The Directorate of Health has used various methods to acquire knowledge about the current situation within brain health and to identify the appropriate and desired direction for future efforts in the field. The dialogue with relevant individuals, businesses and organisations provided a sound basis in the work to prepare the background report and draft.
Invitation to submit input concerning the draft updated brain health strategy
The Directorate of Health ensured that stakeholders of relevance to brain health were able to submit input from different perspectives. Stakeholders who provided input are referred to as "the stakeholders". The Directorate of Health invited stakeholders to attend various arenas in order to submit their written input concerning the updated brain health strategy. The various arenas are listed in chronological order:
Consultation conference
The Directorate of Health held a digital consultation conference on 6 June 2024; see Appendix 1. The 55 registered delegates were divided into groups with varied composition, based on specific criteria, including place of residence and representation from different organisations and levels within the health and care services. The purpose of this division into groups was primarily to encourage discussions with different perspectives that could support or harmonise with the needs and objectives of other organisations or enterprises. The consultation conference was primarily divided into four parts, each linked to one of the four main objectives of the strategy. The seven groups were each assigned predefined questions, associated with each primary objective; see Appendix 2. These questions were prepared in a dialogue between the project team, the working group and the partnership. The groups discussed and recorded input, which they then submitted to the Directorate of Health via an electronic form.
Consultation round
Following the consultation conference, the Directorate of Health invited further contributions to the updated brain health strategy; see Appendix 3. From 6 to 20 June, individuals and organisations of relevance to brain health and brain diseases were given the opportunity to share their views and submit written suggestions concerning the updated brain health strategy to the Directorate. This opportunity to contribute input (‘the consultation round’) did not require any pre-prepared questions from the Directorate of Health. This gave participants the freedom to focus on self-selected topics. In total, input was received from 17 different stakeholders.
Consultation process within the Directorate of Health
Relevant departments within the Directorate of Health were invited to provide feedback on the background report and the draft. The internal consultation period within the Directorate extended from 19 September to 11 October 2024.
Round table meetings organised by the Norwegian Brain Council
In May 2024, the Norwegian Brain Council (hjerneradet.no) organised two one-day meetings for its member organisations, which at the time consisted of 77 organisations. The aim was to explore challenges and solutions relating to brain health and brain diseases and to assess preferred sub-objectives for the impending brain health strategy. The first session, held on 14 May, concentrated on objective 1 (prevention and quality of life) and objective 4 (knowledge and quality). The second session, held on 27 May, addressed objective 2 (user involvement and support for relatives) and objective 3 (good care pathways). The Norwegian Brain Council collated and processed the feedback from members and forwarded it to the Directorate of Health; see Appendix 10.
Political guidelines
The Directorate has looked at national strategies and action plans within coincident fields of health and disease. This was done in order to gain an insight into possible common challenges and solutions and political guidelines, as well as to draw inspiration for a strong educational approach to the draft.
In the work, the following national strategies and action plans were taken into account:
- National Strategy for Rare Diagnoses (regjeringen.no)
- National Alcohol Strategy (regjeringen.no) 2021-2025
- National Action Plan for Clinical Studies (regjeringen.no) 2021-2025
- The Norwegian Government’s next of kin strategy and action plan (regjeringen.no)
- Action Plan on Physical Activity 2020-2029 (regjeringen.no)
- Dementia Plan (regjeringen.no) 2025
- Competence Lift (regjeringen.no) 2025
- National Strategy for Personalised Medicine (regjeringen.no) 2023-2030
- The Norwegian Government’s Women’s Health Strategy (regjeringen.no)
- National Cancer Strategy (regjeringen.no) 2025–2035
- Norway’s Action Plan for Sustainable Development and Equal Opportunities (regjeringen.no) 2021-2025
- Action Plan for Suicide Prevention (regjeringen.no) 2020-2025
- The Norwegian Government’s action plan for the equality of persons with disabilities (regjeringen.no) 2020-2025
- Strategy to improve health literacy in the population (regjeringen.no) (2019-2023)
- National Brain Health Strategy (regjeringen.no) (2018-2024)
The Directorate of Health has also reviewed reports to the Storting, where the Government's political guidelines were used as a basis in the preparation of the sub-objectives in the draft.
- Prevention and treatment reform for the area of substance abuse (Meld. St. 5 (2024-) (regjeringen.no))
- Long-term plan for research and higher education (Meld. St. 5 (2023-2032) (regjeringen.no))
- National Health and Collaboration Plan (Meld. St. 9 (2023-2024) (regjeringen.no))
- Report on quality and patient safety (Meld. St. 11 (2020-2021) (regjeringen.no))
- Public Health Report (Meld. St. 15 (2022-2023) (regjeringen.no))
- Escalation plan for mental health (Meld. St. 23 (2022-2023) (regjeringen.no))
- The safe home reform (Meld. St. 24 (2022-2023) (regjeringen.no))
- The equality reform (Meld. St. 25 (2020-2021) (regjeringen.no))
- Action plan to achieve the sustainable development goals (Meld. St. 40 (2020 – 2021) (regjeringen.no))
Other insight into the work
The Directorate of Health also searched databases and websites to collate relevant research and knowledge relating to brain health, from both national and international sources. The Directorate of Health invited professionals and organisations from Norway and elsewhere to exchange experiences relating to brain health. The decision on who to contact was based on suggestions from other stakeholders and searches in databases and elsewhere on the internet.
In the assignment given to the Directorate of Health by the Ministry of Health and Care Services, the Directorate was asked to provide a status update within the field of brain health. The twin aims of this status update were to ensure that the updated strategy reflects the progress that has been made and to identify areas that still require attention (Ministry of Health and Care Services, 2024a, p.23, assignment TB2024-47). Based on this, the Directorate of Health commissioned Oslo Economics to map the work relating to the brain health strategy from 2018-2024. This mapping is discussed further in Chapter 4.