Todays Children Tomorrows Leaders

1
Integrating Health Education into the Family
Partnership Process
Allison Hertel, T/TA Health Specialist Louise
Gill, T/TA Family and Community Partnership
Specialist Region 10 and Alaska Native T/TA
Resource Team .
Todays Children Tomorrows Leaders 2nd
National Head Start Hispanic Institute February
27 March 3, 2006 Denver, Colorado
2
Learning Objectives

• Explore culturally appropriate methods to
  communicate with families about healthy choices
  that will foster their childs healthy growth and
  development.
• Recognize approaches to integrate health
  education into the family partnership process.
• Identify mechanisms to encourage families to
  embrace healthy behaviors through the family
  partnership process.

3
Health Beliefs and Practices - Influences

• Culture
• Race and Ethnicity
• Experiences
• Faith and Religion
• Social Relations
• Economic Factors
• Environmental Factors

4
Culture is

• Social heritage, or tradition that is passed on
  to future generations
• Shared, learned human behavior, a way of life
• Ideas, values, or rules for living
• The way humans solve problems of adapting to the
  environment or living together
• A complex set of ideas, or learned habits, that
  inhibit impulses and distinguish people from
  animals
• Consists of patterned or interrelated ideas,
  symbols or behaviors
• Based on arbitrarily assigned meanings that are
  shared by society
• - Bodley, J.H. Cultural Anthropology
  Tribes, States, and the Global System, 1994.

5

• HEALTH PROMOTION is the science and art of
  helping people change their lifestyle to move
  toward a state of optimal health.
• - American Journal of Health Promotion, 1989,
  3, 3, 5

6
Defining Health Promotion

• Acts as an essential element of healthy
  development.
• Enables people to increase control over and to
  improve their health.
• Acts on the determinants of health to create the
  greatest gain for people.
• Contributes to the reduction of inequities in
  health.
• Ensures human rights.
• Increases life expectancy.
• Narrows the gap in health expectancy between
  countries and groups.
• - Jakarta
  Declaration, 4th International Conference on
  Health Promotion

7

• HEALTH EDUCATION is a process that assists
  individuals, small groups and large populations
  to identify health needs and priorities, obtain
  information and resources needed to meet those
  needs, and mobilize action aimed at achieving
  desired change.
• It focuses on creating an environment in which
  there are strong individual and structural
  supports for informed and voluntary
  decision-making about personal health and
  community well being.
• - American Journal of Health Promotion, 1989,
  3, 3, 5

8
Defining Health Education

• Acts as an essential element of healthy
  development.
• Assists groups and individuals in identifying
  health needs and priorities.
• Provides learning experiences designed to
  facilitate voluntary actions conducive to health.
• Enables people to gain control over determinants
  of health and health behaviors, and the
  conditions that affect their health status and
  the health status of others.
• Provides information and resources needed to meet
  the health needs and achieve desired change.

9
The Balance of Optimal Health

• PHYSICAL Fitness. Nutrition. Medical self-care.
  Control of substance abuse.
• EMOTIONAL Care for emotional crises. Stress
  management.
• SOCIAL Communities. Families. Friends.
• INTELLECTUAL Educational. Achievement. Career
  Development.
• SPIRITUAL Love. Hope. Charity.

10
Healthy Growth and Development

• Prenatal
• Infants and Toddlers
• Children
• Adults
• Families
• Communities

11
Health and Head Start

• School readiness
• Positive life outcomes
• Lifelong learning
• Healthy choices and attitudes
• Adopting healthy behaviors

12
Head Start Performance Standards

• 1304.21 (c)(1)(iii) Education and Early Childhood
  Development. Grantee and delegate agencies, in
  collaboration with parents, must implement a
  curriculum that integrates all educational
  aspects of the health, nutrition, and mental
  health services into program activities.
• 1304.40 (a)(1-2) Family Partnerships. Grantee and
  delegate agencies must engage in a process of
  collaborative partnership-building with parents
  to establish mutual trust and to identify family
  goals, strengths, and necessary services and
  other supports. As part of this process, grantee
  and delegate agencies must offer parents
  opportunities to develop and implement
  individualized family partnership agreements that
  describe family goals, responsibilities,
  timetables and strategies for achieving these
  goals as well as progress in achieving them.

