Hi HEALers:
Lori Bowrie's presentation the last Friday we met gave us an idea of recreation leadership in the Surrey Municipality, especially as it is focused on the social determinants of access and affordability to ‘physical activity’ and 'active living' programs. Lori presented a case study not only of what is possible in Municipal recreation provision, but also of how the seemingly formidable obstacles and barriers to ‘healthy and active living’ need not be fully defining ‘health determinants.’
On the Saturday we considered income, workplace and educational factors in the determination of health status. These were great presentations, with us finishing the day thinking about how ‘health literacy’ might be not just a reflection of the issues, challenges and determinations of print literacy, but also a constructivist, even agentic, ‘flow and energy’ oriented term for conceiving, speaking, writing and enacting a non-deterministic vision of health, wellness, vitality and ‘enlightenment.’
We will continue to address the social determinants of health the next time we meet, focusing on food and housing, the socially marginalized, and matters of public policy, politics, even human rights and gender. Of course, these various topics are all interwoven, as was clearly evident in the film “Poor No More.”
Please peruse chapters 13 through 23 of the Raphael text in preparation for the next time we meet.
Our ongoing personal and professional challenge is not to be overwhelmed by these important and telling explorations of the social determinants of health. There are always ‘action steps’ to be taken, no matter how small or seemingly inconsequential. Just as importantly, there is an optimism to be maintained in the face of otherwise fully determinative obstacles.
The corollary of the core course statement I’ve cited quite a few times is that: As we consider the social determinants of health, let’s not lose sight of individual renditions of health, wellness, vitality and active living as inspiring us, in terms of pedagogical intervention and program creation, to see the ‘affordances’ of health education, health promotion and health care.
What active register of health and wellness inspires us into action and to take action for the benefit of others?
What disposition towards active living enables us to assist others in having a less deterministic view of themselves and their health status?
Important reminders are our daily (hopefully) physical activities of healthy and active living. Again, it is really for the sake of such reminder that I like to insert physical activity into our class times. (I am curious: Did you feel a greater of lesser need for some physical activity at our least meeting times?) But even when we are each physically active, the questions above can remain begging, particularly in the health promotion of physical activity (and its narrower sense of physical fitness).
How does physical activity contribute to not just ‘active living’ but to ‘quality of life’ and to living healthily and vitally with others?
Your BLOGS are a means of sharing the news with others and of presenting a physical activity model. But what about participatory action with others? Let’s see where the current promotion of ‘physical activity’ affords the means of ‘daily physical interactivity’ and the promotion of a ‘physical mindfulness’ that is also mindful of others.
This coming Friday I want to explore this last statement a bit further. Attached are three readings that address physical mindfulness in relation to that narrower aspect of physical activity and physical interactivity that we call the pursuit of fitness.
* Lloyd and Smith (2009). Enlivening the curriculum of health-related fitness
* Smith (2010). Fitness in flow motion: A continuum of curriculum possibilities
* Smith (2010). Barbells and sock poi: The continuum of keeping fit
For a broader treatment of physical mindfulness, check out the on-line reading of:
* Maxine Sheets-Johnstone (2011)."Putting movement into your life: A beyond fitness primer”
Until Friday,
Stephen.
No comments:
Post a Comment