Back to the previous page “Final Conference (Helsinki, 18-20 May 1998) 
Summary of the proposals for action as they were adopted at the Helsinki Conference
I - HEALTH 
- the priority aim should be to provide universal coverage, making services genuinely available to everyone;
- restoring preventive concepts in public health (paying special attention to the process engendered by mental illness, which often affects people in conditions of socio-economic vulnerability, poverty and exclusion);
- equal access for all, including vulnerable groups, to high-quality treatment, and physical access to all facilities for the disabled;
- giving thought to issues of demand, lack of demand and refusal to provide health care;
- coverage of groups in need, accessibility of services to users and costs to users;
- re-assessing the appropriate interface between health authorities and social services, and determining whether changes are needed;
- analysing ways in which health facilities are modified to meet the needs of groups in difficulty;
- promoting the role of NGOs, particularly patients' organisations.
II - HOUSING
- responding to emergencies through watchdog and immediate services;
- preventing evictions;
- maintaining and expanding the supply of suitable and affordable housing while helping households to budget;
- addressing specific needs (according to household types, family life cycles, lifestyle options, health status, etc.);
- formulating area-based policies (regeneration of the countryside, urban policy, town planning, etc.) without losing sight of the fact that the problems are inter-related (employment, health, education, family life);
- promoting comparative research on the housing dimension of social exclusion and exchanging information on good practices;
- promoting involvement of the Social Development Fund.
III - EMPLOYMENT
- ensuring that equality of opportunity between men and women and non-discriminatory employment policies are properly effective for persons in difficulty (particularly the long-term and the young unemployment);
- promoting employment-creation measures by sharing out existing work;
- making the best use of all job-creation schemes (local employment action, start-up schemes for the self-employed, "social economy");
- considering various ways of providing aid;
- providing substantial support for labour-market integration or reintegration measures based on four main lines :
· finding work for the long-term unemployed;
· support services to help people integrate in the community, and so prevent loss of self-esteem;
· training programmes;
· creation of sustainable employment and wealth, through the development of co-operatives or placement ventures.
IV - SOCIAL PROTECTION
- as part of universal access to social protection, making an in-depth study of lack of access to social security benefits due to the following barriers:
· practical and administrative;
· psychological and cognitive;
· cultural;
- and of practical initiatives already implemented;
- studying the contribution of social protection systems to economic and social development;
- adapting European social security systems to match changes in employment practice and family life, including the individualisation of social security rights;
- enhancing the role of social workers and the voluntary sector, who are still the main go-betweens for excluded persons, and turning them into true "human rights mediators".
V - EDUCATION
- analysing difficulties in gaining access to training, responsibility, and both basic and further education, while endeavouring to develop contacts with the business world;
- supporting education for democratic citizenship as a prelude to active participation in society;
- acknowledging psychological and social hurdles in education;
- promoting acquisition of parental skills by adolescents and young adults. Every parent must be recognised in his/her responsibilities and regarded as interlocutor and agent in all dimensions of the child's and adolescent's life;
- supporting the initial and further training of social workers and health professionals, as well as professionals particularly involved with vulnerable groups, whose mediating role is undeniable. Networking must be supported at both local and international level;
- promoting research at European level on the development of human rights training for other professions (planners, architects, teachers, etc.).
