When Prevention Works Literature Review

Abstract

This article is intended to present the chance that parents have with their children in a preventive clinic. Over a three-week period, they take part in a range of therapies and treatments. They have free time, quality time for themselves and also with their children. Throughout their stay, patients (parents and children) have the ability to calm themselves to achieve a general well-being, dealing with their own health problem. Find out, with the help of qualified staff, what they really help, what they like, what helps them maintain and preserve long-term health. The core of this preventive cure consists in the effort to reduce health disorders, to create a balance between body and mind, to achieve a state of well-being, all of which implicitly lead to a better atmosphere in the family, to fewer conflicts or to solve them in the best possible way. Beyond that, the preventive cure promotes the relationship between parents and children. Parents have the capacity to develop their parenting skills, to build more solid ones on existing ones. Children, in turn, discover their creativity, socialize, reveal their self-esteem. The goal of the clinic is to prevent stressful situations in the family, and more importantly, the skills and abilities developed in these preventive treatments are to be used in everyday life. The concept of the clinic is holistic and solution-oriented.

Keywords: Wellbeingpreventive curefamilyeducation

Introduction

The purpose of this article is to present the organization and deployment of a preventive and rehabilitation program for the mother-father and child.

The pressure of time, self-doubt, work-related stress in the family, causes fatigue syndrome and mental, physical and emotional overload to some parents. Parents can develop dysfunctional behaviors that can cause behavioral disorders in children. (Morgan, Robinson, & Aldridge, 2002)

Factors that lead to such a measure of prevention and rehabilitation come from different plans, such as social, biological or psychological. Engel published in 1977 the paper entitled "The Need for a New Medical Model: A Challenge for Biomedicine" in which he explains the bio-psycho-social model and the need for such a model not only in medicine but also in other fields: sociology, education, psychology. Overloading parents with work tasks, raising and educating children, with the tasks involved in family life in general can become decisive factors for participating in such a rehabilitation cure.

Since the 1950s, the cure for recovery and prevention has been on the market, at the initiative of EllyHeuss-Knapp, who founded the charity and fundraising foundation: "Müttergenesungswerk" 2006.

As Ulrike Strerath-Bolz (2012) says, EllyHeuss-Knapp is the one who first spoke about the many weights and burdens of women, but also about their effects. This is how EllyHeuss-Knapp succeeded in the 50s to initiate the first rehab treatment for women. This cure provides preventive and rehabilitation services, financially supported by the health insurance house. It was only in 1989 that every parent's right to participate in such a preventive and recovery cure was legally passed (German Social Code, §§ 24, 41).

Main Body

Preventive Clinic

Let's see how to get into such a clinic, and what programs look like for the parents on one hand and for children on the other. It is worth mentioning that family members may be patients and / or accompanying persons.

It all starts at home. In order to benefit from this preventive and rabid cure, the following steps are taken: Under the guidance of the family doctor, a request is made to the health insurance house that specifies the need for such a stay.

The request is also checked and, in the case of an affirmative answer, setting a fixed date. This is where the preparations for your stay begin. The family is organized; luggage is being prepared for the 3 weeks of preventive cure.

Once in the clinic, family members are taken on demand as a patient or accompanying person. Accommodation is made in mini apartments, with an adult room and a children's room.

The type of accommodation can be described in a hotelier way, that is to say, the families benefit from accommodation, three meals a day, daily cleaning in the rooms. In addition, all children are supervised by age-qualified staff.

For those under three, there is a group, for those between three and five years, another group. Separate groups of careers and supervisors are organized for the pupils.

Families are accompanied by qualified staff throughout their stay, and the guidance and support provided is well established and in advance organized.

One of the main goals of the clinic is to optimize the relationship between parents and children. In addition, it is intended to optimize stress management, optimize time management, and achieve a state of well-being.

A rich sports and motion program as well as nutrition seminars or educational seminars complete the package of offerings by which parents according to their individual requirements can reach their desired goal.

The clinic referred to in this article is a private clinic that has been working for over twenty years with the health insurance house.

The clinic offers, according to their requirements and possibilities, the resources of each of them a set of well established programs and supported by qualified staff. Active participation in these programs is a necessary requirement in order to achieve the desired goal.

As Morgan, Robinson, and Aldridge (2002), mentioned in “Parenting stress and externalizing child behavior, Child and the Family Social Work”, the pressure of time, self-doubt, work-related stress in the family, causes fatigue syndrome and mental, physical and emotional overload to some parents. Parents can develop dysfunctional behaviors that can cause behavioral disorders in children.

Families are having the possibility to access a prevention clinic, to participate to multimodal programs which can be helping them to reduce stress or to or to improve the relationship between them and their children.

It was not always like this. Not every parent has had the possibility to join a clinic as that. It was only in 1989 that every parent's has right to participate in such a preventive. Recovery cure was legally passed. (German Social Code, §§ 24, 41)

Elly Heuss- Knapp was the first person who developed such a preventive help in the first time. At her initiative, this preventive help began in the 1950s. At the beginning it was developed only for mothers. (Elly-Heuss-Knapp-Stiftung/Müttergenesungswerk. 2018).

To show her appreciation, 2006 the charity and fundraising foundation was founded, named: "Müttergenesungswerk”, 2006.

As mentioned in the introduction of this paper, the factors that lead to such a measure of prevention and rehabilitation are coming from different plans. The bio-psycho-social model was explained and published in 1977, from Engel. In that paper he related about the need for such a model in more fields: medicine, sociology, education and psychology.

