Wellness and Wellbeing free essay sample

Our centre aims to offer and provide a secure, loving and stimulating environment in which the individual needs of each child can be met. We provide a special regard for the cultural, language and ethnic needs of all the children and their families. Because of these classes and courses that we were required to take, I consider myself to be somewhat knowledgeable on the subject of human health. I learned about the six dimensions of health and understood that there was more to being a healthy person than being well physically. In addition, I will discuss how I will make changes to improve that health dimension in the future. Finally, I will discuss what I want to learn in this course to help me lead a healthy lifestyle. Background: This report is here to introduce the different types of health and to explain the importance of each health. This report have a big impact to educators, children and their families as well. We will write a custom essay sample on Wellness and Wellbeing or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Six dimensions of health have been identified as Physical Health, Intellectual Health, Social Health, Emotional Health, Environmental Health and Spiritual Health. However all of these need to be a part of life (Donatelle, R. (2006). Promoting Health behavior change, In Access to health (9th ed,) (pp. 3-37). San Francisco : Benjamin Cummings. 1) Physical Health encourages participation in regular physical activities which improve cardiovascular strength and endurance, flexibility and muscular strength. 2) Intellectual health- encourages continued learning, problem solving and creativity. This dimension involves improving verbal skills, keeping abreast of social and political issues and reading books, magazines, and newspapers. The act of knowing and questioning to know keeps the mental state busy enhancing self-esteem and positive attitudes. 3) Social Health- encourages in taking an active part in improving the community by supporting a healthy living environment and initiating better communication with others, Becoming more aware of your importance in society, improving our world by encouraging healthy lifestyles and initiating better communication with those around you. 4) Emotional Health- involves in feeling positive and enthusiastic about ourselves and life, in general. Development in this dimension includes recognition of feelings and the ability to manage feelings, being able to develop autonomy, maintain satisfying relationships and the ability to cope with stress. Being aware of and accepting a wide range of feelings about yourself and others. 5) Environmental Health includes living in harmony with the Earth by understanding the impact of your interaction with nature and your personal environment, and taking action to protect the world around you. 6) Spiritual Health- includes developing a deep appreciation and acceptance for things that cannot be completely understood. It involves the tolerance of values and beliefs of others and participating in activities that are consistent with personal values. Wellness and Wellbeing are important because it has to consider the concept of the ‘Whole Child’. (Kearns, K. amp; Austin, B. (2010). The importance of early childhood development learning starts in infancy, long before formal education begins, and continues throughout life. Discussion: Today, we are growing more aware of the negative effects illness and stress have on the human body. We are also becoming aware of the necessary steps needed to be healthy and accomplish a longer life span. With the ever-growing number of diseases around the human population, it is imperative that humans realize the importance of being healthy. People believe health is attained by just eating healthy foods, and exercising but that is not the case. World Health Organization (WHO), in 1948, cited in Hayden amp; Macdonald, 2000), health was defined as being a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. All of these elements must be present in a human being in order to be truly healthy. In order to accomplished all these dimensions, the partnerships are also needed between two planners and health service professionals and between educators and health professionals The purpose of this paper is to identify four of the six dimensions of health that are strongest and also two of those six that is the weakest and/or needs some improvement. In addition, this paper will also discuss a person’s decisions and habits that can be made to improve on personal health and discuss what should be learned in the course to assist in a healthier lifestyle. The four dimensions of health that our centre are very strong at, they are physical health, social health, environmental health and emotional health and the other two dimensions of health that our centre needs to improve at, they are the intellectual health and spiritual health. 1) The physical benefits of looking good and feeling great often lead to psychological benefits of enhanced self-esteem, self-control, determination and stronger sense of direction. Our centre encourage all children to play together during their outdoor play using their gross and fine motor skills, examples like; paddling bicycle, play in the sand pit, water play, flowering the flowers in the garden, plays with the swings etc. We encourage them to walk with their dog at home or even cook with their families and friends. *We also kept a record on each child’s immunisation updated from the hospital or child clinics. (McMurray, A. (2007), page 168, Goals for child health). ) Social health includes contributing time and/or money to community projects, participating in recycling and other conservation efforts and developing harmony within your family. It also includes a person’s hygiene practices too, in our centre we have a ‘Health and Safety’ policy, it states all the importance of hygiene practices such as, use handgloves and mask while nappy changing, washing hands before and after snacks, etc. (Hayden, J. , amp; Macdonald, J. J. (2000). (Pg35. ) I have another suggestions, I decided to promote tooth brushing with the children whilst working in partnership with the Designed to Smile Campaign. Through the use of story time and songs they were given the information to educate them on oral health and the correct way to brush their teeth. I can see that social health are related to environmental health, it has something to do with the Wellness and Wellbeing and