Final Report Summary - PROMHEAL (Promoting health among adolescents in rural areas of Ukraine: training programme for teachers)
The main objective of the project PROMHEAL was to train teachers to deliver the multiple component programme of health promotion interventions for children and adolescents aged 10-15 residing in rural areas of 7 oblasts of Ukraine. These oblasts named the Kyiv, Summi, Chernigov, Zhitomir, Cherkassi, Kirovograd and Khmelnitsk oblasts, constitute more than 1/4 of all administrative units of the country. The population of rural dwellers in these oblasts amounts to more than a quarter of all the rural population of Ukraine.
The multiple component health promotion programme that teachers were trained to use in their schools is theory- and evidence-based. Developed and successfully pioneered in one of the Ukrainian rural regions (2000 - 2004), the effective programme addresses the health needs of schoolchildren and takes account of socio-cognitive and environmental factors that affect health related behaviours. It prevents and / or considerably decreases health risk related behaviours prevalent amongst the target group and brings about a significant positive change in factors related to health risk related behaviours. Ultimately, the programme empowers children and adolescents, and increases the potential for gain in their health status by assisting them in developing control over their health. It is designed not only for children but also for their parents. As schools are the most important institutions in rural areas of Ukraine to promote health, multiple component health interventions delivered by teachers can reach a large number of children and adolescents. To train teachers to deliver health interventions, a training programme was developed. It is divided into three main sessions. During introductory sessions teachers are taught the main theoretical and research approaches underlying the health promotion programme and also its background. Mid-sessions are the training sessions for learning and practising the delivery of multiple component health promotion interventions. Apart from lectures and discussions, teachers are trained to conduct social skills training sessions for schoolchildren and smoking cessation sessions for adolescent smokers and intervention sessions for parents. At the final stage of the programme, teachers share and discuss their experiences of participating in the training course. The training programme was implemented at seminars and workshops which were attended by teachers from 221 big (1 000 pupils +) and small (100 pupils +) rural schools in 7 Oblasts of Ukraine. At the end of each series of workshops and seminars, the effectiveness of the workshops and seminars and the readiness and confidence of teachers to use interventions in their schools were tested with the use of a specially designed evaluation questionnaire.
All teachers who participated in seminars and workshops rated the training programme as a whole and also its elements highly and very highly. The teachers assigned the highest score to the usefulness of the programme in their work with schoolchildren. The innovation approach, that combined theoretical knowledge and interactive games and exercises that were designed to help the teachers to engage children and adolescents, was liked most. Having completed the training programme, the teachers felt ready to use their new knowledge and skills when working with their pupils and predicted a very positive outcome of their efforts. 100 % of all teachers would recommend this programme for further implementation in rural areas of Ukraine.
Disseminating knowledge and the project results is one of the main activities of PROMHEAL. The PROMHEAL website was designed in three languages (English, Ukrainian and Russian), set up and launched at the very start of the project and can now be accessed at http://www.promheal.org. The PROMHEAL website is the project's main dissemination tool which allows the consortium to promote this initiative not only among teachers and health practitioners but also among wider populations interested in the respective issues. The website also serves as one of the channels of communicating with all stakeholders and a platform for the PROMHEAL rural school network.
After the workshops and seminars for teachers, 50 000 copies of the brochure printed in Ukrainian were disseminated in the rural schools that sent their teachers for training. The brochures were also posted to organisations around Ukraine that had sent their requests for a copy. The contents of the brochure and its circulation size were referred to as one of the achievements of PROMHEAL at the round-table held in September 2007 in Kyiv. In the words of one of the participants, 'there is always a problem of getting health promotion materials for rural schools but this project not only provided us with the materials that were designed for rural schoolchildren, it also satisfied our demand for the number of the brochures'.
In order to raise awareness of and win wider support for the project and its aims, meetings with national and local education authorities including senior civil servants from the Ministry of Education and Science and other agencies that deal with adolescents' health and other related issues were held. As a result, PROMHEAL received overall support for its initiative and support and assistance were provide in organising and coordinating seminars and workshop for teachers in the respective oblasts. Seminars similar to the seminars for teachers were conducted for all interested parties to disseminate the health promotion programme for schoolchildren. Altogether five seminars were run for different audiences during the whole lifetime of the project, in which 128 teachers, school psychologists, social workers and educational specialists from various regions of Ukraine took part.
