St. Mary's Academy
New health services program taking shape in Sherbrooke
SHERBROOKE - Students at St. Mary's Academy are helping to shape the way in which they access health and well-being support services at school. A student group called H.A.L.T. (Healthy Active Lifestyle Team) is working with school administration and various service providers in St. Mary's to meet the needs of students.
While some schools within the Strait Regional School Board have established youth health centres, the St. Mary's model of delivering these kinds of support services to students is a little different.
"I don't think we'll ever have a system like they have in Guysborough," says principal Jimmy Keay, referring to the health centre at Guysborough Academy. He calls the St. Mary's model a health education plan, or a "virtual health centre", meaning there isn't really a physical centre. Instead, students are being given access to health services by visiting professionals, as well as access to health information at any time.
Keay says one aspect of the physical health centre model he's uncomfortable with relates to security issues, because these centres are accessible to anyone age 21 and under, not just students. He stresses that different models of providing students with access to services - such as Public Health, Mental Health and the RCMP - suit different school communities.
"We've come a long way this year," says Keay. The developing program is new to St. Mary's Academy this year, as is Keay himself. In the past, discussion of a possible health centre at the academy proved controversial. Keay says he's not encountering that kind of opposition this time.
Currently St. Mary's students have access to a public health nurse on site once a week, RCMP one afternoon a week and visits from Mental Health Services.
The student group developed and circulated a survey to students before Christmas, asking students what kinds of health and well-being issues they face. Although the results of the survey are still being analyzed, Keay says they show that "our students do have issues they're dealing with. For example, bullying has shown up as a problem in the survey."
In addition to arranging regular visits by professionals, the school provides information on bulletin boards that would allow students to contact services at any time.
The bottom line, says Keay, is to make sure St. Mary's students are healthy.
Health services being delivered to St. Mary's students will certainly grow in the future, but for now public health nurse Christina Williams is making a big impact with her regular Monday visits to the school. In addition to meeting with individual students who make appointments with her, Williams meets with the H.A.L.T. group and helps them develop their plans for health service delivery to students. Her work reflects a change in the way Public Health in Nova Scotia sees its role in meeting the needs of youth.
"Basically what's happening in Public Health is a general shift in working with schools," says Williams. In the past, Public Health worked with schools for very specific purposes, such as dealing with an outbreak of lice or conducting immunizations. Now they're actively pursuing a greater presence at schools.
The next step in developing the program for delivery of health services at St. Mary's involves H.A.L.T. breaking into working groups to analyze the survey results and to brainstorm about how to address the needs students have identified.
