Acronim: ProY&O
Tender: KA220-HED - Cooperation partnerships in higher education - Call 2023 Round 1
Leading partner: Medical University of Lublin (Poland)
Partners:
Total project value: 400,000.00 EUR
Funding information: Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union
Start: 1. December 2023
End: 30. November 2026
Project maganer: Assoc. Prof. Beata Dobrowolska, PhD
Contact person: Sabina Krsnik, sabina.krsnik@uni-nm.si, 00386 7 393 00 21
Project description:
The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that some basic behaviors that were expected to be normalized in daily life not only have been applied incorrectly but have also been systematically violated, putting others' lives at risk. Washing hands, hygiene practices that prevent respiratory infections, covering sneeze are all involved in preventing transmission of infections. If these basic practices had already been embodied in the daily routine to manage milder respiratory infections, it might have been easier to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moreover, misinformation spread on social media has played a crucial role and health institutions encountered several barriers in spreading scientifically founded advice. To make the situation worse, limited access to health education has increased disparities across the world. People with low literacy have had difficulties accessing, understanding, critically appraising, and applying in daily life information delivered by lay and health organizations and few efforts have been made to enhance digital health literacy, even though it is defined as a determinant of health and self-care. This problem is at increased relevance among the disadvantaged populations with low access to health services, low possibilities to live in good hygienic conditions and low abilities to understand information due to language barrier, disabilities, and other issues. In addition, an imminent worsening of these problems is foreseen, due to the Russian-Ukraine war that has been causing poverty and low access to health services, further increasing risks for transmission of respiratory infections, f.e. due to the overcrowding of humanitarian shelters, lack of medical devices such as masks, disinfectants, and poor hygienic conditions. Pandemic has taught us that the individual behavior, at the family level, in the workplace as well in the public, is crucial for public health; therefore, health behaviors should constitute the common denominator of a society based on the sense of community in spite of individualism typical of the modern era.
With this project, we aim to gather all knowledge and experience from these devastating events faced by EU and the entire world to build a public health and community strategy that will allow to promote behavioral changes based on people's needs and diversities. We aim to develop a scientifically based education approach to include populations in difficulty, not reached by the media, or at need of tailored information according to their specific needs, including cultural ones. Health promotion in the reccent years has been focused on a direct information-based approach with standardized messages (wearing a mask, washing hands, keeping distance) that have neglected the underlying learning processes. During the pandemic, alternative methods were not possible (WHO, 2021); however, lessons learned collectively and in each specific country, must be treasured for the future.
Aim and Objectives:
The aim of the "Protecting You and Others: Community infection prevention behavior change program" (ProY&O) project is to develop an educational program aimed at promoting preventing behavior capable of preventing the transmission of respiratory infections among disadvantaged populations.
In addition, we aim to improve the health and e-health literacy of citizens and train stakeholders to implement the program on long-term as a European health promotion evidence-based strategy.
Expected outcomes:
The final results are:
The achievement of these objectives and their results will allow to create and promote learning opportunities among all citizens and generations of adults by improving the availability of high-quality learning opportunities for them.
Our website uses cookies for better user experience
By continuing to browse our website you agree to our use of cookies which helps us provide you with a good user experience on our website. We use Google Analytics for our own analytical purposes and it installs cookies for this purpose (delete GA cookies). More about cookies.