Social Model—Innovation and Behavioural Intervention as a Public Policy of Action within an Oncology and Loneliness Scope

• Main Authors: Vasco Fonseca, Joaquim Caeiro, Fernanda Nogueira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-02-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: Public Health; political determinants; social determinants; public lab; cancer; elderly
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1544

The article presents concepts and the Public Health Policy University of Lisbon Lab project to answer questions about the macro-environment of cancer and loneliness. Although the biomedical model has considered the disease’s general symptoms, it takes a holistic approach to incorporate several other circumstances that influence health. Emotional, social, psychological, and economic factors mirror influencing layers that affect wellness. Portugal follows Europe’s tendency and simultaneously reflects its reality.<b> </b>Governmental internal policies, amplified by regulations, improve disease prevention and treatment. Nevertheless, it focuses on the general population instead of on the individual. Once cancer, one of the leading causes of global death, is perceived as an isolated incident, we believe macro-environmental circumstances, and not only biological ones, must be considered.<b> </b>Furthermore, cancer in the elderly intensifies solicitude, and expanded policies and actions demand individual health determinants. In the Portuguese Public Health Policy, we started a collaborative Oncology, Human Kinetics, and Public Health Policy project. This is the first project of the Public Health Policy Lab from the Institute of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Lisbon. Based on a brief review of two research projects on improving cancer patients’ health, we promote micro-organisational projects to deal with the social phenomena of loneliness, physical activity, and lifestyle. As a sequence of the well-known social determinants, we endorse political determinants as the basis for public health. The latest worldwide governmental trend is to create public labs as an innovation of political policymaking. Throughout this reflection, the need for a new rational approach specially designed for a social model is considered.