Only a month ago, a teenage girl died shortly after receiving a cervical cancer jab at her school. Immediately, the batch of vaccine was pulled and parents up and down the country flew into a panic. It turned out that the poor girl had serious underlying health issues that undoubtedly led to her death. But how many parents now feel 100 per cent about letting their daughters have the injection?
Also just a couple of weeks ago, doctors announced that perhaps the daily calorie guidelines are set too low. How is this going to help the cause of persuading parents and obese children to cut back on their intakes? Hardly a day goes by without a new health story in the headlines, only a few of which actually do any good at all.
When it comes to promoting good healthy practises in children – it is a wise idea to keep the message simple. Many illnesses can be avoided by a mixture of timely action and good old-fashioned common sense. Schools can do a lot to help keep their students healthy by reinforcing key messages, such as the importance of hand washing, catching coughs and sneezes in a tissue, healthy eating and taking regular exercise.
It is in everyone’s interests to keep school children healthy. The Centre for Disease Control estimates that the average school child misses around one week of school a year due to illness, which equates to approximately 36 million school days lost every year in the UK. So what can schools do to help?
“Educational establishments can work with their washroom services suppliers to create a campaign to educate children on why they should wash their hands. Companies like Deb offer support and advice through marketing materials and information on hand hygiene,” says Deborah Freeman at Deb Limited.
“It is estimated that a great number of lost school days could be reduced if children washed their hands regularly. Recent studies have shown that hand washing with soap is by far the best way to prevent the spread of many illnesses and good hand hygiene practices adopted by children would help to prevent the spread of germs from home to school and back again,” she adds.
Deb InstantFOAM hand sanitiser kills 99.999% of common germs in 15 seconds and has been tested and found to be effective against H1N1 (swine flu virus).
When teaching children about the importance of healthy practises such as hand washing, it is helpful to make the lesson entertaining. An activity such as hand washing can be easily integrated into school day activities. Deb also houses its hand-washing products in colourful dispensers to make they eye-catching and attractive to youngsters.
Prevention is obviously the key when it comes to spreading disease, but it is not always possible. Mark Dewick, UK Sales Director Metsa Tissue Ltd. has this advice in the current flu season.
“Early years schools have always advocated a ’stay at home if you are ill’ policy. This is of course, absolutely valid advice for the current, flu aware climate. As we know, in the majority of otherwise healthy people, swine flu is unpleasant – but no more so than any other virulent flu form,” he says.
“However, it has been proven that young children are at a greater risk, so this is the best time to instil and cultivate good hygiene habits around use of tissues. At this time, schools can ensure that there are plenty of tissues around the classroom and the school generally and then ensure that children use them to blow their noses or ‘catch a cough/sneeze’ and then throw them away immediately. Certain bins can be designated for such waste and a focus placed around this. And likewise, regular, effective hand washing – and the importance of hand drying is key.”
In secondary education – the basic methods should be the same – with continued education around the ‘catch it bin it kill it’ methodology. In addition, there could be Biology/social and health lessons around the spread of diseases and schools can use the current media hype to demonstrate how this philosophy actually applies to all such illnesses.
“Education bears an onerous responsibility for walking the line between informing and scaremongering, fighting against strong media hype, with an age group that fears it would be ‘uncool’ to follow teenagers/parents/government advice,” says Dewick. “It could be that effective use of social networking could be explored further to carry the message directly to the intended audience in this older age group.”
So, good hygiene practices should be started in early years, and carried right through education. This can be achieved by making hygiene part of young people’s daily routines, through signage, through information packs and through other projects. Hygiene is a fundamental part of both the science and the social side of education.
If schools educate give young people the facts about health and disease they can avoid the alarm spread by hype. Young people of all ages can process and develop these facts effectively. Without them, they are in danger of reacting to a throwaway headline (maybe heard on the radio on the way to school) – without the facts to back it up.
Schools across the country have already been provided with leaflets, tools and information through Government Education channels. In addition, corporately responsible organisations like Metsä Tissue can also provide detailed information leaflets, which have already offered out to all of its distribution channels. Further copies can be obtained by emailing: fiona.lang@metsatissue.com.
