Sant Joan de Déu takes part in a European health and education project to promote healthy lifestyles

The SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital is part of the European project All@once, promoted by EIT Health, with the aim of teaching healthy lifestyles in schools and preventing children from being hospitalized.

Childhood is the best age for acquiring good habits. Practicing a healthy lifestyle from an early age is crucial for the prevention of disease in adult life and improving the health of the community as a whole. Explaining the importance of acquiring healthy habits from childhood is the main purpose of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu within the new European project All@once, funded by EIT Health, in which also participate the Consorci d’Educació and the Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona. 

The project also has the association of four European academic institutions: the Universitat de Barcelona and the Institut de Formació Contínua IL-3, the Maastricht University, the Université Grenoble Alpes and the University of Copenhaguen. 

All@once aims to inculcate healthy habits in pre-primary education classrooms through the participation of the three groups involved in children's development. In this sense, families, teachers and primary care professionals made a first contribution of their experience at the beginning of the year through co-creation sessions for the common design of training material for pre-primary school teachers.

The main objective is to train teachers in the development of strategies for the education of healthy habits and styles in pre-school children. Nutrition, physical exercise, hygiene and mental and emotional health are the topics that are intended to be treated in the classrooms.

The project presents a multidisciplinary approach, involving European experts from different fields who ensure a practical assessment of the needs drawn from the co-creation sessions. It is about "to investigate what is needed from the perspective of teachers, of health professionals. To be able to implement them in their development and in their education is really crucial", explains Dr. Onno Van Schayck, professor of preventive medicine at the University of Maastricht and participant in the co-creation sessions.

The project will run throughout 2019. The implementation of the training will take place at the beginning of the next school year, in five pilot schools in Barcelona with more than 300 pre-school students.

The Innovation Unit of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu highlights the relevance of a project of these characteristics and its potential to be expanded to other countries. The digital platform of children’s health and well-being FAROS, has been promoting healthy lifestyles for families for almost a decade, making All@once an opportunity to communicate through new projects and formats that allow a wider audience to be reached.