The Nordic Family Lifestyle Workshops is now launched. Its aim is to help parents, together with preschool and health care personnel, increase knowledge about the relationships between lifestyle and health. Professor Karin C Ringsberg at the Nordic School of Public Health NHV is project manager.
After repeated alarming reports regarding children’s ill-health, the Nordic Family Lifestyle Workshops (Nordiska Livsstilsverkstan) is now being launched. It is a new working model for intersectoral interaction between parents, preschools, the health care sector and researchers. The purpose is to increase understanding of the relationships between lifestyle and health, with the hope that the knowledge is transferred to the children, so that in the future, they will make their own health-promoting lifestyle choices.
– The project idea originates from the research showing that child obesity and mental ill-health are increasing, and parents’ increasing experience of stress and lack of time. I wanted to develop a model where parents together with preschool and health care personnel participate on equal terms, and where they contribute different sorts of experience, says the project initiator professor Karin C Ringsberg.
Unlike the existing parent support models, which often focus on problems and risk factors, the Nordic Family Lifestyle Workshops has a health-promoting starting point.
– Health is a resource. We highlight everyday factors that can promote and enhance health, based on cooperation between parents, preschool, the health care sector and researchers, professor Ringsberg says.
The project has been financed through the grants from the Nordic Council of Ministers’ globalization initiative, and it involves representatives from affected groups from all Nordic countries.
About the Nordic Family Lifestyle Workshops
The Nordic Family Lifestyle Workshops (Nordiska livsstilsverkstan) deals with issues that most families with children in the preschool age face in the everyday life, with a focus on health-promoting lifestyle choices. The working material is designed to be used as a guide for discussion groups where parents together with preschool and health care personnel participate on equal terms and where they all contribute various experiences. The professionals who work with children, and thus are important actors around the child and its family, are given opportunities to develop themselves in the professional role. A web-based tutor guide is also available in all Nordic languages and in English.
Maria-Pia de Palo
Phone
+45 29 69 29 90
Email
mpp@norden.org
Professor Karin C Ringsberg, Project manager, Nordic School of Public Health NHV
Telephone: +46 702519308 email: karin.ringsberg@nhv.se
Louise Teurneau, Acting Public Relations Officer, Nordic School of Public Health NHV
Telephone: +46 31 69 39 84, e-post: louise.teurneau@nhv.se