Workshop of Complete Education for Health

Workshop of Complete Education for Health

 

Students' Association of the Permanent University – University of Alicante

Vice-rector's Office of University Extension - University of Alicante

European Union

Pharmaceutical Association

 

Concepción Bru Ronda upua.direccion@ua.es

Nuria Ruiz Armero nuria.ruiz@ua.es

 

In 2008 the project EHLE (Empowering Health Learning for Elderly) was created. The UPUA has developed a pilot workshop for its students, made up of 16 educational sessions with the following aims:

 

 

One of the problems was the need to work with different languages, given that there is a large group of foreign older adults living in Spain with risk of exclusion and with a high level of dependency in the area. That is why the tools must be accessible and easy to understand in order to put the educational strategies into practice. Other problem was the complexity and variety of the material that made its production and edition very expensive. The EU has granted some economical support. Offering the website in French, English, Italian and Spanish  is a way of trying to make the tools more accessible.

 

This workshop started in 2009 at the Permanent University of the University of Alicante. It has the collaboration of   teachers of the Diploma Senior, members of the Pharmaceutical Association, groups of Health Professionals (doctors, nurses, …), and volunteers   who are members of the Permanent University Students' Association (AAUP)  . It is aimed at  students of the UPUA.  

In order to carry out this iniciative, the Permanent University has provided infrastructures and resources (classrooms, means of showing, room for gymnastics, and a tools' box that includes flyers, posters, videos and a handbook).

The Workshop of Complete Education for Health is organized in five modules (Nutrition and Healthy Habits, Drugs Consumption, Physical Activity, Emotional Health and Memory), developed and presented by experts in each of the fields. Coordinated by the UPUA, older adults have volunteered to prepare some of the materials, such as practical videos sharing personal testimonies and examples of having a good life.

Each formative module is developed during three days and it includes both a theory introduction and a practical part based on didactics, practice and workshops' material, audiovisual resources, leaflets and posters. 

Twenty-two older adults older than 55 have participated in this Experience and Pilot Workshop, learning by different modules regarding Health. Educational material has been created for each module (Healthy Diaries, Self-appraisal Questionnaires, Files of individual work, videos….).

The Website, available in different languages, is one of the main products. Once the Workshop was already carried out, the material has been revised and the products have been improved for them to be more accessible and easy to understand.

Among the alternatives for improvement there is work being done in order to approach this iniciative from intergenerationality, adding this Good Practice and carrying out Workshops for young people and children. The goal is to share this Good Practice with many older adults the following years.

 

By using the formative materials of this Pilot Workshop, result of the Good Practice of the multilateral project EHLE , we have been able to share this experience with the public in general using the website of the project and the experience can be shared with other centers, both at a national and international level.

Today the work is being carried out by volunteers trained with the Good Practice at the CEAM (Centers of caring for Older Adults) from Alicante. 

 

All the documents are public and are available in this website.