, especially among younger population

Consider actions toward reducing the prevalence of NCD’s, focusing on how to lower the percentage of smoking cigarettes and consumation of alcohol

Indicator of success for all is greater number of high quality, rural health oriented activities in each NMO and, consequenstly, better community healthcare for rural population

Methodology:

Ex-catedra lectures with time for questions to provide basic informations about main topics

Small working groups focusing on specific problems in more detail, brainstorming and discussing different points

Plans for evaluation:

Participants will be obliged to fill in the questionnaire at the end of the Activity.