Time has come for the foundation of the center
The pandemic further highlighted the importance of child and adolescent health. As several studies show, children and adolescents have been under great strain during the past two years, not only in terms of health, but also psychologically. It was about time to put into action the intention already declared in 2020 to establish a center for the promotion of child and adolescent health. "With CHAMPION, we will complement competencies in the fields of prevention and health promotion in children and adolescents and can thus close gaps to other centers, such as the newly founded German Center for Child and Adolescent Health with a curative focus," says Prof. Dr. Renate Oberhoffer-Fritz, Dean of the Department of Sport and Health Sciences and head of the Chair of Preventive Pediatrics.
CHAMPION: Focus on interdisciplinarity
Prof. Dr. Klaus Hurrelmann, Professor of Public Health and Education at the Hertie School in Berlin and pioneer in the field of prevention and intervention in childhood and adolescence, emphasizes the great importance of interdisciplinarity for CHAMPION: "An interdisciplinary approach has proven its worth in my work so far, and I continue to consider it crucial. After all, the living environment of children and adolescents is enormously multifaceted, even more so than in other age groups. It can therefore not be represented by medical approaches alone." He is all the more pleased about the large number of experts from various disciplines as well as science and practice who will be involved in the Center in the future.
Formation of topic clusters and close cooperation with WHO planned
In the next step, the participating actors want to form topic clusters and develop concrete projects from them. In addition to Prof. Oberhoffer-Fritz, Prof. Dr. Matthias Richter, Professor for Social Determinants of Health, Prof. Dr. Orkan Okan, Professor for Health Literacy and Prof. Dr. Filip Mess, Professor for Didactics in Sport and Health, gave insights into their current work. The resulting projects will be presented at the Future of Health Summit, taking place October 12-14, 2022, with a focus on "Child Health and Wellbeing." The center is expected to be officially launched at this event. By then, collaboration with WHO will also be intensified with the aim of developing the center into a WHO Collaborating Center by 2024.
Further information on the Future of Health Summit 2022
To the homepage of the Chair of Preventive Pediatrics
To the homepage of the Chair of Social Determinants of Health
To the homepage of the Assistant Professorship of Health Literacy
To the homepage of the Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sports and Health
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Renate Oberhoffer-Fritz
Dean Department of Sport and Health Sciences
Chair of Preventive Pediatrics
Georg-Brauchle Ring 60/62
80992 München
phone: 089 289 24601
e-mail: renate.oberhoffer(at)tum.de
Text: Gianna Banke
Photo: Department of Sport and Health Sciences