Tim Huijts appointed Professor of Positive Health at Work
− 1 min readMaastricht University has appointed prof. dr. Tim Huijts as Full Professor of Positive Health at Work as of September 1st 2022. His Chair, which is partly funded by CAOP, will focus on Positive Health in the context of work and learning
In his research, Tim Huijts examines how health is related to social inequality, and how health both shapes and is shaped by education and work. Additionally, he studies how policy interventions can help to reduce health inequalities. During the past decade, initiatives on national and local policy agendas to improve health and reduce health inequalities have increasingly taken Positive Health as a starting point. The concept of Positive Health approaches health as the ability of people to adapt and self-manage when faced with the social, physical, and emotional challenges of life and is elaborated in six dimensions. Positive Health was developed in the healthcare sector and has become widely spread through other sectors. The question currently posed by governments, employers, insurance companies, and other stakeholders is whether and how Positive Health could be used in the workplace to increase the ability of employees to adapt and self-manage. This Chair aims to address this through conducting new empirical research in which Positive Health is linked to work-related outcomes, such as participation on the labour market, job satisfaction, sustainable employability, and lifelong learning. Additionally, this Chair aims to contribute to the further development of the conceptualization and measurement of Positive Health. To achieve these aims, Tim Huijts will work together with a broad range of stakeholders from practice, policy and science, such as the Institute for Positive Health, Alles is Gezondheid and the research network on Positive Health.