Pediatric and dental examinations will be conducted for students of Primary School No. 1. The initiative aims to coordinate work between the fields of health and education.
With the aim of strengthening prevention and promotion policies, the activity of the Municipal School Health Program begins on Thursday, an initiative promoted through the Ministry of Health and the Municipal Primary Health Care Directorate, in cooperation with educational institutions.
“This activity is part of public health policies with a focus on disease prevention, which have been developed since the beginning of the administration,” said Emma Elizalde, the municipal health secretary.
He added: “It is a proposal made by pediatrician Liliana Marineau, within the scope of the interdisciplinary work of the comprehensive, intersectoral health roundtable, which we started at the end of last year.”
For his part, Juan Perles, director of education in the district, announced: “The first day will be held in Elementary School No. 1 and will include pediatric and dental examinations for first- and sixth-year students.”
He stressed that “this program comes within health care policies and their coordination with education that is implemented at the governorate level.”
The first day will be on Thursday, May 2, at Primary School No. 1, in two periods: the first from 9:00 am; The second starts at 1:30 pm.
The work will extend throughout the year in all primary institutions in the region. Health promoters from Buenos Aires Province will also participate.
In total, it is estimated that more than 1,200 students will be assessed over the course of the school year.
The project
Regarding the details of the initiative, pediatrician Liliana Marineau explained: “This program is dedicated to comprehensive monitoring of children’s health in primary schools. It seeks to promote integrated care policies that allow an effective response to the care needs of the school-age population, through actions to promote and protect health and prevent disease.
Along these lines, Marinho highlighted the “key role” of the school in the process of socialization and determining children’s life trajectories.
“The role of the teacher is strategic, because he shares many hours of the day with his students and can often detect signs or symptoms that allow us to detect or prevent diseases early,” he said.
Regarding the action plan, Marinho explained that as its development progresses, the program will aim to “form multidisciplinary health teams that include a pediatrician or general practitioner, a nurse, a social worker, a speech therapist, and a dentist.”
“All primary schools in the municipality will be visited to evaluate first and sixth grade students during the current year. “If this task is repeated in the following years, with a complete physical examination of every new student and those in the last year of primary school, within five years the monitoring of all school-age children will be completed.”
The initiative is based on the National School Health Program (PROSANE), which finds its framework in Law No. 26.061 on “Comprehensive Protection of the Rights of Boys, Girls and Adolescents”.
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