Various media at national and local levels was involved in raising awareness of, and disseminating the results of, the project. In the Cherkassy Oblast, the Cherkassy regional TV station filmed the seminars for teachers and interviewed the trainers for the TV programme 'The schools time'. The Cherkassy regional newspaper, 'The Cherkassy's News', published an interview with trainers about the seminars and health promotion issues. In the Kirovograd Oblast, the local newspaper published an article about the seminars. In the Kyiv Oblast, the Kyiv regional newspaper 'Copeika', published an article about the seminars and raised the issue of healthy lifestyles in rural areas of Ukraine. The Kyiv regional TV station interviewed the trainers for the Kyiv regional news programme. The project consortium held a press conference in Kyiv about the project and its results. 10 journalists from national newspapers and journals, a radio and TV broadcasting companies attended the conference.
As a result of the press-conference the article 'Rural children have been taught to lead a healthy lifestyle' was published in the newspaper 'Vashe zdorovjie' ('Your health') and the article 'Ways of solving the problems of smoking and alcohol drinking among schoolchildren and the impact of PROMHEAL' was published in the journal 'Osnova zdoroviya ta fizychna kultura' (Health and Physical Training). Interviews with the members of the consortium were broadcasted in the news programme by the Kyiv state regional TV. The radio station 'Voice of Kyiv' broadcasted the interview with Igor Galin, coordinator of PROMHEAL in its programme 'Den Kyivshchiny' ('The Kyiv's day'). One of the successes of PROMHEAL was an hour long radio programme which was especially prepared to discuss the project PROMHEAL and its impact on the schools in the Kyiv Oblast. It was broadcasted on the Kyiv regional radio station 'Majdan'. Thus, the project has received wide national and regional coverage.
To provide sustainability and attain a wider reach for this project, a network of rural schools and teachers - the PROMHEAL rural school network - that participated in the project has been established. This is the first network of rural schools in Ukraine - which makes it unique - committed to health promotion initiatives among rural communities through school education and the sharing of health promotion experience and knowledge. The network is created to provide networking opportunities to its members, i.e. sharing information, skills and ideas, and arranging activities such as seminars and workshops for teachers, open classes in their schools for other teachers to attend and other activities. Working together as a network, the schools - with the help of the project consortium and local education authorities - will be encouraged to share the experiences of conducting the multiple component health promotion interventions and provide assistance to each other and promote their work. Thus, the network creates opportunities for teachers from different schools to learn from each other through interaction. It is expected that the PROMHEAL rural school network will be a powerful tool to benefit teachers, schoolchildren and their parents and wider rural communities. Teachers will share their experiences and learn new techniques to deliver health messages and teach health related skills to schoolchildren. It will have an added value to their professional development. Schoolchildren will be empowered not only by learning new facts about health but also by being taught behavioural skills, e.g. how to resist peer pressure when asked to smoke or what to do to give up smoking or how to have an alcohol-free birthday party. Teachers will work not only with children but involve their parents and the general public to send health messages which will consequently benefit wider communities.
At the moment, the network consists of 221 schools but it is opened to expansion into new rural locations to reach a larger number of rural communities. Being the project's main dissemination tool, the PROMHEAL website also serves as a platform for the PROMHEAL rural school network in order to facilitate the exchange of information and experiences.
PROMHEAL has been managed and implemented by the consortium of three partners (Russian Research Ltd. (RR), United Kingdom; the Kiev Health Centre (KHC), Ukraine; the Kiev Health Centre (KHC), Ukraine) which have complemented one another in their expertise. RR has drawn on its extensive experience in conducting and managing large-scale multi-country projects and its experience in research and development of health promotion campaigns. KHC has employed its expertise in running health promotion campaigns for health practitioners and other stakeholders and arranging meetings with authorities at different levels. CSA has used their expertise in conducting workshops and seminars for teachers. All partners have used their connections in media, education and with health authorities and other stakeholders in order to ensure the effectiveness of the project and the wide reach of the project's activities. The consortium has greatly benefited owing to the involvement of Ms Avetova, Research Director of PROMHEAL who played a crucial role in the designing of PROMHEAL and greatly contributed to its success.
The project is a success as all tasks have been performed and all objectives have been achieved, primarily the workshops and seminars were held in the seven Oblasts of Ukraine. The teachers from 221 rural schools were trained to deliver the multiple component programme of health interventions for adolescents. These interventions were developed to address the health needs of schoolchildren aged 10-15 who reside in rural areas of Ukraine and taking account of the socio-cognitive and environmental factors that affect schoolchildren's smoking and alcohol consumption. The effectiveness of the training programme for teachers has been measured and demonstrated that the teachers are ready and confident to run health promotion interventions in their schools. The PROMHEAL network of schools and its website have been created and have already been providing assistance to teachers from rural schools who undertook the training course and to teachers who participate in seminars organised by the trained teachers. The initiative has been spreading.
