A coordinated school health program is one that is an "organized set of policies, procedures, and activities designed to protect, promote and improve the health and well-being of students and staff, thus improving the students ability to learn." The eight components of this program are health education, physical education, health services, nutrition services, counseling, psychological and social services, healthy school environment, health promotion for staff, and family/community involvement.
There are also three foundations in which a school health program requires in order to be successful. They are, (1)a school administration that supports such an effort, (2)a well organized school health council that is genuinely interested in providing a coordinated program for the students, and (3)written school health policies. One of the most prominent factors is number one. School nurses and teachers play a huge role in the influence of children. Most families nowadays have two working parents so most weeks, the children spend more time with the faculty of the school than with their own parents.
Though the program provides children and adolescents great knowlege for a healthy lifestyle, it also has many barriers to overcome. Lack of support, controversy regarding the curriculum, and violence in schools are to name a few.
Reflection: In discussing this chapter, Fab Five came to a general consensous that this chapter was very interesting. It appealed to a few of us, especially because we are interested in pursuing a position in a school system when we graduate.
We didn't really realize just how many components actually fell into the category of school health. Before reading the chapter, we viewed it as just physical education and health education. We didn't consider the couseling, the nutrition services, or any others, so that really broaded our view.
Something else we talked about was the lack of support for the CSHP. In many schools, it isn't considered as a "core" subject. Professor Swan put a quote up on the overhead recently that indicated that health is the most important knowlege you can get, because without it, no other goals can be met. In reference to that, your knowlege of social studies, english, math, and science aren't going to get you very far in life, if you don't have a healthy leg to stand on. With that being said, it is very important for children to get the right information so that they may lead a healthy lifestyle and encourage their families as well.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Ch #5 Abstract/Reflection
http://fabfive-commhealth.blogspot.com/
The abstract discusses int he first half of this chapter, how a successful community health worker must master the skills to organize a community and to plan a health promotion plan. It briefly talked about how the need for organizing communities has changed from the past to now. It now takes specific skills to organize a community to act together due to changes in the community social structure. the early approaches used consensus and cooperation. In recent years three primary methods have developed 1)local development 2)social planning 3)social action. However old or new, the work and resources of many have much better chance of solving a problem than the work and resources of a few. It presented a generic approach in 10 steps to the process of Community Organizing/Building 1) recognizing the issue 2)gaining entry into the community 3) organizing the people 4)assessing the community 5)determining the priorities and setting goals 6)arriving at a solution and selecting intervention strategies 7)implementing the plan 8)evaluating the outcomes of the plan of action 9)maintaining the outcomes in the community 10)looping back.
This chapter also discusses some models for community organizing/building that have been created by government agencies for specific projects or programs. For example, Healthy cities/Healthy Communities is and initiative of the World Health Organization that provides five-steps:
1. Mobilize key individuals and organizations
2. Assessing community needs, Strengths, and Resources
3. Plan for action
4. Implement the action Plan
5. Track Progress and Outcomes
Another model brought up in the chapter is the Planned Approach to Community Health (PATCH) which was created by the Center for Disease control and Prevention to "strengthen state and local health departments, capacities to plan, implement, and evaluate community-based health promotion activities targeted toward priority health problems" (McKenzie, pg. 130). In addition to this program there is also the Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP). It's approach is to improve health and quality of life through mobilizing partnerships and taking strategic action.
In the second half of this chapter presents the process of health promotion programming. Planning a health promotion is the second necessary skill. Education is an important part of health promotion, however promotion an education do not mean the same thing. It breaks it down into Health Education and Health Promotion. It shows a model that educates the reader of the relationship between these two. Health Education is only one pat of the health promotion. The end of the chapter generalizes the program planning into first (assessing needs), second (setting goals and objectives), third (developing and intervention), fourth (implementing the intervention), fifth (evaluating the results). A very similar set up as the organization of the community.
