Student Health Teams

What are they and how do they work?
(partial reprint from an article in Literacy Harvest, Fall 2004 by Marcia D. Hohn)_

If your program has received a five-year grant for Participatory Health Education, you are required to have a Student Health Team. Student Health Teams have been a vital part of participatory health education over the last decade and a vehicle for student leadership. Student health teams require time, patience and skill in their development. This is why they receive special grant money for their growth and ongoing support.

In a student health team, groups of five to ten students work with a team facilitator, who is usually a teacher or staff member from the program with a special skill and interest in the participatory process. The health teams also work with teachers, community health organizations, and health practitioners to engage other students in health activities through peer teaching and mutual learning approaches. Health team activities include:

• Researching health information
• Teaching other students about health, often through creative methods such as drama, art, or music
• Making and distributing health brochures
• Developing and conducting health surveys
• Participating in or running health fairs
• Arranging for medical screening services at the program site
• Documenting and taking action on community health issues

In order to join a health team, students who are interested (usually with the encouragement of their teachers) must apply. Applicants are then interviewed and selected by the health team facilitator or the program director. In established teams, experienced members conduct the interviews and select new members. Students join a health team for a variety of reasons. Many are attracted by the stipend of $8 to $13 per hour that team members earn; many also want to practice their English, make friends, involve themselves in something new, and develop their skills (Hohn, 1998). Student health teams meet regularly-usually once a week for several hours-to discuss which health issue they plan to address, to learn about the health issue, and to decide which activities they will use to present the topic, encourage discussion, and disseminate information. During the actual implementation of these activities, team members may work between ten and fifteen hours a week.

Ascertaining and responding to the health information needs and interests of the other students in the program is a fundamental part of the work in which student health teams engage. Teams choose health topics in a variety of ways: some provide a list of possible topics and have students select their top choice, some have classrooms vote on their choice, and some conduct individual surveys. In one program, ten major health topics were posted in the common area and everyone in the program-students and staff-placed a colored dot next to his or her top three choices. This enabled the community to actually witness its vote emerge. Having students select the topics not only promotes ownership over the learning, but also generates intense interest in how the team will address the topic.

Peer Teaching - Once the topic has been selected, some teams opt to teach students directly; others facilitate presentations by local experts. Teams that choose to teach students directly typically spend several months researching the topic. They consult local health care professionals, written materials from community health agencies, and resources from prevention centers. They also search the Internet. The health team facilitator plays a crucial role, assisting the team in the development process and acting as a bridge to community health resources. Once the research is complete, teams devote as much time, and employ as many activities, as necessary to ensure that other students and staff understand the information and can apply it to everyday life. For example, when one team was teaching about depression, they organized a variety of activities, including a drama in which students acted out different levels of depression and treatments, small-group discussions where students could discuss depression as they and their friends and families had experienced it, and follow-up discussions that focused on varying cultural beliefs and attitudes about depression. The team also created and distributed a brochure suggesting places where students could go for help.

When local experts present the topic, health teams generally provide supplemental activities, such as dramas, posters, and small-group discussions. Teams usually work with presenters to ensure they understand the audience they will be addressing. Teams may also provide translations for the presentations.

Whenever possible, teams provide opportunities for students to engage in hands-on, concrete activities, though some topics lend themselves more easily to hands-on learning than others. If the topic is early detection of breast cancer, team members can demonstrate breast self-examination with breast models. If the topic is HIV-AIDS, students can practice putting a condom on a banana. Topics such as unprotected sex, domestic violence, or environmental hazards require a more creative approach. Team members may plan concrete activities, such as role-play, social action theater (evocative dramas where actors stay in character so audience members can ask them questions), small-group discussions and strategy sessions, and visits to community organizations.

Connecting students with community health services is another important function performed by student health teams. Once students understand a health topic, they need to know where they can go to get help or take the next steps. Student health teams might provide written information about community resources or encourage local health service representatives (for instance, a health van) to visit the program.

Health teams do not develop overnight. Using participatory methods, the facilitator must help the team develop and guide the conversations. One student, speaking in a focus group, underlined the importance of the team facilitator's role:

No matter what, we will always be a team because we also became a very unusual family. We had two parent figures [the facilitators] who help us to grow and to become who we are. They were always there to listen and help just like a parent should. Most of us did not have this and I feel the value of this non-judgment atmosphere was a major influencing asset in our growth as individuals and as a team. We had to learn to trust them first, then we were able to trust each other and finally start trusting ourselves.

Enhancing traditional literacy skills is inherent in all health literacy work. Researching community health resources can help students develop their reading, writing, and math skills. Searching the Internet requires students to evaluate the authenticity and reliability of the information they find, presenting another opportunity to develop literacy skills. Drama and role-playing activities not only help students build their oral communication skills but also demonstrate how they can advocate for themselves and their families. Team facilitators can help teachers work with student health teams to build classroom literacy activities around the health topic.

When a Student Health Team works cooperatively with teachers to learn and teach about health, the resulting curriculum is student-centered, multi-faceted, and multi-leveled. The student team learns about the chosen health topic through initial research, but engages in more complex learning through designing interactive classroom presentations, working with teachers, teaching and discussion health with classroom students, and hearing the perspectives of a diverse body of adult students. Teachers learn about the health topic through team presentations in their classrooms and working collaboratively with the student health team to connect the health area to literacy development activities (vocabulary building, reading, writing, speaking and listening activities). Classroom students also learn through the team presentations, listening to one another, and engaging in readings, discussions and writing about the health topic. They also have the benefit of observing peer leaders in action.

RESOURCES FOR YOU!

Interested in reading more about the participatory approach to health and/or student health teams?

Learning for Our Health: A Resource for Participatory Literacy and Health Education by Mary Norton and Pat Campbell (1998). Available in print only.

Empowerment Health Education in Adult Literacy by Marcia Drew Hohn (1997). Available electronically at http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/fellowship/reports/HOHN.HTM