Thus, by involving teachers in the process of delivery of the multiple component interventions designed to target schoolchildren and their parents and by creating the network of schools, PROMHEAL has allowed the successful health promotion programme to reach a large number of schoolchildren residing in rural communities of Ukraine.
The multiple component health promotion programme that teachers were trained to use in their schools is theory- and evidence-based. Developed and successfully pioneered in one of the Ukrainian rural regions (2000 - 2004), the effective programme addresses the health needs of schoolchildren and takes account of socio-cognitive and environmental factors that affect health related behaviours. It prevents and / or considerably decreases health risk related behaviours prevalent amongst the target group and brings about a significant positive change in factors related to health risk related behaviours. Ultimately, the programme empowers children and adolescents, and increases the potential for gain in their health status by assisting them in developing control over their health. It is designed not only for children but also for their parents. As schools are the most important institutions in rural areas of Ukraine to promote health, multiple component health interventions delivered by teachers can reach a large number of children and adolescents. To train teachers to deliver health interventions, a training programme was developed. It is divided into three main sessions. During introductory sessions teachers are taught the main theoretical and research approaches underlying the health promotion programme and also its background. Mid-sessions are the training sessions for learning and practising the delivery of multiple component health promotion interventions. Apart from lectures and discussions, teachers are trained to conduct social skills training sessions for schoolchildren and smoking cessation sessions for adolescent smokers and intervention sessions for parents. At the final stage of the programme, teachers share and discuss their experiences of participating in the training course. The training programme was implemented at seminars and workshops which were attended by teachers from 221 big (1 000 pupils +) and small (100 pupils +) rural schools in 7 Oblasts of Ukraine. At the end of each series of workshops and seminars, the effectiveness of the workshops and seminars and the readiness and confidence of teachers to use interventions in their schools were tested with the use of a specially designed evaluation questionnaire.
All teachers who participated in seminars and workshops rated the training programme as a whole and also its elements highly and very highly. The teachers assigned the highest score to the usefulness of the programme in their work with schoolchildren. The innovation approach, that combined theoretical knowledge and interactive games and exercises that were designed to help the teachers to engage children and adolescents, was liked most. Having completed the training programme, the teachers felt ready to use their new knowledge and skills when working with their pupils and predicted a very positive outcome of their efforts. 100 % of all teachers would recommend this programme for further implementation in rural areas of Ukraine.
Disseminating knowledge and the project results is one of the main activities of PROMHEAL. The PROMHEAL website was designed in three languages (English, Ukrainian and Russian), set up and launched at the very start of the project and can now be accessed at http://www.promheal.org. The PROMHEAL website is the project's main dissemination tool which allows the consortium to promote this initiative not only among teachers and health practitioners but also among wider populations interested in the respective issues. The website also serves as one of the channels of communicating with all stakeholders and a platform for the PROMHEAL rural school network.
After the workshops and seminars for teachers, 50 000 copies of the brochure printed in Ukrainian were disseminated in the rural schools that sent their teachers for training. The brochures were also posted to organisations around Ukraine that had sent their requests for a copy. The contents of the brochure and its circulation size were referred to as one of the achievements of PROMHEAL at the round-table held in September 2007 in Kyiv. In the words of one of the participants, 'there is always a problem of getting health promotion materials for rural schools but this project not only provided us with the materials that were designed for rural schoolchildren, it also satisfied our demand for the number of the brochures'.
In order to raise awareness of and win wider support for the project and its aims, meetings with national and local education authorities including senior civil servants from the Ministry of Education and Science and other agencies that deal with adolescents' health and other related issues were held. As a result, PROMHEAL received overall support for its initiative and support and assistance were provide in organising and coordinating seminars and workshop for teachers in the respective oblasts. Seminars similar to the seminars for teachers were conducted for all interested parties to disseminate the health promotion programme for schoolchildren. Altogether five seminars were run for different audiences during the whole lifetime of the project, in which 128 teachers, school psychologists, social workers and educational specialists from various regions of Ukraine took part.
Various media at national and local levels was involved in raising awareness of, and disseminating the results of, the project. In the Cherkassy Oblast, the Cherkassy regional TV station filmed the seminars for teachers and interviewed the trainers for the TV programme 'The schools time'. The Cherkassy regional newspaper, 'The Cherkassy's News', published an interview with trainers about the seminars and health promotion issues. In the Kirovograd Oblast, the local newspaper published an article about the seminars. In the Kyiv Oblast, the Kyiv regional newspaper 'Copeika', published an article about the seminars and raised the issue of healthy lifestyles in rural areas of Ukraine. The Kyiv regional TV station interviewed the trainers for the Kyiv regional news programme. The project consortium held a press conference in Kyiv about the project and its results. 10 journalists from national newspapers and journals, a radio and TV broadcasting companies attended the conference.