The reflection of chapter #5 that we want to discuss, was in the paragraph "Need for Organizing Communities". It explained how the need to organize communities has increased. Due to some factors like advances in electronics (digital),, and communication (cell phones, Internet), increased mobility (world-wide travel), which has resulted in a sense of loss in communities. Today it is not uncommon for people to never meet their neighbors. In other cases, people today only see or talk to their neighbors once or twice a year. Due to our need for more independence, we have found ourselves changing the community social structure , ti now takes specific skill to organize a community to act together for the collective good. The early approach to community organization by social worker s used the consensus and cooperating to deal with community problems. In recent years they've been using three primary methods to do this 1)locality development, 2)social planning, 3)social action. Even the newer models are based more on collaborative empowerment and community building. Though which ever the models you use-old-new- the common theme which team #5 thinks we can all agree on is : The work and resources for many have a much better chance of solving a problem than the work and resources of a few.
The abstract discusses int he first half of this chapter, how a successful community health worker must master the skills to organize a community and to plan a health promotion plan. It briefly talked about how the need for organizing communities has changed from the past to now. It now takes specific skills to organize a community to act together due to changes in the community social structure. the early approaches used consensus and cooperation. In recent years three primary methods have developed 1)local development 2)social planning 3)social action. However old or new, the work and resources of many have much better chance of solving a problem than the work and resources of a few. It presented a generic approach in 10 steps to the process of Community Organizing/Building 1) recognizing the issue 2)gaining entry into the community 3) organizing the people 4)assessing the community 5)determining the priorities and setting goals 6)arriving at a solution and selecting intervention strategies 7)implementing the plan 8)evaluating the outcomes of the plan of action 9)maintaining the outcomes in the community 10)looping back.
This chapter also discusses some models for community organizing/building that have been created by government agencies for specific projects or programs. For example, Healthy cities/Healthy Communities is and initiative of the World Health Organization that provides five-steps:
1. Mobilize key individuals and organizations
2. Assessing community needs, Strengths, and Resources
3. Plan for action
4. Implement the action Plan
5. Track Progress and Outcomes
Another model brought up in the chapter is the Planned Approach to Community Health (PATCH) which was created by the Center for Disease control and Prevention to "strengthen state and local health departments, capacities to plan, implement, and evaluate community-based health promotion activities targeted toward priority health problems" (McKenzie, pg. 130). In addition to this program there is also the Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP). It's approach is to improve health and quality of life through mobilizing partnerships and taking strategic action.
In the second half of this chapter presents the process of health promotion programming. Planning a health promotion is the second necessary skill. Education is an important part of health promotion, however promotion an education do not mean the same thing. It breaks it down into Health Education and Health Promotion. It shows a model that educates the reader of the relationship between these two. Health Education is only one pat of the health promotion. The end of the chapter generalizes the program planning into first (assessing needs), second (setting goals and objectives), third (developing and intervention), fourth (implementing the intervention), fifth (evaluating the results). A very similar set up as the organization of the community.
The reflection of chapter #5 that we want to discuss, was in the paragraph "Need for Organizing Communities". It explained how the need to organize communities has increased. Due to some factors like advances in electronics (digital),, and communication (cell phones, Internet), increased mobility (world-wide travel), which has resulted in a sense of loss in communities. Today it is not uncommon for people to never meet their neighbors. In other cases, people today only see or talk to their neighbors once or twice a year. Due to our need for more independence, we have found ourselves changing the community social structure , ti now takes specific skill to organize a community to act together for the collective good. The early approach to community organization by social worker s used the consensus and cooperating to deal with community problems. In recent years they've been using three primary methods to do this 1)locality development, 2)social planning, 3)social action. Even the newer models are based more on collaborative empowerment and community building. Though which ever the models you use-old-new- the common theme which team #5 thinks we can all agree on is : The work and resources for many have a much better chance of solving a problem than the work and resources of a few.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Chapter 3 Epidemiology: The Study of Disease, Injury, and Death in the Community
Chapter 3 discussed epidemiology and the different components of it. A person who studies the trends of disease, injury, and death among a population is called an epidemiologist. The goal of the epidemiologist is to limit the disease, injuries, and deaths in a community by making it so that the outbreaks of epidemics are limited or don't happen at all.
