Prevention: From Treatment to Risk Management

Prevention as an Essential Health Strategy, Not as the Poor Eccentric Relative

Dr Radosveta Stamenkova

Dr Radosveta Stamenkova is Executive Director of the Bulgarian Family Planning and Sexual Health Association (BFPA). She graduated from the Medical Academy in Sofia, although she worked as a medical doctor in the conventional sense for only a short period of time. She specialised at the Institute for Social and Political Sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, and has also completed a number of other training programmes and postgraduate qualification courses. She is an expert and trainer in the fields of civil society development, reproductive health, health prevention, NGO management, and the development of interdisciplinary strategic partnerships in Bulgaria and across Central and Eastern Europe. She has received a number of national awards and has successfully managed more than 90 large-scale projects in the fields of healthcare, education and social inclusion. The main target groups she works with include young people, teachers, healthcare professionals, Roma communities, the media, NGOs, municipalities, people in prison, people living with HIV, young people in institutional care, and young people with special educational needs.

In our work and in everyday life, we all try to avoid clichés—or at least to move beyond stereotypical thinking. Yet some expressions have become clichés precisely because they have repeatedly proven to be true. One such phrase is: “One euro invested in prevention saves a hundred euros in treatment.” This is a truth confirmed both by professional practice and by real life. Some preventive measures, such as vaccines, work so well that we tend to forget about their quiet effectiveness and about… (read the full text)