Sturing op integraal gezondheidsbeleid: de rol van het gemeentelijke management

The role of municipal departmental managers in achieving integrated health policy the national government encourages municipalities to develop integrated health policy (health in all policies (hiap)). The development of such a policy requires intersectoral collaboration at the strategic, tactical (managerial) and operational levels. Previous research shows that municipal departmental managers (tactical level) are rarely involved in inter-sectoral collaboration. A qualitative interview study was used to examine the role of municipal managers in relation to inter-sectoral collaboration and integrated health policy. The results show that departmental managers realize that integrated health policy requires organizational change but emphasize that this is difficult to accomplish. They administrate their department but aren’t involved in the policy process. Inter-sectoral collaboration and integrated health policy can be furthered by greater managerial involvement with respect to content. Departmental managers ask the regional public health service (ggd) to be more active in making municipalities aware of its expertise in the area of inter-sectoral collaboration and integrated health policy. It is a challenge for the regional public health service (ggd) to support municipalities in their process towards integrated health policy. We recommend regional public health services (ggd’en) to be more proactive in advising municipal departmental managers. The minimal policy capacity for health within municipalities makes this essential.keywords: health in all policies (hiap), directing integrated local health policy, the role of the manager, intersectoral collaboration, local health policy.