Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Scott Rosas, PhD¹, Chetna Patel, MPH², and Jane Case, MS¹. (1) Center for Children's Health Innovation, Nemours Health and Prevention Services, 252 Chapman Rd., Christiana Building - Suite 200, Newark, DE 19702, 302-444-9131, srosas@nemours.org, (2) Center for Evaluation and Research, Nemours Health and Prevention Services, 252 Chapman Rd, Christiana Building - Suite 200, Newark, DE 19702

Quality needs assessment, external facilitation, and evaluation supports are key for sustainable school-based policies and practices. Although several user-friendly tools are available, implementation of strategies are unlikely to be successful in schools with low staff morale, budgetary constraints, inconsistent support, and limited technical resources.

This presentation reports the results of a comprehensive investigation of current practices related to assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of school-based health and wellness activities. Using the CDC's Coordinated School Health model as a framework, we collected information from 44 school-based health teams in Delaware. A 99-item survey protocol, assessing team background, structure, processes, commitment, and activities, was administered to 3 members of each team.

Overall, results revealed wide variation in the understanding and implementation of the CSH model. Membership on school health teams was comprised of principals, teachers, school nurses and cafeteria managers with at least half of the CSH model components represented. The majority of school teams reported a high level of commitment from the school and focused mostly on the Healthy School Environment, School Health Services, Physical Education, and Counseling, and Psychological and Social Services components of the CSH model. A substantial proportion of teams indicated they had not received external technical assistance and regular documentation of activities and benefits was lacking. An absence of empirically supported strategies was found as well as irregularities in planning, implementation, and evaluation.

These results have implications for more comprehensive and consistent training, follow-up support, and ongoing technical assistance to teams developing school-based health and wellness activities.

Learning Objectives: