Austria’s Efforts to strengthen social participation

Abstract

In recent years, Austria has made notable efforts to enhance social participation in public health. Building on experience with self-help groups and participatory health promotion, new opportunities for engagement in health promotion, prevention, and care have been developed, including a digital participation platform and the GÖG Advisory Board for Citizen Participation. The “Strategy to strengthen patient and public engagement in healthcare” marks an attempt for a coordinated step involving federal governments, state governments and civil society to embed participation in healthcare. Participation is also a key pillar of Austria’s health promotion strategy and the Agenda for Health Promotion (2022–2028), with a strong focus on citizen involvement in creating inclusive, health-promoting environments. To support this, formats such as newsletters and a “digital knowledge platform” have been introduced to share information on strategies, participatory methods, and their impact. Training programmes for experts and citizens/patients further aim to build capacities for meaningful participation. Austria is also active in international exchange and networking, including collaboration with WHO and co-leading a thematic working group on social participation at EuroHealthNet. These efforts aim to empower patients, citizens, and civil society in health policy decision-making and to support the development of tailored services. During the session, representatives from the Austrian National Public Health Institute (GÖG) will present practical experiences from citizen participation projects. They will focus on the digital platform and hybrid participatory formats used to complement the development of the “Strategy to Strengthen Patient and Public Participation”, offering organised groups as well as non-organised citizens opportunities to engage. Key challenges discussed include ensuring equal access, effective recruitment, managing expectations and stakeholder engagement.