Physical and Mental Health

The Australian Health Promoting Schools Association was established in 1994. It developed out of the Australian Association for Healthy School Communities (AAHSC) and the Network for Healthy School Communities.

The aims of the association are to:

initiate and support ways of establishing a broad view of health that's consistent with the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion
promote nationally the concept of health-promoting schools
encourage collaboration among existing agencies, professional associations, government departments and student and parent groups
advocate and strengthen participation in school health activities and national and state policy development
work towards the sustainability of health curricula together with other social and environmental issues in the total program of educational institutions
establish a mechanism for the exchange of information, expertise and resources between states and jurisdictions
act as an advocate for a comprehensive approach to health issues in school communities
support research related to health-promoting schools.

In much information of this type, there is often an implicit assumption that the school's health efforts will mainly be geared towards students. However, there also needs to be a focus on the health of staff if they are to promote health to others in the school community.

For more information, go to http://www.hlth.qut.edu.au/ph/ahpsa/about.jsp

Resilient teachers: Resisting stress and burnout
In their paper, Sue Howard and Bruce Johnson of the University of South Australia look at resilience from the perspective of teachers who work in high stress contexts. Teachers are interviewed about what constitute risk and protective factors in their working life. This information is discussed from the point of view of strengths, rather than deficits, when coping with challenging situations.

Health and gender
There are some health issues that are gender-specific, such as breast cancer or prostate cancer. There are also some health issues that are 'gendered' and have general community impact, for example, family violence and sexual assault. (Statistically, perpetrators are overwhelmingly male.)

In addition, there are social trends that may contribute to a person's or group's health profile. In The Work Life Collision (Federation Press, 2003, p. 28), Barbara Pocock draws on 1997 Australian Bureau of Statistics data to highlight the load women undertake in their paid and unpaid work contributions. The data includes the following statistics.

90% of women participated in housework activities (cooking, laundry and other cleaning) compared with 63% of men.
Women spent 154 minutes a day on housework compared with 62 minutes for men.
Women typically undertook twice as much domestic work as men - an imbalance that has barely changed since 1992 data was collected.
Unpaid labour tasks continue to be highly gendered.
There is a growing trend for both partners to be in the paid labour force.

These points raise issues for health and wellbeing, particularly in relation to 'time out'. Demands of work and home life can often expand to the point where 'getting everything done' takes priority over an individual's health and relaxation needs. In these circumstances, advice about adopting 'healthy lifestyles' can be just one more pressure or source of guilt!

The issue of staff mental and physical health is an important one and it can be valuable for staff to have the opportunity to discuss their different approaches and issues. Topics might include:

handling the work-life balance
relaxation ideas
how to take and sustain 'time out' from responsibilities
fitness strategies
stress busters
the role of television
food issues and approaches
different health beliefs, interests and paradigms
ideas for staff health.

Conversations around these topics not only provide useful information about health issues but also lead to authentic discussion about the ways in which people live their lives. This process in itself can be health-promoting and supportive, as well as revealing of particular pressures and issues that people work with.

Women's Weekly Health Survey
In February 2001, a large and comprehensive survey on women's health was undertaken by the Women's Weekly, with 17,000 women providing information on everything from diet to depression. It revealed that many women believed they were suffering from weight problems and had high levels of stress and depression, with nearly 9% claiming that they had been depressed enough to have attempted suicide.

Body image appeared to be a major area of concern, with 70% of those surveyed believing they were overweight and 26% admitting to some form of disordered eating such as yo-yo dieting or anorexia.

The former Australian Medical Association President, Dr Kerryn Phelps, was quoted as saying that a particularly worrying finding was that one-fifth of women aged 15-24 years consumed 6-10 glasses of alcohol at a time to get drunk. Nearly 30% of the women surveyed had driven a car after having had too much to drink.

The mental health of Australian women was also examined, with more than half of those surveyed believing that they had been, or were, depressed. More than 40% of those cited problems with relationships as being the main reason for depression, with loneliness being the second most common cause of depression.

However, the survey also showed that women were looking for more information on health topics, with approximately half targeting diet, exercise and cancer prevention as the main subjects of interest.

(Source: 'Our bodies, Ourselves', Australian Women's Weekly, February 2001, pp. 105-112. Reproduced courtesy of the Australian Women's Weekly.) http://www.mydr.com.au/default.asp?article=2717)

Stress and burnout among teachers
This site, presented by the NSW/ACT Independent Education Union, is a comprehensive resource about teacher stress. It describes some stress scenarios, analyses what stress is and how to recognise it, discusses the occupational risks related to teaching, looks at the impact of leadership culture and suggests ways of dealing with stress. This is a useful overview of stress as an example of a health issue for teachers.

Mainly for school principals
This is an interesting Australian site with resources and links for teachers and principals to use. Go to the 'Resources for Principals' page and you will find the following topics under 'Occupational Health and Safety':

Safety, health and wellbeing
Stress and burnout
Safer schools
Occupational health and safety kits
Work-life balance.