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An introductory workshop on PPIE for the undergraduates of Department of Health Promotions, Faculty of Allied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka (RUSL) and a community led workshop on Community based Health Promotion Process were held on 07th & 08th February 2019, at RUSL, Mihintale.
These workshops were jointly organised by IRD and RUSL in collaboration with the Keele University, UK and the South Asian Early Development and Research Capacity Building (SEARCH) Project funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), UK.
The workshop on Community based Health Promotion Process was conducted by a team of ten lay community members who had been trained on health promotion process and implementing health promotion interventions in their communities to address community perceived health issues in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka.
A decade ago, Department of Health Promotions, RUSL introduced a novel approach to work with and by people to improve their own health, which is now known as ‘Community based Health Promotion Approach’. In that, members of the general public are empowered to initiate and execute interventions in their own communities, allowing them to claim the ownership of the process. Department of Health Promotions facilitates the process and helps to improve capacities and skills of the communities.
The introductory workshop on PPIE was conducted by a panel of professionals including; Dr. Jim Elliott. Public Involvement Lead, Health Research Authority, UK; Dr. Steven Blackburn, Research Fellow: PPIE, Research Institute for Primary Care & Health Sciences, Keele University, UK and Ms. Adele Higginbottom, PPIE Project coordinator, Primary Care & Health Sciences, Keele University, UK.
Speaking at the inauguration of the workshops, Vice Chancellor of the RUSL Dr. B. A. Karunaratne, stated that RUSL focuses on excelling in multidisciplinary research which would bring direct benefits to the Sri Lankan community and therefore, would like to explore the new frontiers promoting the quality of research including PPIE. Prof. Diyanath Samarasinghe, Professor of Psychiatry, Dr. Sriyani Wickramasinghe , Dean, Faculty of Allied Sciences, RUSL, Prof. Athula Sumathipala , Keele University, Dr. Godwin Kodituwakkau, Chairman, IRD and academic staff of IRD and RUSL also attended the workshops.
Community Workshop
The first day (7th February) commenced with welcome addresses from the Vice Chancellor, Rajarata University and the Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences, Head of the
Department of Health Promotion, and Hon. Director of IRD. And was followed by a community led workshop on how lay people in different villages in Anuradhapura used Health Promotion to address issues affecting the wellbeing of adults and children in the areas in which they lived. This was one of the first of its kind where lay community members acted as resource persons and the students and visitors were participants. The workshop provided an opportunity for everyone to learn how the community used simple techniques and methods to reduce non-communicable-diseases risk factors, reduce substance use among males in villages, and reducing malnutrition among children.
Discussion: Health Promotion & PPIE
The final event of the day was a discussion on Health Promotion and PPIE which was chaired by Prof. Diyanath Samarasinghe and Prof. Athula Sumathipala. The discussion was extremely productive as lay community members, students and the visitors expressed their views and experiences.
Field Visit
The visitors from IRD and Keele University were taken on a field visit to Madawachchiya, Anuradhapura. We were invited to a house in the village which also served as a base of operations for the community. The villagers who had conducted health promotion projects within Madawachchiya presented their projects.
PPIE Workshop
Following lunch, an introductory PPIE workshop for undergraduate students of Department of Health Promotion, RUSL was conducted by Dr. Steven Blackburn, Ms. Adele Higginbottom and Dr. Jim Elliott.
Two Health Promotion students presented their undergraduate research to the visitors and other participants of the workshop.
