Session Information
08 SES 10, Health Promoting Schools in Action
Paper Session
Contribution
Against the backdrop that the prevalence of overweight and obesity has reached an extremely high level and the numbers of mental disorders in childhood and adolescence are higher than ever, the demand for effective health promotion interventions is increasing. "A high level of participation and association contributes to the effectiveness and sustainability of settings oriented measures" (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2003). To empower children and young people to consciously shape their health behavior and to involve them actively, seems to be a promising approach to implement health promotion effectively and sustainably.
"In the sense of the Ottawa Charter (WHO, 1986), these measures shall empower citizens to recognize positive and negative effects on their well-being and their state of health and to effect appropriate improvement (empowerment). Measures of this kind cannot be imposed "top down", but are necessarily locally situated and determined by the interests of local people (community-driven), so that their participation in the design and the execution of the measures is maximized" (Greenwood et al., 1993; Minkler & Wallerstein, 2003 cited by Wright et al. 2009).
Therefore it seems indicated to create health-promoting interventions in a participatory manner, so that they are accepted by the target group and integrated into their daily lives. In Germany, participatory approaches and peer-to-peer education are already implemented in concepts of health promotion, but rarely in school settings (Quilling et al. 2014). However, in particular the school context offers the best opportunities to implement health-promoting interventions comprehensively, and to reach students - in the sense of a universal prevention.
In the context of the intervention described in this paper we will refer to the definition of “participation” of Wright, who describes participation not only as “being part of”, but also as “having an active role in” decision-making (decision-making power). According to Wright this includes the ability to (co-)determine the health problem, at which the health-promoting and preventive measures aim. The higher the degree of influence of the individual on decision-making processes, the higher will be his or her participation (Wright et al. 2008). This definition is based on the central demand of the Ottawa Charter: to implement self-determination of citizens as the core of health promotion.
Compared to the Anglo-American and Scandinavian region, participatory research approaches are far less common in Germany, although the need for participatory processes could be detected in different contexts of effectiveness and acceptance in health promotion (Wright, Block & Unger 2009).
The various settings such as school and neighborhood offer great opportunities for health-promoting and preventive measures, in which children and young people can be enabled to grow up healthily in their living environment - if one succeeds in involving them as the target group and achieving empowerment on their part.
A project in the setting school must therefore adapt to the peculiarities of each school. The aim of the project "Participatory health education" (2015) was to enable students and teachers to work together in so-called “Participation Teams” (B-Teams) in the future. Those teams were built to establish the topics of health education and promotion in their schools in a sustainable and quality-controlled manner. As trained multipliers the members of the B-Teams are to build new participation structures for health promotion in their schools or further develop existing approaches. Through the collective development of the setting school in relation to health, the teamwork was supposed to foster responsible and health-conscious behavior.
In the training units, skills such as aspects of project management, communication, self-evaluation and options of participation in the school setting were acquired. Cross-cutting theme of the training units was the issue of health education.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Quilling, E. Prof. Dr. phil. Eike Quilling (graduate degree in education) is a junior professor of network and intervention management in lifestyle research and head of the Department of Movement Education and Intervention Management at the German Sport University Cologne. Her primary research interest is on network structures in movement and health promotion. Particularly with regard to health promotion in different settings she focuses on structures of prevention from the early childhood up to families and social areas. Müller, M. Merle Müller studied educational science (diploma) at the University of Hamburg and finished her study in 2010 at the Münster University with focus on young and adult education. With her minor subjects sociology, psychology, sport and human movement science she already chose the perspective of a holistic health promotion. According to her study she worked at the Münster University as well as for various companies in the field of training providers, where she was responsible for training conceptions, organization and quality management. Since 2013 she is working at the German Sport University Cologne at the Institute of Movement and Neurosciences in the department Movement Education and Intervention Management. She is currently doing her doctoral studies on the subject of prevention networks.
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