Methodology

There are five types of programs, different depending on the physical condition of the patient, the medical indication and the individual requirements. Some lectures such as "Stress Management", "A Quality Food" or "Welcome Conference" are activities with mandatory participation. Through the "welcome conference", patients are informed about certain rules of good practice, rights and obligations and contact the contact person if necessary.

Adult programs are made up of mandatory and formal courses, as follows:

The first program is addressed to patients in a better physical form without major health problems.

It contains the following mandatory scales: relaxation program, nordik walking, back fitness and streching. The patients will be able to do the following: Step and Dance Aerobics, aquapower, aquagymnastics, qi gong, physical exercises and bodyforming.

Program number two is addressed to those patients who are in a good physical form, but at the time their ability is low, for various reasons, for example backbone pain. This type of program also includes the following: relaxation program, nordic walking, backbone gymnastics, back gymnastics, streching, special water gymnastics programs. Optionally, the following activities are possible: qi gong and workout exercises.

Program number three is intended for those with orthopedic problems diagnosed and with precise indication from the doctor. This program consists of a relaxation program, nordic walking, back gymnastics, practical exercises and theory for a more fit back, water gymnastics and workout exercises.

Program number four is similar to the previous one, the difference is the patient´s mobility. And it varies according to the number of activities, which in this case is lower.

The latest adult program is for pregnant mothers. Here is the general condition of the patient, and what the echelons look like: relaxation program, nordik walking, backbone gymnastics and backpain exercises. Besides these, there are also customary scales: water gymnastics, breathing exercises and ergotherapy.

These programs are chosen by the patient's doctor during the stay, at the patient's discretion, after consulting and discussing with the patient in advance with the program.

Each adult patient may, depending on the medical indication and physician's advice, also benefit from:

Lectures and seminars on educational issues on nutrition, health, on specific topics such as ADHD in children and adults. They can also learn to cook fresh and healthy by attending a seminar where they go through "home recepies" and patients experience different ways to cook. For supraponderal patients there is a separate group where the emphasis is on learning a proper nutrition and eating behavior.

Medical baths, manual massage or hydrotherapy as well as electrotherapy are other ways to achieve a state of well-being or to improve certain skin diseases or muscle tensions. In addition to this, there is the possibility of individual educated counselors or psychological counselors.

Anti-stress seminars and anti-tobacco seminars can also be visited by adult patients.

For parents with children up to three years, an afternoon break is considered between 12:00-14:30 o´clock.

How are these programs organized? The individual plan for each patient is developed throughout the stay. These programs are tracked individually or in groups. The patient receives a weekly informational calendar and a daily one that shows the activities to be performed on that day.

All activities aim to allow the patient to achieve a state of well-being, relaxation, straightening behavior or optimizing the relationship between him and the child.

The Health Insurance House takes over the costs for all participants in the cure.

Conclusion

Participant’s satisfaction is internally tracked through their own questionnaire. Health insurance houses also have their own questionnaires for tracking customer satisfaction with treatments received during the recovery period.

74% of the parents, according to internal statistics, recommend the clinic and are satisfied with the treatment received and the results obtained. The average age is 36.9 years.

Although we are talking about a mother, father and child clinic, the figures show a much higher mother's presence in the clinic.

By following and comparing the internal data of the clinics, we see that the father's rate of participation with the child in rehabilitation is significantly lower than that of the mother.

The majority is the presence of mothers in the cure. Until 2002 these rehabilitation cures were provided for mothers only.

Figure 1: Gender participation rate in child rehabilitation program according to the internal statistics of the clinic, in the first period of 2015
Gender participation rate in child rehabilitation program according to the internal statistics of the clinic, in the first period of 2015
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Figure 2: Gender participation rate in child rehabilitation program according to the internal statistics of the clinic, in the first period of 2016
Gender participation rate in child rehabilitation program according to the internal statistics of the clinic, in the first period of 2016
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References

  1. Elly-Heuss-Knapp-Stiftung/Müttergenesungswerk (accessed 2018). Retrieved from https://www.muettergenesungswerk.de/unsere-geschichte.html
  2. Engel, G. (1977). The Need for a New Medical Model: A Challenge for Biomedicine. Science, 196(4286), 129-136. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1743658
  3. Medical prevention for mothers and fathers, German Social Code §§ 24 (1), (2), (3), (4), (2019)
  4. Medical prevention for mothers and fathers, German Social Code §§ 41 (1), (2), (3), (4), (2019)
  5. Morgan, J., Robinson, D., & Aldridge, J. (2002). Parenting stress and externalizing child behaviour. Child & Family Social Work, 7(3), 219-225. 
  6. Strerath-Bolz, U., (2012). Wie die First Lady ihr Herz für die Mütter entdeckte ,[How the First Lady discovered her heart for mothers], Berlin, Germany: Wichern.

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About this article

Publication Date

25 June 2019

eBook ISBN

978-1-80296-062-4

Publisher

Future Academy

Volume

63

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-

Edition Number

1st Edition

Pages

1-613

Subjects

Teacher, teacher training, teaching skills, teaching techniques, special education, children with special needs

Cite this article as:

Ioana, B. E., & Albulescu, I. (2019). When Prevention Works Literature Review. In V. Chis, & I. Albulescu (Eds.), Education, Reflection, Development – ERD 2018, vol 63. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 579-584). Future Academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.06.69