As a result of the press-conference the article 'Rural children have been taught to lead a healthy lifestyle' was published in the newspaper 'Vashe zdorovjie' ('Your health') and the article 'Ways of solving the problems of smoking and alcohol drinking among schoolchildren and the impact of PROMHEAL' was published in the journal 'Osnova zdoroviya ta fizychna kultura' (Health and Physical Training). Interviews with the members of the consortium were broadcasted in the news programme by the Kyiv state regional TV. The radio station 'Voice of Kyiv' broadcasted the interview with Igor Galin, coordinator of PROMHEAL in its programme 'Den Kyivshchiny' ('The Kyiv's day'). One of the successes of PROMHEAL was an hour long radio programme which was especially prepared to discuss the project PROMHEAL and its impact on the schools in the Kyiv Oblast. It was broadcasted on the Kyiv regional radio station 'Majdan'. Thus, the project has received wide national and regional coverage.
To provide sustainability and attain a wider reach for this project, a network of rural schools and teachers - the PROMHEAL rural school network - that participated in the project has been established. This is the first network of rural schools in Ukraine - which makes it unique - committed to health promotion initiatives among rural communities through school education and the sharing of health promotion experience and knowledge. The network is created to provide networking opportunities to its members, i.e. sharing information, skills and ideas, and arranging activities such as seminars and workshops for teachers, open classes in their schools for other teachers to attend and other activities. Working together as a network, the schools - with the help of the project consortium and local education authorities - will be encouraged to share the experiences of conducting the multiple component health promotion interventions and provide assistance to each other and promote their work. Thus, the network creates opportunities for teachers from different schools to learn from each other through interaction. It is expected that the PROMHEAL rural school network will be a powerful tool to benefit teachers, schoolchildren and their parents and wider rural communities. Teachers will share their experiences and learn new techniques to deliver health messages and teach health related skills to schoolchildren. It will have an added value to their professional development. Schoolchildren will be empowered not only by learning new facts about health but also by being taught behavioural skills, e.g. how to resist peer pressure when asked to smoke or what to do to give up smoking or how to have an alcohol-free birthday party. Teachers will work not only with children but involve their parents and the general public to send health messages which will consequently benefit wider communities.
At the moment, the network consists of 221 schools but it is opened to expansion into new rural locations to reach a larger number of rural communities. Being the project's main dissemination tool, the PROMHEAL website also serves as a platform for the PROMHEAL rural school network in order to facilitate the exchange of information and experiences.
PROMHEAL has been managed and implemented by the consortium of three partners (Russian Research Ltd. (RR), United Kingdom; the Kiev Health Centre (KHC), Ukraine; the Kiev Health Centre (KHC), Ukraine) which have complemented one another in their expertise. RR has drawn on its extensive experience in conducting and managing large-scale multi-country projects and its experience in research and development of health promotion campaigns. KHC has employed its expertise in running health promotion campaigns for health practitioners and other stakeholders and arranging meetings with authorities at different levels. CSA has used their expertise in conducting workshops and seminars for teachers. All partners have used their connections in media, education and with health authorities and other stakeholders in order to ensure the effectiveness of the project and the wide reach of the project's activities. The consortium has greatly benefited owing to the involvement of Ms Avetova, Research Director of PROMHEAL who played a crucial role in the designing of PROMHEAL and greatly contributed to its success.
The project is a success as all tasks have been performed and all objectives have been achieved, primarily the workshops and seminars were held in the seven Oblasts of Ukraine. The teachers from 221 rural schools were trained to deliver the multiple component programme of health interventions for adolescents. These interventions were developed to address the health needs of schoolchildren aged 10-15 who reside in rural areas of Ukraine and taking account of the socio-cognitive and environmental factors that affect schoolchildren's smoking and alcohol consumption. The effectiveness of the training programme for teachers has been measured and demonstrated that the teachers are ready and confident to run health promotion interventions in their schools. The PROMHEAL network of schools and its website have been created and have already been providing assistance to teachers from rural schools who undertook the training course and to teachers who participate in seminars organised by the trained teachers. The initiative has been spreading.
Thus, by involving teachers in the process of delivery of the multiple component interventions designed to target schoolchildren and their parents and by creating the network of schools, PROMHEAL has allowed the successful health promotion programme to reach a large number of schoolchildren residing in rural communities of Ukraine.
