Health & Wellbeing in Integrated Learning Communities

This Saturday, there’s the first of what might (hopefully) become an annual event. Here’s the official press release..

Health and wellbeing issues affecting young people now and in the future are to be discussed and debated by The Highland Council’s Youth Voice members and senior figures in the NHS and Highland Council at a specially created one off event.

The Highland Youth Voice Health Campaign Group are involved in shaping services in Highland for Young People and have fought to raise awareness of Young People’s views. The debate on Saturday 25 April in Inverness will enable the dedicated Youth Voice members to hear from the Director and policy makers in the NHS and council on what is being done in Highland to improve health and wellbeing. The day is the brainchild of Eric Baijal, Director of Public Health who wanted to encourage dialogue with and between young people to hear the key issues. The day itself was devised in consultation with the Youth Convener and the Chair of the Health Campaign Group, Brianella Scott.

Eric Baijal said:  “This exciting event will be an opportunity for young people to celebrate how they have collaborated to improve their own health and debate how they improve their health even more in the future.”

The day has been designed to be an opportunity to get the heart of what matters to young people and also suggest improvements for the future. It will be a balance of fun and serious discussion with BBC TV comedian Austin Low – ‘The Urban Joker’ kicking off the proceedings with a performance looking on the funnier side of health and wellbeing issues.

Catriona Burns, Youth Convener said: “This event will be a really great opportunity for young people to tell senior figures in NHS Highland what they think about the “Making Highland Healthy” report, the health services they currently receive and how they could change in years to come. Highland Youth Voice has always found health to be one of the biggest issues for young people in the Highlands, as it can have such a massive impact on their life chances and futures. Today should spark some great debate about the current state of our young people’s health, and the changes that can be made in the future.”

Keith Walker, Health Improvement Policy Officer with The Highland Council stated:   “I’m looking forward to engaging with the young people of the Highlands about health and wellbeing issues. A great many of the Highland Council’s services have the capacity to impact on the health and wellbeing of young people and this opportunity to engage in discussion about the issues which matter most will give us important input our focus on health improvement.”

There is going to be a panel of young people / health reps after all the presentations and there will be of course (you all know me!) a live back channel for tweeting. I’ve also got a specially set up mobile phone number so those can text questions anonymously in, I can then post them up for all to see on the big back channel screen. I haven’t decided on a hashtag yet, but if you’re about on saturday afternoon, feel free to tweet us a question! (@goodonskis)

This clever game brought to you by The Scientific Lab allows multi-players to think about the postive and negative outcomes of a future world. I’ve often tried to think about what skills young people will need to develop in terms of Health and Wellbeing for the future and a game like this could be a really cool way to stimulate this very kind of discussion. Could be a great active learning tool for several subjects within Curriculum for Excellence.

In 2019, we live in superstructed realities, where physical life and digital life can merge together any way you choose.

Everyone is a media channel, and every body is a data stream. Every physical thing can be programmed for interaction, and every living thing can join your social network. Everything is rehearsed and relived. Every place is both physical and virtual.

Life is a customized version of what you want to see, who you want to be, and what you want to know.

After watching the video you can think about different aspects of the future world and play them like cards. Other players can contribute to your thinking by adding or enhancing your thoughts or by challenging your ideas. You can earn points and there is a leaderboard, but personally I just like to see the thinking and collaboration of others. Thanks to Drew Buddie for tweeting this.