There are many tools epidemiologists use to calculate certain rates, such as: mortality rates, fatality rates, incident, prevalence, attack, age-adjusted, crude, and many more. These help to see where the outbreaks are occurring so that the epidemiologist can go to that particular population and figure out how to keep sickness to a minimal. Epidemiologists also use tools to help analyze disease, such as the US Census, the CDC, and three types of studies: descriptive, analytic, and experimental.
- Descriptive studies describe the extent of outbreaks in regard to person, place, and time.
- Analytic studies test hypotheses regarding associations between diseases and risk factors.
- Experimental studies examine the effects of specific factors under carefully controlled conditions.
After discussing this chapter, Fab Five agreed that the job of an epidemiologist would be very hard, having to deal with so many people, endless causing factors, terminology, and statistics. We all agreed that epidemiology truly can be called "population medicine" because the way doctors see patients, epidemiologists see populations. Overall, we all thought this chapter was an eye-opener because all of our lives we've only had to worry about our health and our families health; however, we now understand the factors that go into studying the diseases of a community and find it fascinating how they are tracked, taken care of, and prevented.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Chapter 4: Epidemiology:Prevention and control of Diseases and health conditions
Chapter Four talked about the differences between communicable diseases which are infectious and concummunicable diseases which are noninfectious, which catorgoize as acute or cronic. The chapter simplifided these differences by using the chain of infection model. It shows the breaking of one or more links in the chain which can interrupt the transmission of a disease. This chapter helped us to understand the differences that there were with the communicable and the noncommunicable diseases, in order for a communicable disease to occur, a host, agent and environment must be present and for a noncommunicable disease are caused by different kinds of things or etiologies, in order to understand this better there is a multicausation model that helps to see what happens. Some of the factors that were listed in the model are, air pollution, economics, environment, health care system, water quality, and the persons own behavioral choices, like smoking or not smoking or exercising regularly. When it comes to actually preventing these diseases there are three different levels, primary, secondary, and tertiary.
As a group we decided that this chapter really helped with understanding how the disesases are broken down and put into different catagories. Before reading the chapter we didnt really realize what epidemiology was and how many different parts there were to it. It was interesting and it's good to know about so that we can figure out ways to prevent these things happening. All the carts and diagrams also helped with understanding the overwhelming parts of the chapter.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Chapter 1
The first chapter of this book introduced many aspects of community health, some of which we had never thought of. Like any good text book, basic definitions were first provided and explained to get the readers on the same track before further exploring community health. Through the chapter health is referred to in many ways. The definition of health varies among people and the context in which it is used. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.” Yet, the definition many of us like to use for health is “that it can exist in varying degrees and is unique to everyone and the situation they may be in.” (McKenzie, pg. 6) The chapter then discussed the many factors that can affect the health of a community. These factors were listed as the physical, social and cultural, community organizations and individual behaviors of people in the community. It also covered the history of community health, from before 500 B.C. up to the twentieth century. In these centuries before us many actions were taken to better the health of people in those communities. Yet, there is still much room for improvement.
After reading the chapter we all agreed that the history of community health was extremely important for us to acknowledge. We discussed the improvements made over the years and how tremendous they were. Yet, we all said there was still more that could be done. Learning such things as the vaccinations against 15 life-threatening diseases, communities trying to provide safer and healthier water and foods, and health care programs becoming available for everyone really showed us that the government and health organizations in the U.S. really do care about our health and well-being. It definitely puts our minds at ease knowing our health is important to many people.
After reading the chapter we all agreed that the history of community health was extremely important for us to acknowledge. We discussed the improvements made over the years and how tremendous they were. Yet, we all said there was still more that could be done. Learning such things as the vaccinations against 15 life-threatening diseases, communities trying to provide safer and healthier water and foods, and health care programs becoming available for everyone really showed us that the government and health organizations in the U.S. really do care about our health and well-being. It definitely puts our minds at ease knowing our health is important to many people.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)