The AIMHI Healthy Community Schools initiative is a pilot programme funded by the Ministry of Education to support the development of full service facilities in AIMHI schools.
Full service education involves:
Co-locating a range of services, more usually accessed in the schools’ local communities, on site at the schools
Strongly connecting community aspirations and goals with those of the schools to maximise the potential for interventions to respond to student needs within and beyond school
The goals of the pilot are to:
Improve educational outcomes by increasing effective learning time, since teachers will not be unduly distracted by health or well-being issues of students, and students will face fewer barriers to learning
Improve health and social services outcomes for students
More strongly connect schools with the interests and aspirations of their communities
TARGET PERFORMANCES
Develop and maintain an on-site health service by specialist staff (Primary Health Care Organisation assistance also negotiated)
Provide an on-site social work service through social workers or community liaison officers
Develop and maintain a coordinated student support service
Maintain Keeping Our School Safe and Nutrition, Exercise and Weight programmes
Maintain specialist property facilities
Work collaboratively with Uniservices researchers
Free up “teachers to teach”
Establish links/evidence of the pilot leading to improved student achievement
Auckland University's evaluation of the programme can be found under Resources/Healthy Community Schools Project
The Healthy Community Schools Initiative in 2004
THE FULL SERVICE SCHOOLS INITIATIVE
In 2001, the Minister of Education, Honourable Trevor Mallard announced the introduction of the Full Service Schools initiative piloted in the AIMHI schools. The initiative targets issues such as social and health needs and gives the Ministry of Education, AIMHI schools, and health services an opportunity to work in partnership and consult students and parents. It also demonstrates that significant student needs can be addressed by a wide range of agencies working co-operatively and in a co-ordinated manner, increasing synergy and improving outcomes relating to health, education and well being for both the students and the community.
With effective co-ordination of health, education and social services we are able to improve the level of care received by individual students and ensure that they access a range of school developed initiatives, which will result in improved health and educational achievement.
The implementation of the project has included the following initiatives
Social worker or community worker. Each school has an on-site social worker / community worker, appointed based on the school’s identification of needs. The AIMHI consortium has supported these appointments further by offering co-ordinated supervision, training, professional development and collaborative support.
Consultation. Consultation has occurred with the Principals, two thousand students and over three hundred parents, teachers and Board members. Feedback from the consultation clearly identified specific needs that can be addressed by working co-operatively.
AIMHI in conjunction with YIP held a two day conference on good practice in schools and keeping schools safe.
Prioritisation. The prioritisation process for the AIMHI schools involving parents, Pacific groups, Maori groups, and young people identified the top ten needs for students, parents and staff members.
Service delivery model. A model of service delivery has been developed that addresses the needs of the community, schools, students, Maori and Pacific peoples and is effective within the school environment.
Stock-take of services. In order to identify gaps, a complete stock-take and assessment of all health, welfare and social services operating within the community was undertaken
Gap analysis. A gap analysis was completed for the AIMHI schools in order to identify health, welfare and social services and to identify what is currently working well for the community (from a strengths-based approach). The gap analysis identified several priority areas as well as services that were working well.
Three of the AIMHI schools who have completed most of their Year 9 assessments (464 students received a comprehensive assessment) last year identified the following needs:
• 45% of the students needed referrals to other healthcare- including PHOs, sexual health, mental health, drug and alcohol and dental health services.
• 29% of the students required referrals to social services- including counsellor, social workers and CYFs
• 13% of the students failed the vision tests- 50% of the students in one school did not know that they had visual problems.
• 12% of the students had hearing difficulties- requiring referral to hearing clinics
• 27% of the students assessed in two of the schools had BMIs of over 30 (considered obese)- 6 were outside the range.
Needs Assessment. A comprehensive Needs Assessment was completed providing information on the issues identified from the consultation. This included the compilation of statistical information, which supports the implementation.
Co-operation with the Youth Interagency Project (YIP): Consultation, the stock take of services and Needs Assessment were conducted in conjunction with YIP.
Ongoing assessment. In order to identify and address the ongoing health, welfare and social needs of the AIMHI schools’ student populations, a needs-based assessment within a strengths-based framework was required. This ongoing assessment is undertaken in all the AIMHI schools. This identifies issues concerning smoking, personal fitness, mental health, suicide issues, oral health, interpersonal relationships and violence and the interface with primary care and other health services. The development of the Assessment Tool was undertaken in collaboration with a range of other sectors and initiatives. All the information is held on a confidential database and is used to inform health and education planning. .
A co-operative response from the AIMHI schools regarding nutrition, exercise, and weight. The AIMHI schools are working in cooperation with a range of public health providers to develop a strategic school response to issues of nutrition, exercise and weight. This initiative is being developed in consultation with Public Health (Ottawa Charter). The schools are working with Public Health, the Diabetes Project Trust, Counties Manukau Sport, Dieticians, Nutritionists, the Heart Foundation, Pacific Heartbeat and Health Promoting Schools. Central to this initiative is the participation of students in the development of school policies on healthy tuckshops and addressing the issue of nutrition in the school environment.
Successful models for keeping schools safe. AIMHI schools and YIP held a forum/seminar day in order to explore critical success factors of effective and successful models, reviewing what schools are doing successfully and effectively regarding the prevention of all forms of abuse including violence, racism, and sexism.
Inter-sectoral collaboration. We aim to ensure that health, welfare and social services operating both within the AIMHI schools and the community are delivering services based on:
• a commitment to identifying and meeting the needs of the students
• the development of services where deprivation is at its greatest
• a balance between preventative and population- based services.
Through the development of partnerships with other sectors and agencies we aim to improve the health of both the students and their communities. Through interagency collaboration it is envisaged that sectors will co-ordinate and collaborate in terms of service provision to the AIMHI schools and develop a process for service shifts to support AIMHI schools.
Consultation with young people
A follow-up survey has been completed in several schools. The remaining schools will complete their surveys in 2004. The surveys have supported the health centres and the assessments. Individual schools will receive their information back and there will be collated information for AIMHI. The feedback from these surveys clearly demonstrated the impact the initiative is having on the students’ access to health services and improved health and educational outcomes.
SOUTH AUCKLAND SOCIAL WORKERS
With an array of experience behind them, the social workers in South Auckland schools are doing significant and valuable work for the students and their communities. Social workers run a variety of initiatives ranging from school councils to mentoring schemes and a successful referral system. For Amosa Sipili his “role here is to be proactive for families and students to achieve their academic goals.” At De La Salle College, Andrew Ulugiaa has been “facilitating group work for student groups such as the student councils” to allow students a voice.
All of the resident social workers have created strong links between their schools and outside agencies such as the Manukau Youth Centre and CYFS. As Barbara Te Kare, Tamaki College explains these links are important because, “As a decile one school, the majority of the problems are historical and generational.” These may involve criminal offending, unemployment, violence and low self esteem. In an effort to break these cycles, Andrew Ulugiaa has established a referral system aiming to prevent self harm. One student self- referred after admitting to an anger problem, evidence that the programme is going well.
Most of the social workers have been in the schools since 2002, and all have previous experience in the health sector as social workers and counsellors, There is no doubt that these on-site professionals are making a significant difference in the lives of South Auckland students and their families.
Healthy Community Schools Resources
Resources for establishing and managing healthy community schools can be found under "Resources". Search by subject "Healthy Community Schools Project"