13
Health and School Readiness

• Asthma
• Nutrition
• Lead levels
• Social and emotional development
• Oral health
• Chronic and acute illnesses

14
Health and Culture

• Morbidity
• Mortality
• Acute and Chronic Illnesses
• Access to Health Care
• Health Status of Individuals and Cultures

15
Natural Integration of Health into Family
Services - Program Impacts

• Implementing effective and efficient health
  services
• Identifying program wide health needs and goals
  based on Community Assessment and family needs
• Recognizing importance of health status in school
  readiness
• Communicating healthy behaviors and education
  throughout the program
• Providing opportunities to adopt healthy
  behaviors
• Encouraging staff, families and children to
  embrace healthy behaviors
• Identifying culturally appropriate strategies
• Increasing awareness and understanding on a
  program wide basis
• Using the family partnership process as a way to
  integrate health

16
Natural Integration of Health into Family
Services - Child and Family Impacts

• Meeting the family where they are at based on
  unique circumstances
• Individualizing health promotion and education
  strategies to the unique needs, skills and
  abilities of families
• Encouraging families and children to embrace
  healthy behaviors
• Recognizing parents as the primary caregiver
• Adopting culturally competent strategies
• Helping families identify positive desired health
  behaviors and outcomes
• Transferring needs into goals
• Promoting positive lifelong health outcomes for
  the entire family

17
Family Partnership Process

• Collaborative partnership building
• Identify family goals, strengths, and necessary
  services and other supports
• Offer parents opportunities to develop and
  implement individualized family partnership
  agreements
• Describe family goals, responsibilities,
  timetables
• Describe strategies for achieving these goals as
  well as progress in achieving them

18
Parent Involvement and Empowerment

• Personal touch
• Non-judgmental communication
• Perseverance in maintaining involvement
• Bilingual support
• Strong leadership and administrative support
• Staff development focused on Hispanic culture
• Espinosa, L. (1995). Hispanic parent involvement
  in early childhood programs. Champlain, IL ERIC
  Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood
  Education.

19
Personal Touch

• Face to Face Communication
• Home Visits

20
Non-Judgmental Communication

• Support the parents strengths
• Gain trust and confidence from the parents

21
Perseverance in Maintaining Involvement

• Activities must respond to a real need or concern
  of parents

22
Bilingual Support

• Provide all written information in Spanish and
  English
• Have bicultural and bilingual staff to promote
  trust

23
Strong Leadership and Administrative Support

• Teachers/Family Advocates, alone, cannot bring
  success to parent involvement projects
• Administrators must be committed to parent
  involvement projects

24
Staff Development Focusing on Hispanic Culture

• Staff has the obligation to learn as much about
  each childs culture.
• What is the impact of culture on the students
  behavior and learning style?

25
Bringing Health into the Family Partnership
Process

• Family involvement in health status
• Using health promotion and education
• Integration of systems and services
• Individualization for each family

26
Identification of Potential Health Goals

• Understanding families perspective on health
• Respecting individual health beliefs
• Discussing experiences and beliefs
• Encouraging healthy behaviors and choices
• Supporting behavior changes
• Promoting healthy options and ideas

27
Questions to ask families

• What are you trying to accomplish? What type of
  improvement is desired?
• How will you know that a change is an
  improvement?
• What changes can you make that will result in
  improvement?
• How will other family members and HS/EHS staff
  support these goals?

28
Identifying Health Related Goals Activity

• Discussion
• Potential Goals
• Partnership and Communication Strategies
• Sharing

29
Closing Thoughts and Questions
30
Speaker Information
Allison Hertel, MPA, CHES Training and Technical
Assistance Health Specialist Region 10 and Alaska
Native Head Start 206.615.3672,
ahertel_at_acf.hhs.gov Louise Gill Training and
Technical Assistance Family and Community
Partnership Specialist Region 10 and Alaska
Native Head Start 206.615.3647, lgill_at_acf.hhs.gov