Cooperation is a continuous process. With the support from Interreg, our Partnership and PA Health work under the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region can make boundaries irrelevant in our daily lives and can build inclusive communities with an aim to improve the health and well-being of all.

Coinciding with Interreg Cooperation Day on September 21, we are organizing multiple events in the following week from September 23 to September 26. Our Expert Groups on Primary Healthcare and Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) will gather in Stockholm to advance their work and align thematic priorities. On September 24 the workshop Transferring Social Innovations Across the Baltic Sea Region will bring together experts and project partners from our three ongoing Interreg Baltic Sea Region and Interreg Central Baltic projects:

• Solutions for Age-Friendly Employers tackles ageism in workplaces
• MentalHealthMatters seeks to increase the resilience of the workforce
• Economy of Well-being of People aims to foster cross-sectoral collaboration

The purpose of the workshop is to unite thematic experts, practitioners, and policymakers and explore the conditions and mechanisms on how to better transfer social innovations from one country to another. With the thematic focus on sustainable working life, the workshop will highlight the values and challenges of cooperation across borders and the positive results that arise when we join forces. The workshop is organized with a financial support by the Swedish Institute.

On September 26 the Expert Group on OSH will hold it’s 5th Transnational Workshop and advance the work on MentalHealthMatters project’s outputs:

• An online First-Aid Kit that gives practical advice to employers, managers and HR personnel in small businesses on how to address common workplace -related psychosocial risks and promote good mental health at work.
• A Roadmap that discusses policy options and practical actions for systematically improving people’s mental health at work nationally in Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway and Poland, and transnationally in the Baltic Sea Region.

All of these activities are unified under this year’s theme: EU Values Overcoming Borders.