The Regional Directorate for Health started on Wednesday the first of three training courses on school health in a partnership with the Regional Directorate for Education.
According to the Regional Director for Health, Sofia Duarte, this training course aims to provide the health technical teams with the necessary skills to identify potential challenges in schools.
This programme, which aims to promote health and healthy lifestyles, comprises different areas such as nutrition, oral health, physical exercise, prevention of the consumption of legal and illegal substances as well as to manage youth stress in a school context. Therefore, various partnerships will be established with the Regional Directorate for Education, the Regional Directorate for Sport and with the Regional Directorate for Prevention and Combat to the Dependences.
Sofia Duarte assured that the project is very important since a physical examination will be mandatory for all students aged between 5 and 6 as well as for students aged between 11 and 13. This medical appointment intends to assess the physical development of children and youngsters at the level of vision, hearing, oral health, posture and language. The information will be recorded in the Child and Youth Health Card, which integrates a record platform containing all information about the student.
In this context, whenever a situation of neglect or need for special monitoring is detected, the school health team will integrate or refer the student to the competent services.
Sofia Duarte also added that this school health project is integrated in the Regional Health Plan for 2009/2012 and its implementation will be possible since it shares some common goals of the Regional Oral Health, Maternal Health and Family Planning Programmes. This project also focuses on diabetes prevention and fight against obesity.
The Regional Directorate for Education, Fabíola Cardoso, welcomed this partnership, stressing that it is extremely important not only for the health system, but also for the education system as it will allow the diagnose and prevention of risk behaviours at the level of health and help youngsters to achieve healthier lifestyles.