Health & Wellbeing in Integrated Learning Communities

Yay! The results of the long awaited survey commisioned by NHS Health Scotland are out! It’s true, young people in Scotland are happier than ever before, hopefully this survey will go along away to dispel the notion that Scotland is a nation of people that have a ‘half-empty glass’ syndrome.

I know it’s difficult to pin point any single contributory factor but I have to admit I think that how school communities have embraced Health Promoting Schools, Active Schools and Hungry for Success must have played a part. ‘Health and Wellbeing’ being a core feature of Curriculum for Excellence can only be seen as a great next step.

The full report released today can be found here. The HBSC survey is carried out in schools across Scotland every 4 years. “Pupils in selected P7, S2 and S4 classes complete the questionnaire anonymously, under exam conditions to ensure confidentiality. The survey is designed to be nationally representative and produce prevalence estimates of a range of health behaviours for young people in Scotland”. NHS Health Scotland (2008)

I’m looking forward to seeing the results of our own survey in Highland which has been designed to be a learning process as well as providing local lifestyle data.

My only reservation is that sometimes surveys such as this can be a little two dimensional, when you look a little deeper how much has really changed for groups of young people who fall into our most vunerable categories? We still need to ensure health inequalities are reduced in every practice. Further sustained efforts ensuring all young people can participate fully in education is the only way ahead.

However, this is good news and I for one am so pleased it has been reported so well today. I think everyone involved in school communities in Scotland should be very pleased today.

Pic, a P4 pupil’s evaluation of a Health and Wellbeing session in Highland. (2005)

Growing up as a child of the seventies, I have to admit I have a few early memories that probably age me somewhat. I recall at at early age being drawn to one great read, more commonly found at my Nans house but the other place was at the doctors surgery waiting room table.

The ‘Reader’s Digest’ had two great sections, probably the only ones digestable by a 10 year old. One was ‘It pays to enrich your word power’ and the other was ‘Laughter is the best medicine!’

‘It pays to enrich your word power’ was a quiz testing you on different meanings of words. I thought about how language has evolved when I came across the great website Urban Dictionary a couple of weeks ago. This is a great resource bringing new words and phrases to life. It also has a handy ‘word of the day’ (warning  - some can be a bit rude) RSS feed and can email you a new word everyday, how fantastic! I must admit I really enjoy opening my inbox everyday and am eager to see a new word for the day. Here’s my favourite 3 new words sent to me over the last couple of weeks.

‘moneymoon’
The time after your purchase of a good or service and before ‘buyer’s remorse’ happens.
The moneymoon is over, I realize now that buying that boat was a waste of money.

’slacktivism’

The act of participating in obviously pointless activities as an expedient alternative to actually expending effort to fix a problem.

Signing an email petition to stop rampant crime is slacktivism. Want to really make your community safer? Get off your ass and start a neighborhood watch!

And finally..

‘twitterpated’

1)to be completely enamored with someone/something.
2) the flighty exciting feeling you get when you think about/see the object of your affection.
3) romantically excited (i.e.: aroused)
4) the ever increasing acceleration of heartbeat and body temperature as a result of being engulfed amidst the exhilaration and joy of being/having a romantic entity in someone’s life.

When he smiled at her, the rush of warm, fuzzy, excited sensations that filled her made her realize she was completely twitterpated with this man.

This last one brings a new sense of meaning to ‘Twitter’! Moneymoon, just reminds me so much of the In The Wild event at SLF last year when Carol Craig talked about what truly makes us happy..short term retail therapy isn’t it..it’s the wider sense of belonging to something bigger that makes us have a sense of wellbeing. And, Slactivism, I’m sure we all know someone guilty of that!

The second part of this post is dedicated to laughter the best medicine, I was at a great networking event in Argyll and Bute last week, celebrating the work of schools in the area dedicated to putting health and the heart of learning, the key outcome amongst all the others was to ‘have fun’. There was plenty of laughs all round.

Here’s a little something I’ve found on the internet to remind you how important it is to have a laugh along the way. Enjoy!

Pic - Coulhill Primary School, Healthy Highland Week 2007