agencies have joined forces to ensure that all of Bermuda's students are given the same advantage to learning. The programme, entitled Health For Success, is aimed at improving each student's educational and personal achievement while providing them with the skills necessary for decision-making in the area of health. "The main rationale is that healthy students are more likely to succeed,'' explained Besty Baillie, chairperson of the Comprehensive School Health Programme (CSHP). "There are so many factors out there that impact on the health and education of the child. That means that the child who is abused, the child who is on drugs, and even the child that doesn't have breakfast, is not going to be able to take advantage of learning opportunities.'' Introduced through the Ministries of Education and Health & Social Services, the programme is based on the British Columbia Healthy Schools initiative -- a recognised world leader in health promotion planning.

A set of policies, practices and procedures, it involves 12 components: health education activity programmes student services food and nutrition services It will take the entire community the involvement of students the involvement of staff the involvement of families the involvement of the community policies monitoring and assessment organisational culture Said Mrs. Baillie: "Health For Success represents an expansion of the traditional elements of school health -- namely, physical education, health education, and health services. It embraces a broader mission, one in which collaboration with Government, non-Government agencies and community resources are fostered and everyone in the school shares responsibility for promoting good health.'' She added that it is hoped positive change will be made: In the way in which we deal with young people and their problems, In increasing community and inter-governmental collaboration, In shifting the current fragmented focus to one of a more planned, cost-effective prevention and early intervention initiative, In creating a comprehensive, rather than a crisis approach to the problems which face Bermudian youth today.

"Research has shown that schools can do more than any other single agency in society to help young people live healthier, longer, more satisfying, and more productive lives,'' said Ministers Jerome Dill and Clarence Terceira in a joint statement.

"Creating and implementing the comprehensive school health programme, Health For Success, in Bermuda schools will improve the health of students and staff, the educational achievements of the students, and ultimately, the quality of life of everyone in Bermuda.'' According to Mrs. Baillie, the idea is to help reshape the school community in positive ways. As such, Health For Success employs several key factors which support its implementation -- a committed school administration, dedicated teacher volunteers, active student, parent and community involvement, opportunities for professional development days followed up by practical support from the healthy schools co-ordinator.

"Part of it involves building up inter-agency collaboration and changing old-fashioned methods of dealing with young people which are no longer effective. And that's necessary because of the way Bermuda is today; because of changes in technology, because people are changing and because the way we do things is changing.

"Involving students, staff, the family and the community is an important aspect of Health For Success. It's really about making links, making the connection between all those things out there that have an impact on both education and health of young people. One of the fantastic aspects is the inter-agency collaboration; how we're all working together. We've done a community workshop to get different service agencies to determine their committment and identify what issues they feel are problematic; we've also done groups with teachers and counsellors and last year, we had a Health For Success fair. And now, we're planning for this week's Health For Success workshops which we hope the public will attend.'' Chaired by Chief Medical Officer John Cann, the Health For Success group involves Janette Musson from the Lions Life Quest Skills; Joan Blades, curriculum co-ordinator for health and Lovette Lovell, health visitor. A steering committee includes Chief Education Officer Joseph Christopher along with representatives from the Departments of Education and Health & Social Services, the Police Service. Youth Development, Sport and Recreation, the National Drug Commission, Cultural Affairs, Human Affairs and Legislative Affairs & Women's Issues.

"The success we have had so far is because of the committment and involvement of the Health For Success committee,'' said Mrs. Baillie. "Everybody on the committee has had to take time out of their already busy schedules to work on our different groups.'' A needs assesment plan created by the group details where schools are in relation to the 12 components so that it can better identify those areas where there is a need to the programme, she added. And she gave two examples where that has been done.

"The committee is now looking to implement a more healthful nutrition policy in Bermuda's schools and in the middle schools, a health curriculum and physical education curriculum has been written and is to be implemented in September.'' The needs assesment Challenges to be met develop policies, programmes and activities to better establish Health For Success in the schools as it is used to combat several health challenges facing Bermuda's students -- obesity, inactivity, smoking, drug and alcohol abuse, violence, sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy. "The Committee believes that encouraging a focus on health will reduce the incidence of these challenges among all school-aged children as...(the programme) works to identify school community issues and concerns, and then to use the full resources of the community to address those concerns. Each school will have unique issues that it believes are important and that will be addressed through different means. "We have had to look at the whole picture; to focus on the whole curriculum and look at the school environment. It's interesting that we spend a lot of time making assumptions on the part of young people about what they want, but when we carried out focus groups in 1995 and just recently, one of the big things that surprised me was that students would like to see healthier food choices in schools. They don't want all hamburgers and french fries. It showed us that there are a number of big issues and that young people have ideas and solutions that could help in improving schools. "By providing appropriate nutritional education to students, we give them the opportunity to develop and practice healthy eating skills. If the schools aren't providing healthful foods, we're sending young people the wrong message. We must give them the opportunity in schools to select and buy healthy foods.'' The same can be said of physical education classes, explained Mrs. Baillie, where courses are geared towards those skilled in team sports. "Getting enough exercise has a huge impact on those who are overweight or obese which means we need to look at the physical education programme. Schools tend to focus on team rather than individual sports, so in that way they're designed for just a small percentage of students. Those who are not athletically-inclined spend a lot of time watching It's beneficial to all! who is overweight or obese or not athletic, it can make him feel bad about himself; it can play havoc on one's self-esteem. So the new physical education curriculum will focus on team activities as well as individual fitness.'' The approach will also cut down on duplication by Government agencies, saving them time and money. "We're finding with many different agencies out there involved with children, a number of them may be dealing with the same child.

In fact, we did a large workshop with 12 different Government agencies and found, in some groups, that different agencies knew about the same children.

If they all had the same information their efforts could have been more effective. Inter-agency collaboration will help us become more effective in dealing with young people and in reducing cost and time spent with various agencies collecting the same information.'' The two Ministers agreed: "Promoting healthy lifestyles cannot be effectively accomplished in schools through the unco-ordinated activities of individuals or organisations. Despite the best of intentions, work is often wastefully duplicated, or worse, falls through the cracks and does not get done at all. By working together we have the potential of achieving far more than we can working separately.'' Added Mrs. Baillie: "We're trying to address the needs of all children and staff, not just those at risk. Health For Success is really an umbrella for all those things that are going on in the school. We're really looking to see how we can make those services available to young people as effective as possible.

"Health For Success is an approach to daily living within a school community that addresses the individual needs of a school. The focus is on prevention, and health promotion -- healthy students are better learners...The schools in Bermuda already have the basic ingredients for effective Helath For Success programmes. The primary role of the Health For Success committee is to help schools gain support for strengthening programmes and services that are designed to address health and education priorities of individual schools.'' As part of Public Health week, parents and community members are invited to attend `Understanding Our Roles' at the Samuel David Robinson Memorial Hall at the Berkeley Institute this Thursday at 7 p.m. at which time John Appleton and Dave Bapsley will share the success of the British Columbia Healthy Schools initiative. PHOTO Government Nutritionist, Betsy Baillie HEALTH HTH