Men S Health Peer Education VOLUNTEER RESOURCE

Men’s Health Peer Education
VOLUNTEER RESOURCE

INDUCTION

Men’s Health Peer Education INDUCTION
Background (Tab 2)

Copyright

© Commonwealth of Australia 2015

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) encourages the dissemination and exchange of information provided in this publication. You are free to use, copy, distribute, display and perform work in unaltered form only (retaining this notice) for your personal, non-commercial, educational use or non-commercial use within your organisation.

The Commonwealth owns the copyright in all material produced by DVA.

Third party copyright

Wherever a third party holds copyright in material presented in this publication, the copyright remains with that party. Their permission may be required to use the material.

DVA has made all reasonable effort to:

·  clearly label material where the copyright is owned by a third party, and

·  ensure that the copyright owner has consented to this material being presented in this publication.

Creative Commons Licence

All material presented in this publication is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Australia licence, with the exception of:

·  the Commonwealth Coat of Arms

·  DVA logos

·  content supplied by third parties.

The details of the relevant licence conditions are available on the Creative Commons website, as is the full code for the CC BY 4.0 AU licence.

See the Creative Commons website (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Contact details

For enquiries about reproduction or other uses or corrections of this publication, please contact:

Department of Veterans’ Affairs
Attention: DVA MHPE National Coordinator
Health Promotion & Early Intervention
GPO Box 9998
Canberra ACT 2601

DVA registration number: P03027

Last review: 16/10/2015
Next review: 16/10/2017

Contents

Tab

Background 2

Using the Volunteer Resource 2

Nuts and bolts 3

Being a digger and a bloke 4

Getting started 5

Resources and activities 6

Background

The Men’s Health Peer Education (MHPE) program was established in response to findings in the Vietnam Veterans Health (Morbidity) Study (1997) that Vietnam veterans experience a higher incidence of certain health conditions. The program was established nationally following consultation with the veteran community at the conclusion of a pilot program in Tasmania in 1999.

The aim of the MHPE program is to raise the veteran community awareness of men’s health issues by encouraging members of the veteran and ex-service community to share the responsibility for managing their own health and wellbeing. The MHPE program trains volunteers to provide health information to their veteran peers to assist them in making informed lifestyle choices around their health.

The contribution of volunteers is vital to the success of the MHPE program and its operations. MHPE recognises and values the reciprocal nature of the relationship between the program and the individual, and is committed to providing a volunteer experience that both:

·  meets the needs and expectations of the individual volunteer

·  builds a relationship that together helps to achieve the aims of MHPE.

Acknowledgments

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) would like to thank Mr David Moles, Vietnam veteran and Chairman of the Tasmanian pilot for his help and advice in setting up the national MHPE program.

DVA would also like to acknowledge Mr Anthony Hoare, the National Aged Care Adviser to the Department, for the extensive work undertaken by him in assisting with the revision of the MHPE resource material in 2012.

Using the MHPE Volunteer Resource

Welcome to the MHPE program, and thank you for choosing to become a volunteer. The MHPE Volunteer Resource is a loose leaf format which allows for easy updating and management of printed materials. The resource materials in these folders are divided by numbered tabs into sections.

In ’Nuts and Bolts’ (Tab 3) you will find information about MHPE processes and practical advice about your role as a MHPE volunteer. As the name implies, ‘Being a digger and a bloke’ (Tab 4) considers issues related to male health and military service. The ‘Getting started’ section (Tab 5) looks at issues such as communication and self-care as a volunteer, and the challenges of changing health behaviours. The rest of the Volunteer Resource comprises health information and resources by topic, divided into Health Promotion, Illness Prevention and Health Management sections.

Health topic notes

The notes for each health topic have been specifically written for MHPE volunteers. Notes are based on the best-available evidence and consensus of expert health sources. The notes have been designed as a stand-alone resource, with sufficient accurate information to allow you to acquire a grasp of each topic without extra reading. On completion of your initial training you are encouraged to read each of the health topics at your own pace, before formally beginning your MHPE volunteering. Although the size of the folder may be daunting, the topic notes only average 5 or 6 double-sided pages. Websites are provided at the end of each topic to allow you to find extra information and resources if you wish.

Volunteers should not distribute health topic notes as a handout to their peers. If a peer needs information on a health topic, the volunteer should consider the MHPE Information Sheets (1 page handout) and/or locate information from a reputable organisation i.e. refer to the ‘Further information’ section of the health topic notes.

PowerPoint slides

Each health topic has a simple PowerPoint presentation (in the tab following the topic notes) that coincides with the notes. The topic notes closely follow the PowerPoint slides, so that volunteers can easily follow the presentation with minimal need for additional note-taking. Some presenters may use different or additional slides. You may also use the standard slides later if, as a volunteer, you elect to speak to a group (there is no requirement that you do so). Presentation skills will be covered at recall training.

If volunteers want to make changes to the PowerPoint slides, they need to provide a copy of the modified presentation to their DVA MHPE Coordinator who will organise for clearance from the MHPE National Coordinator.

Quizzes, activities, scenarios and other training aids

During your initial training, a selection of quizzes, scenarios and activities will be used by your trainers. As they have been designed for MHPE training, they are not suitable for distribution to your peers post-training.

Revisions and new content

The MHPE National Coordinator will notify volunteers in the MHPE National Newsletter that new or updated Volunteer Resource content is available to view and/or download from the DVA MHPE webpage (www.dva.gov.au/mhpe.htm)

To assist version control, the MHPE National Coordinator will also provide a summary of the updates to volunteers via the MHPE National Newsletter.

Reviewed: 16/10/2015 Page 3/6