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Türkiye

Türkiye

7. Health and Well-Being

7.1 General context

Last update: 27 March 2024
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  1. Main trends in the health conditions of young people
  2. Main concepts

Main trends in the health conditions of young people

The Health Transformation Program (Sağlıkta Dönüşüm Programı) put into practice in 2003 is a comprehensive program taking into consideration all efforts that have been made so far and aiming at producing the most suitable solutions with democratic decision processes. The transformation is aimed at organizing and providing health services in an effective, productive and equal manner, and providing financing for health services in the same way. During the achievement of its mentioned goals, the Health Transformation Program (Sağlıkta Dönüşüm Programı) takes into consideration the "Health for All in the 21st Century" policy of the World Health Organization, the ‘Accession Partnership Document’ released by the European Union, and various other international experiences. 

Protecting children and young people from the harmful effects of alcohol is among the strategic goals of the Health Transformation Program (Sağlıkta Dönüşüm Programı). Accordingly, the National Tobacco Control Program and Action Plan (Ulusal Tütün Kontrol Programı ve Eylem Planı) was drafted. The National Tobacco Control Program and Action Plan (Ulusal Tütün Kontrol Programı ve Eylem Planı) is aimed at raising awareness among the public, primarily children and young people, in order to protect them from the harmful effects of alcohol.

In Türkiye, the fight against addiction is addressed in all its dimensions, and efforts are made to make great progress in this field. In this context, with the Prime Ministry Circular dated 9.12.2017 and numbered 2017/23, the mandate of the High Council for Combating Drugs was expanded and the "High Council for Combating Addiction" was established under the chairmanship of the Deputy Prime Minister with the participation of 11 ministers. Later on, with the Presidential Circular No. 2019/2 dated 14.2.2019, the High Council for Combating Addiction was reconstituted with the participation of Deputy Chairman of the Presidential Health and Food Policies Board as well as the 11 ministers (Ministers of Justice; Family and Social Services; Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change; Youth and Sports; Treasury and Finance; Interior; National Education; Health; Agriculture and Forestry; Trade; Transportation and Infrastructure) and it was chaired by the Vice President. In our country, efforts to combat addiction are carried out by the Anti-Addiction Board, the Technical Board for Combating Addiction and the Provincial Coordination Committees for Combating Addiction, which were established to carry out tasks within the framework of the strategies and action plans to be established by the High Council for Combating Addiction.

The ultimate goal of the Tobacco Control Strategy Document and Action Plan 2018-2023 is to protect all individuals in the society from the health, economic, environmental and social harms of tobacco products. The Strategy Document and Action Plan includes activities planned to be carried out under the titles of reducing the demand for tobacco products, reducing the accessibility of tobacco products and coordination, monitoring and evaluation in tobacco control. 

The ultimate goal of the 2018-2023 Anti-Drug Strategy Document and Action Plan is to keep society away from the use of all kinds of stimulants and drugs. The Strategy Document and Action Plan includes activities planned to be carried out under the headings of preventing the supply of drugs, preventing the demand for drugs, communication in the fight against drugs and coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the anti-drug process

The Social Security and General Health Insurance Law No. 5510, which was prepared with the aim of gathering social security institutions under a single roof and establishing general health insurance, entered into force with its full provisions on 01.10.2008. The Law aims to establish a general health insurance system by providing equal, easily accessible and quality health services to the entire population. In this context, almost the entire population of our country has been included in the scope of general health insurance, and Social Security Institution started to cover the health benefits. 

Pursuant to Law No. 5510, children under the age of 18 can benefit from health services and other rights as a general health insured person or as a dependent of a general health insured person without any condition. Foreign students studying in our country can also benefit from health benefits as general health insured if they make a request within three months from the date of first enrollment.

 

Main concepts

Health: Health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. With regard to health promotion and development, health is considered as a resource enabling people to sustain an individually, socially and economically productive life, and as an instrument to reach a state that can be explained with functional terms rather than being an abstract state. Health is a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. It is a positive concept highlighting the social and personal resources as well as physical capacity.

Health promotion and development: Health promotion and development is the process of increasing the control of people over their own health and ensuring that they improve their health.

Health for all: Health for all is an approach based on letting all people in the world access a level of health enabling them to sustain a socially and economically productive life.

Public health: Public health is the science and art of promoting and improving health, preventing diseases, and extending life through the organized efforts of public.

Primary healthcare services: Primary healthcare services refers to an obligatory health service that is accessible and affordable by a country or a nation through practical, scientifically valid and socially acceptable methods.

Prevention of diseases: Prevention of diseases do not only cover  measures aiming to prevent the emerging of diseases such as mitigating the risk factors, but also measures to stop the progress of a disease and reduce its results once it occurs.

Health training: Health training is composed of consciously structured opportunities to allow learning. It embodies a communication style designed to improve health literacy covering topics such as increasing knowledge and developing life skills to support the health of individuals and public.

Health communication: Health communication is a key strategy to inform the public about health concerns and to maintain important health issues on the public agenda. The use of the mass and multimedia and other technological innovations to disseminate useful health information to the public, increases awareness of specific aspects of individual and collective health as well as importance of health in development.

Health development: Health development is the process of progressive improvement of health status of individuals and groups in a population.

Health gain: Health gain is a way to express improved health outcomes. It can be used to reflect the relative advantage of one form of health intervention over another in producing the greatest health gain.

Health literacy: Health literacy refers to the skills of individuals to access, understand and use information as well as their cognitive and social skills determining their motivation, in a manner to promote and sustain good health.

Health policy: Health policy refers to official and institutional  (especially at the level of government) statements or procedures defining the priorities and parameters as a response to health needs, available resources and other political pressures.

Healthy public policy:  Healthy public policy is characterized by an explicit concern for health and equity in all areas of policy and by an accountability for health impact. The aim of health public policy is to create a supportive environment to enable people to lead healthy lives. Such a policy makes health choices possible or easier for citizens. It makes social and physical environments health-enhancing.

Inter-sectoral collaboration: Inter-sectoral collaboration is a recognized relationship between part or parts of the health sector with parts of another sector which has been formed to take action on an issue to achieve health outcomes (or intermediate health outcomes) in a way that is more effective, efficient or sustainable than could be achieved by the health sector acting alone.