healthy lifestyle should be something all youth organisations do.
Why is it important to engage young people in health promotion?
Health education in schools has traditionally been a long list of what not to do and how not to do it. Many negative health behaviours become established at an early age. A report by the Chief Medical Officers in 2012 highlighted how unhealthy behaviours such as smoking and over consumption of alcohol are established in adolescence. In the UK up to 50 per cent of lifetime mental illness (excluding dementia) arises by the age of 14, and 75 per cent by the mid-20s.
What is the best way to promote healthy behaviour?
A report from the Children and Young People's Health Outcomes Forum (Public Health England, 2013) highlights the need to focus on an assets-based approach to health promotion - rather than focusing on the negative aspects of unhealthy behaviours, we should promote the positive effects of a healthy lifestyle. Using the carrot rather than the stick approach represents a tectonic shift in the development and delivery of health education.
Health improvement is not rocket science. It is a little bit of evidence-based health knowledge, sprinkled with common sense, with a dash of behavioural science, and it is the responsibility of everyone who works with children and young people to adopt this approach.
How can you make young people's involvement meaningful?
Involving young people in the development of health promotion programmes is crucial to their success. Facilitating them to design and project manage interventions will increase ownership and retention of young volunteers, while the need to invest in a consistent and comprehensive support system for programmes involving young people has been highlighted as one of the key requirements by national volunteer organisations.
Learning from other similar programmes will ensure a best practice approach; youth organisations are happy to support new programmes and ideas and can offer "critical friend" advice and guidance based on their experiences. There is no need to reinvent the wheel and there is a wealth of experience in the wide field of youth involvement in health and social care.
What might good look like?
The Youth Health Champion programme is a peer education programme, which was initially developed for use in schools but has now been adapted for all youth settings. Young people from the age of 14 are trained as youth health champions, and design and deliver health promotion campaigns, based on data from the School and Students Health Education Unit survey. As well as inspiring and supporting their peers to make better lifestyle choices, this health information is also channelled through their family networks and has been shown to increase referrals to local health services as well as have a positive impact on the individual youth health champions.
Where can you go for more information?
The Youth Health Movement is a national peer mentoring initiative backed by Public Health England: www.youthhealthmovement.org.uk/
#Iwill has produced a report that highlights how health and social care organisations can support social action opportunities for young people www.iwill.org.uk/ysa-in-health-and-social-care/
Volunteering England can link health and social care organisations with youth groups www.volunteering.org.uk/component/gpb/youth-volunteering
TOP TIPS
- Ensure your project has the resources to support young volunteers
- Have a variety of roles if possible and ensure young people have the skills to carry them out
- Be flexible with meeting times and consider all methods of communication with young people
- Involve local health and youth services where possible
- Research your local area - there may be potential for collaboration with similar projects
By Alix Sheppard, youth health programme adviser, Royal Society for Public Health
