272086 Intergenerational school: A cross-cutting health model

Monday, October 29, 2012 : 2:50 PM - 3:10 PM

Peter J. Whitehouse, MD PhD , Professor of Neurology and Director of Adult Learning at TIS, Case Western Reserve University and The Intergenerational School, Shaker Heights, OH
        
For ten years The Intergenerational School (TIS), an award-winning public charter school in Cleveland Ohio, has been providing high quality urban education for children aged 5-14 based on a developmentally appropriate curriculum embedded in a service-oriented, experiential learning multiage community that includes adults and elders. Based on standardized educational performance measures the school is ranked the best charter in the state. Clinical trial and ethnographic data demonstrate the value of volunteering for elders with dementia. New programs are focusing on sustainability and health and wellness. An Edible Forest Garden serves as the focal point for learning about systems thinking around growing local healthy food and water sheds. Virtual reality and other IT approaches enhance the curriculum. Partnerships with the Cleveland Botanical Garden and our local Nature Center at Shaker Lakes are central to our integrated approach. This session will review how The Intergenerational School is becoming a model for health and wellness across the lifespan, and the health benefits of intergenerational learning and activities. InterWell is our newly enhanced intergenerative school-based primary case health practice that includes interprofessional client-centered care and transdisciplinary action-oriented research based on an ecopsychosocial model of health that integrates individual, family, community, and planetary health

Learning Areas:
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs

Learning Objectives:
(1)List the characteristics of a high performing intergenerational learning organization (2)Describe InterWell, an integrative practice model for individual and public health (3)List some example programs that blend health and educational activities

Keywords: Environmental Health, Evidence Based Practice

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a Professor of Neurology at Case Western Reserve University. In 1999 I co-founded with my wife The Intergenerational School, a unique public multiage, community school (www.tisonline.org). This award-winning school serves learners of all ages from Cleveland and suburbs and is committed to excellence in life-long learning and spirited citizenship. I am the author (with Dr. Danny George) of “The Myth of Alzheimer’s: what you aren’t being told about today’s most dreaded diagnosis” (www.themythofalzheimers.com).
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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