There is growing evidence that health and education are closely linked and influence other parameters such as poverty and income levels. It is known that education has the power to improve not only prosperity, but it has a huge effect on health outcomes. Despite the immense benefits, health literacy remains a challenge for the European public health. Research findings refer that more than a third of the EU population face difficulties in finding, understanding, evaluating and using information to manage their health (Sørensen et al., 2015). It is also important to emphasise that nowadays, the COVID-19 pandemic is spreading around the world. Health literacy must carry a significant impact during this pandemic in order to combat the faster spread of the virus. Considering these global pandemic developments, one of the main challenges is to provide appropriate healthcare and education to migrants and refugees throughout Europe. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi warns that the new wave of refugees arriving in Europe are living with very poor sanitary conditions, which are especially vulnerable to the pandemic. Therefore, difficult access to education and health literacy make this population extremely vulnerable. UNESCO recommends that education for health literacy should be learned in the same way as all other fields, both in formal and non-formal learning environments. Just as youngsters learn social habits that will enable them to face problems on their communities’ daily life, they must also learn and acquire the knowledge and habits of health that will enable them to achieve the highest possible degree of physical, mental and social health (Sanmarti, 1988). Health Literacy is a powerful strategy to contribute to the improvement of the population’s well-being, promoting citizenship in health, making people more autonomous and responsible for their own health and of those who depend on them and their community. For this reason, Health Without Borders project is to improve health literacy skills in young migrants, refugees and marginalised youngsters in an embedded learning perspective, while promoting a set of socio educational innovative approaches for front-line youth workers to raise awareness with young migrants and refugees about the importance of health literacy in their daily lives. Target-groups are: a) Young migrants, refugees and marginalised young people; b) Youth workers, social work specialists and non-formal educators. The key actions to achieve the aims of the project are: - Develop an innovative user-friendly Health Literacy Toolkit of Resources (IO1), which aims to foster Health Literacy skills, competences and attitudes by facilitating the access to audiovisual health information and improve their availability, while providing embedded learning opportunities. The main topics of the Health Literacy Toolkit of Resources are: (1) Digital Health Information & Social Media; and (2) Health Communication in Health Care Services, which will be embedded with (a) Multilingualism, (b) Science, technology, engineering e mathematics, and (c) cultural awareness. The resources will be built on Comics, Video Storytelling and Infographics. - Develop a front-line In-Service Training Programme (IO2) which aims to (a) present the educational resources on health literacy developed in the project; (b) better understand the principles of health literacy; (c) understand the importance of a cohesive communication strategy while working on health literacy with marginalised youth; (c) understand the principles and benefits of embedded learning environments with youth; (d) understand the principles and benefits of using comics, storytelling and gamification strategies while working with marginalised youth. - Develop a user-friendly Online Portal (IO3), aiming to (a) enable the access to all educational materials of the project in bite-sized units, according to the target-group learning needs, (b) establish a Health Literacy Repository, which will selectively disseminate projects and instruments that configure good practices in health education and literacy in the countries of the consortium; (c) facilitate peer-to-peer learning through a collaborative platform. -100 young migrants, refugees and marginalised youngsters will fully use the Health Literacy Toolkit of Resources (IO1); - 50 youth workers, social work professionals and/or non-formal educators will complete the In-Service Training (IO2) - 10 youth workers, social work professionals and/or non-formal educators will complete the short-term joint staff training event in Romania; - 20 representatives from the education and health field will be involved in the Local Working Groups; - 200 representatives from the main target-groups will attend and participate in Health Without Borders Workshops; - A minimum of 200 representatives from the main target-groups will be registered in the Online Portal.
With Health Without Borders project we were improving health literacy skills in young migrants, refugees and marginalised youngsters in an embedded learning perspective, while promoting a set of socio educational innovative approaches for front-line youth workers to raise awareness with young migrants and refugees about the importance of health literacy in their daily lives. We wanted to achieve: -Increased awareness about the health literacy needs of the target of youth immigrants and disadvantaged young people -increased awareness on the available tools and methods to support health literacy of immigrant people -increased access to health literacy resources (project portal and other online sources where to find specific educational contents) -Increased autonomy in the self development of multimedia communication resources in the field of health literacy - professional growth of youth workers necessary to help promote health literacy.
Research at global and European level have shown that low levels of health literacy are directly related to a higher number of hospital admissions and with greater use of emergency services and, also, with a lower prevalence of preventive individual and family attitudes in the field of health, leading to a lower quality of life. Moreover, nowadays there is strong evidence that health literacy contributes not only to health promotion and disease prevention, but also to the effectiveness and efficiency of national health services.According to the European Health Literacy Survey, among the poor health literate European population, more than 1 out of 4 people showed an inadequate ability to collect, process, understand, and use health-related information (Palumbo et al., 2016). Health education is a strategy to contribute to the improvement of health literacy and personal care of the population, promoting citizenship in health, making people more autonomous and responsible for their own health and of those who depend on them and their community.