Three students from the Nursing School of Coimbra (ESEnfC) participated in the XVI INFAD International Conference on “Psicología y Sociedad en el XXI – Competências relacionales” which took place in Turin, Italy, on April 27-29 2009.
The students Aida Bessa, Licínia Santos and Sara Carvalho presented the project “Health with a Smile” which was developed within the scope of the Post-Licentiate Specialization Course in Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing in their clinical teaching about Community Mental Health Nursing.
This project aims to the development of social competencies among children at risk, focusing on disease prevention, mental health promotion and intervention in crisis situations.
It was concluded that the intervention in children from a basic school integrated in a problematic social neighbourhood “obtained positive results in improving the behaviours of children and their interpersonal relationships, with a possible influence in their self-esteem” (project summary).
The work developed by these nurses/students was supervised by teachers Rosa Cristina Lopes and Luís Loureiro.
The INFAD is the Associación Nacional de Psicología Evolutiva y Educativa de la Infancia y la Adolescência.