Chapter 6- School Health Programs

Chapter 6- School Health Programs
Chapter six focused on the school health programs. The school health programs are an important part of community health. Schools have a huge affect on each students health. They can either work to improve it or they can disregard the health of the kids and make it worse.
A coordinated school health program is defined as, an organized set of policies, procedures, and activities to protect, promote and improve the health and well being of students and staff, thus improving students a ability to learn. In the majority of the United States school health programs are not well coordinated. In some schools the health teacher will talk about getting proper exercise, but the gym teacher was never told of what the proper exercise is needed for the students. So the students are told what they need to do, but do not get the best teaching they could have got if the health teacher and the physical education teacher were communicating on what was best for the kids. When people work and plan together to implement a school health program they are referred to as school health council. The primary role of the council is to provide coordination of the various components of the CSHP to help students reach and maintain a healthy lifestyle. An interesting fact that shows how big of an impact teachers and faculty really do have over the students is, “teachers spend more waking hours with school aged children than the parents do in most cases.” The health of children and their learning are reciprocally related. One cannot exist without the other. If a student is not healthy, he is going to suffer in the class room. He could also possibly distract other kids from getting the most they could have out of their own education.
A foundation is needed for any school health program. Any good foundation has a school administrator who supports such an effort. A well organized health council that is truly interested in providing a coordinated program for the kids. Written school health policies are also very important. A highly supportive administrator is a must. They are the people who have the connections and can get what is needed. School health policies are written statements that provide a framework to guide all those who work within the program. Well written policies provide a sense of direction for everyone involved. The responsibility of coordinating each program in a district lies on the shoulders of the school health coordinator. The school health coordinator would be a well trained school nurse or a health educator. One half of the states in the United States have school districts who employ school health coordinator, but there are only a few that require it. School health services are those health services provided for students to appraise, protect, and promote health. School health education has been defined as the planned sequential K-12 curriculum that address the physical, mental, emotional, and social dimensions of health. It is designed to motivate and assist students to maintain and improve their health.
　
There are many factors that go into making a good well run school health program. I feel it is often overlooked how much work is really put in and required to have good program in place. It is very important that everyone involved is on the same page. They all need to be communicating, sharing ideas with each other so no one is left out of the loop. That is essential because a team effort is needed to get the kids to live healthy lifestyles. If the health teacher has a great way for the children to stay fit, he has to also share that with the physical education teacher so he can implement that in his class. I was shocked to read that teachers often times spend more waking hours with the kids than do the parents. That fact really proves why there needs to be a well run program in place for the students to benefit from. Also the teachers are going to have to step forward and be role models for the kids. A lot of the time kids look up to what older people are doing and will follow their lead to having a healthy lifestyle. I was surprised to see that most states do not require a school health educator. That is very important that schools have one. Who can teach a kid how to be healthy better than a health expert? Even though they are not required in a lot of states it was good to see many states do have them in place. Hopefully they become required soon and they can continue to make a difference.