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Comprehensive health care for students soon

ABU DHABI — A joint team has been formed by the General Authority of Health Services (GAHS) in the emirate of Abu Dhabi and the various educational zones to implement a groundbreaking programme aimed at enhancing health standards at participating schools.

The team was announced after a meeting of officials from GAHS, the Education Ministry and the Educational Zones of Abu Dhabi and Al Ain at GAHS headquarters with those from the Abu Dhabi Health Services Authority, School Health and the Ministry of Education at Abu Dhabi and Al Ain Educational Zones.

The meeting, which was attended by Ahmed Al Rumaithi, acting Executive Director for Operations and Director of Primary Health Care, and representatives of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and the Western Region Educational Zones, discussed the "School Health Support Project, in addition to mechanisms of cooperation between GAHS and the various educational zones.

Al Rumaithi said that the joint team would be tasked with implementing the project.

"School health services are services provided to students to protect and upgrade their health conditions. Primary health care services are to be made available in the easiest possible way," he said.

Protection from contagious diseases and injuries and other health hazards will be taken care of, in addition to providing the highest levels of safety for the school environment. "We will work to the best of our ability to upgrade health of individuals, families and society at large," he stressed.

He said services are very important to ensure healthy meals that satisfy the needs of students. Psychological and social health services were provided to support the social and emotional health of students and that they included individual and collective evaluations, he added.

In order to provide comprehensive health services to UAE citizens, basic medical, awareness and preventive services are to be provided under the umbrella of the Primary Health Care Department, in a way that would guarantee the continuous provision of services to all residences of various sectors and ages.

"Supporting child healthcare efforts through schools is an obligations specified by the Unesco and Unicef and the US Anti-Disease Centre", the official said.

He said the programme was put together to address the physical, mental, social and emotional needs of students. Other factors needed have to do with the family and society's participation in the programme for the welfare of the students," he added. Al Rumaithi stressed on the importance of health awareness among school employees to better their health conditions by means of certain activities like health evaluation, health education and related activities.

The project, however, will require the formation of a joint high Health Services Committee in order to coordinate activities of the programme. A general coordinator is to be appointed to follow up the progress of the project, and a work team is to be formed in each school consisting of a director or his/her deputy, teaching staff, a social worker and a medical and nursing cadre. Appropriate medical and nursing teams are to be appointed in schools for a period of three years and provided with the equipment they require to handle their job.

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