Transcript School Health Committees: A Valuable Role for School Councils

School Health Committees:
A Valuable Role for School Councils
“Ideas & Inspiration ’05”
Ontario School Advocate Conference
April 9, 2005
Carol MacDougall, RN, BSc(N), MA
“The greatest advantage to having
these health committees is that we
work at changing the culture of the
school and at making health an
important issue that people value
and think about!”
Focus of this Presentation
Global “Healthy Schools” movement
“School Health Committees” concept
Important role of parents and school
councils with school health committees
Why should schools care about
health?
Health and learning are linked
Promoting the physical, mental, social and
spiritual health of children and youth contributes
to effective learning
Creating healthy school environments is
important: Students do better in caring and
supportive schools that have high expectations
and involve youth
Why does the health sector care
about schools?
Level of education attained impacts lifelong health
and quality of life
Students who do poorly in school are at increased
risk for dropping out, being unemployed, and
engaging in a wide range of unhealthy behaviours
School connectedness protects students from a
wide range of health risks
Schools lay the foundation for future health
behaviours
Background on the “Healthy
Schools” Concept
U.S. Comprehensive School Health Education:
K-12 Health and Physical Education Curriculum
(early 1980’s)
U.S. Comprehensive School Health Program (late
1980’s)
Curriculum
Environment
Services
Comprehensive School Health
[Canadian Association for School Health-CASH,
1988-1990 ]
• A broad spectrum of programs, policies and
activities
• Involves many partners
• Consensus statement on CSH is supported by
20 national organizations
Curriculum
Service
s
Supportive Social
Environment
Healthy Physical
Environment
Global “Healthy Schools”
Movement
Spearheaded by the World Health Organization
www.who.int and search for “School Health”
41 European countries— “European Network of
Health Promoting Schools”
www.euro.who.int/eprise/main/WHO/Progs/ENHPS/Home
UK www.wiredforhealth.gov.uk
Australia www.hlth.qut.edu.au/ph/ahpsa/about
US http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dash/index.htm
Pan-Canadian Joint Consortium on School Health
http://www.csh-ems.ca/downloads/backgrounder_JCSH.pdf
Collaboration is Key
Role of schools—more than knowledge transmission
Can’t be done by education sector alone—requires
partnerships
School health committees—students, parents,
teachers/staff, principals/vice-principals, public health
and other relevant community partners
School health committees may be a sub-committee of
an existing committee (e.g., school council, safe school
committee, student council) or a newly-formed group
Study Participants
Four PHNs and one health promoter from three
southern Ontario health units
Combined experience: 35 school health
committees—18 elementary, 17 secondary
24 of the committees in existence 3-13 years
All study participants had experience working in
schools both with and without school health
committees
How School Health Committees Work
Commit to shared vision of a healthy
school
Conduct “strengths and needs” assessment
Prioritize
Plan action
Implement
Evaluate
Celebrate
Have health issues come up at
your school council meetings?
Example: “School Nutrition” Issue
SUPPORTIVE
SOCIAL
ENVIRONMENT
SERVICES
Access to dietitians
or nutritionists in the
community in case any
students need
assessment and
nutrition counselling
Universal, nonstigmatizing school
breakfast, snack, or
lunch programs & school
policies respecting
diversity
CURRICULUM
Classroom education
on nutrition
Teacher inservices on
curriculum support
resources
HEALTHY
PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
Healthy cafeteria or
tuck shop food
selections
Safe food handling
Example: “Bullying” Issue
SERVICES
School board
social work,
psychology and
guidance services
Public Health services
Mental Health services
SUPPORTIVE
SOCIAL
ENVIRONMENT
School Code of
Conduct and noharassment policies
Playground Peer
Leadership Program
CURRICULUM
Educating teachers,
students, bullies,
victims and parents
(classroom,
workshops, web site
HEALTHY
PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
Responsibility Room
Constructive lunch &
recess activities
Lighting; Supervision
(walkie-talkies)
“Positives” of School Health
Committees
Increased opportunity for a wide range of
health issues to surface
Increased accountability / ownership of health
issues
Increased opportunity for school community
to provide input, esp. students [equal voice]
More public health insight into the issues and
resources of the school
Increased valuing of health by the school
Community building
“Positives”—continued
More comprehensive action (multiple
strategies, multiple issues, multiple target
populations)
More “people power” e.g. ideas, work
Enhanced student leadership development
More outcomes—healthier school environment
Long-term action e.g. policy development,
multi-year action
Expanded number of community partners —
enhanced access to community resources
Perceived “Negatives”
Turf issues
Frequent member turnover
Workload concerns
Lack of support
Contentious issues
Scheduling difficulties
Political climate
Lack of fluency with other sector
Parent Involvement
Some school health committees had parent
members, others didn’t
Parents were less involved with secondary school
health committees
Several committees had a parent as chair/ advisor
Getting school council support is critical—can
influence principal
Parents bring resources that can assist students
with planned activities
Valuable Role for School Councils
Champion the establishment of a school health
committee [health action team/ committee] in your
school
Contribute parent members
Contribute towards shared leadership
Harness resources from parents and community
Seek support for this work from school boards and
provincial ministries
Support student voice and action
“Students have insight into the issue[s].
They’re very much there, they’re in the
schoolyard, they’re in the lunchroom,
they’re at the parties…So they have an
insight that’s particular to what’s
happening in their school, in their
community, into the culture of their peers
and that school.”
“I think they feel empowered, or that
they’re doing something for their
peers,…that what they are saying is
actually being heard, and action is
happening because of what they’re
saying.”
Healthy Active School Communities
(HASC)
in Hastings & Prince Edward Counties
For More Information
Ontario Healthy Schools Coalition
www.opha.on.ca/ohsc
See “Making Health Happen: A Toolkit for
School Councils”
Co-Chairs
Barbara Ronson (416) 304-1258
[email protected]
Carol MacDougall (416) 338-7864
[email protected]