to do with a person’s hygiene and contributions to society by participating in recycling, etc. if one is without personal hygiene than we can’t expect one to respect and protect our nature, can you see the connection here? ) Environmental health- leading a lifestyle that is respectful to our environment and minimizes any harm done to it is a critical part of this dimension of wellness. Engage in environmentally responsible activities, keep the company of Healthy People and Maximize Personal Harmony with the Earth while minimizing harm to it. The environment inside our centre’s very colourful, this is to spice up the room’s area, make it an environment friendly place where others feel comfortable in, reduce noise and pollution and keep ourselves and the children safe. Here are some of the examples of how/what my centre’s do to promote this health; * Recently our centre had organized a ‘beach clean up’ day to support the awareness of communities. (The Jubilee Park, 9th March 2012) *Our centre also had organized a ‘Million Trees Project’, this includes other companies and banks such as PTAS, The Baiduri Bank, etc. *Our centre also provide the Pond/ Tree Nursery Club- A group of students have volunteered to help out once a week on a Wednesday afternoon to support some of the school based eco projects. At the back of Rm 25 is the school pond. This requires regular clearing and after a few years of adding new life to the pond, the dividends are paying off. Every week leaves need clearing from the pond to allow the wildlife to grow and the students generally help with the maintaining of the area. For more info, please visit this websites: http://www. isb. edu. bn/index. php/all-about-isb/isb-a-the-envoirment/dummy-item. In this website, you will be able to find that our centre’s very strong in this area. 4) Emotional health- Everyday we need to come into our centre with a happy smile, we often leave our moody feelings at home. We need to show children the positive sides of us in order to teach them the positive ways of life. When we communicate with children, we will bend down and look into their eyes and make sure we are listening to them and responding in a proper manner. We actively communicate to children’s feelings by asking them to express their feelings through sketching, painting, singing, dancing, writing, drawing, etc. We allow them to be in their own for a moment and then ask for informations regarding what has happened? And then we approach the child and tell her that she can cry if she need to, laugh if she wants to and all feelings are okay. Now we will discuss the other two dimensions which I think my centre can do more to improve in. They are the intellectual health and spiritual health. 5) Intellectual health- I guess our centre’s not very strong in this area, yes, we provide them with verbal skills by communicating freely with all children but in relation to social and political issues, we gave them the magazines and books to read but not newspapers. We never discuss about what is happening to the world outside. We need to implement this into our centre by joining or taking classes offered in our community or even participate in something contrary to our strengths and comfort level. Do you see that a person’s view is very important and it has a big impact to the whole school/centre? 6) Spiritual Health Ones state of personal belief, however touchy adds to a persons sense of who he is and his place in the world; when this issue remains unresolved one gets that feeling of being out of touch as meaning and purpose are hard to confront when lofty questions about existence come to haunt. Here are some ways to improve in; * Take quiet time to meditate, think or just breathe. * Nourish yourself through personal beliefs, morals, and/or religion. Develop a philosophy of life that you want to live by. Find purpose in life and meaning in the little things you do everyday. * Make a list of what you value most in life and keep it somewhere to reflect upon. * Meditate, pray, practice visualization, and/or maintain a yoga routine. Conclusion: Based on my discussions, I have mentioned four health that my centre are doing very well in, which are physical health, social health, emotional health and environmental health. Whereas my centre are not really great at supporting children in the other two health that needs improvement at, they are intellectual health and spiritual health. I do think that our centre can put more effort in ways to make it even better! In particular, social health my centre provide good hygiene practices but I think we can put some more ideas in by arranging a trip, a visit to the dental clinic, where all children are able to know and see that they need to keep their own personal hygiene by brushing their teeth everyday and this will link to their everyday life. Educators fail to recognize and respond to the values of intellectual and spiritual health, as such children may not be able to actively engage in this certain areas to enhance their other skills. For instance, for spiritual health, how can a person enhance their spiritual beliefs if he kept himself away from going out. In Brunei, most of our community are muslims(their religion), they go to mosque to pray and join the community. Children have no rights to entre for some reasons of their own cultural beliefs, I do think that we all have a place where we belong, no matter what age level we are! Recommendations: Based on my conclusions, I did mention about the need for improvement in intellectual and spiritual health, my great concern would be children’s spiritual health and to this particular conclusion might be that the centre will: * Develop a philosophy for our children, maybe a small room just for them to have their own quiet time, feeling a sense of their own cultural beliefs by placing a carpet on for them to kneel down while praying. * If possible, a visit to the mosque to see and feel their spiritual beliefs and are able to see the correct ways to pray and experience it. Educators can implement an activity for children after the visit to the mosque, by asking the children to draw or write what they can see in the mosque and their own beliefs or a goal to achieve, put it in a small box and whenever the children forgot about this they can always look inside the box to refresh their memories. Here are some of my recommendations as to how my centre can extend some more good practices to enhance and extend children’s Wellness and Wellbeing! The end.