SCOPHEROES Leadership Program – Lebanon (LeMSIC)

Name of the activity: SCOPHEROES Leadership Program

Country/NMO: Lebanon (LeMSIC)

Program: Healthy Lifestyles & Non-Communicable Diseases

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Advocacy

General description:

They say that “The past cannot be changed and the future is yet in our power”, what an insightful saying that is and we do believe in it to the core as medical students and as member of an honorable organization such as IFMSA. We already have our endowments of self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. those endowments that enable us with the ultimate human freedom and the power to choose, respond, and change. so why not, as public health leaders, try and cease our hidden powers and make an impact on a governmental scale and on the level of decision and policy making!why not establish a rooted valuable presence on the national platform of official institutions and powerful ruling stakeholders!
In Lebanon the latter is actually a necessity rather than a commodity for us to experience an immense opportunity. we are a country that has been categorized as a land of social injustice, political chaos and overwhelming unpredictable decision making processes. and this is probably explained by our governmental representation where no public servant has been entitled of his position due to his past academic level or area of expertise, even our minister of public health doesn’t really exhibit a background in the medical or scientific areas. So how can true impact and change in health be achieved then?!
just take a glimpse into the mournful reality we endure as a country with the highest rates of NCDs: our 3 top mortality causes are CVDs including strokes, RTAs and DM. and don’t forget the ominous short life expectancy we have for our patients suffering from breast cancer among other neoplasms.
Diseases that are considered preventable if adequate measures are taken through proper policy making and reinforcement of law, sufficient on ground studies, actual understanding of the social determinants of health and sufficient installation of relevant accessible health care services. Isn’t health promotion and guaranteed safe future a right to be preserved and a responsibility held by the medical representative of our community?!
Depending on the previous, we as standing committee honoring public health and quality of life have decided to initiate the “SCOPHEROES leadership” program that aspires at graduating 10 fully equipped and skilled medical students through a series of thorough and diverse training on HiAP, lobbying and UHC among others to enable them to attend municipality and governmental meetings and tackle the previously mentioned public health threats and the means in addressing them and raising the voice of SCOPHEROES in reaching the power ceasing institutions of our country. a national program that will be exclusively covered by several media outlets.
The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: we can create a good future by creating a good present and that is exactly what we are trying to accomplish. our Leadership program will not only spread the culture of medical students and physicians being an integral foundation in health related decision making but will also shout out a wake up call to the public that yes SCOPH is here to secure a healthier brighter future

Focus area:

Prevention of NCDs and Health Promotion

Problem statement:

Throughout the past century or so, Lebanon as a country has been intertwined directly with numerous ominous terms and unfortunate titles such as social injustice, political chaos and overwhelming unpredictable decision making processes.
without mentioning some astounding facts when it comes to our formal representation:
Yes, the 31 members of our government including its head aren’t entitled of their positions due to their past academic level or area of expertise, even our minister of public health doesn’t really exhibit a background in the medical or scientific areas. So, we don’t entrust our qualified personnel with governmental posts and true impact and change on the ground was never really achieved and the same reality of course exists in other institutions like municipalities.
we have never even hosted or had throughout history medical students or significant numbers of physicians as public servants or leaders in our deteriorating political system.
the latter truly explains the mournful reality we suffer from in our everyday lives. It doesn’t come as a surprise to us to learn that the 3 top mortality causes in our country are coronary heart diseases including strokes, road traffic accidents and Diabetes Mellitus. and we do demonstrate really poor life expectancy for breast cancer among a multitude of other neoplasms not even reaching the 60s according to health data used by the WHO 2014 updates, World Bank and the United Nations for population. Sadly, our average life expectancy as a population doesn’t exceed 85 years of age either.(http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/country-health-profile/lebanon)
As you might have noticed non-communicable diseases are the roots of death spread in our country. Diseases that are considered preventable if adequate measures are taken through proper policy making and reinforcement of law, sufficient on ground studies, actual apprehension of the social determinants of health to be tackled and sufficient installation of relevant accessible health care services.
we as future public health leaders intend on addressing the previous and engaging our selves in one of a kind event that won’t alter our current situation considerably for now but is, however, considered the first prominent step in the journey of 1000 miles for health promotion and safety for our upcoming generations

Target groups and beneficiaries:

–>Our target group for this activity would be our 10 medical students that registered for participation and of course the upcoming SCOPHEROES that will undergo the program in the upcoming terms. this is achieved as mentioned in the goals and objectives above by training them thoroughly and exposing them to the world of policy and decision making.
–>Our short term beneficiaries would be other members not present in this particular activity when receiving the survival kit comprising all the essential knowledge that was transferred to our future public health leaders. the municipalities hosting us will also be portrayed to the public as an authority of transparency open to the specialized public to be part of its official procedures.
–>Our long term beneficiaries would be future participants in the SCOPHEROES leadership program so even our NMO will be more efficient with a highly qualified staff due to this capacity building event and if the program becomes implemented as a permanent activity throughout the years we might even start experiencing some significant social and political change when it comes to decisions related to our health.
–> the public view as a whole will be ignited positively and influenced by our presence and the essential value of having medical professionals experienced in the field of public health in empowering posts and positions

Objectives and indicators of success:

Vision:
All LeMISC scopheroes will become public health leaders as stated by the IFMSA-SCOPH vision.
Goal 1:
create a full access opportunity for medical students to health in all policies
—>subgoals:
1- equip medical students with the essential knowledge concerning HiAP
2- expose students to policy making and integrating them into its dynamics
3- reaching at least one fully empowered medical student to become a potential health leader
Goal 2:
spread the culture of medical student and future physicians in the process of decision making in governmental and non-governmental institutions.
OBJECTIVES:
->for subgoal 1:
1- by the end of january 2018, initiate a 3 scheduled training days in one of our universities to be attended by our SCOPH trainers and affiliated doctors and external speakers about HiAP, grassroots, lobbying, biofeedback, social determinants of health as well as universal health coverage for 10 active scopheroes that have been into at least one local or national event.
2- by the end of march 2018, an online SK outlining the whole training will be available to all medical students who weren’t elected as part of the program.
->for subgoal 2:
1- create a set of selection criteria from which 2 out of the chosen 10 trained scopheroes will be allowed to continue in the program and attend a governmental or municipality meeting.
2- by the end of March 2018, the 2 selected trained scopheroes will participate in at least 1 municipality meeting (Beirut, Tripoli,Saida municipalities) or in a meeting set by the Ministry Of Public Health MOPH where they will be part of the discussions taking place and will be responsible for:
• giving imput as well as biofeedback related to any policy or project suggested in the meeting
• convey the course of the meetings to the other trained members, trainers and mini-EB
3- By the end of December 2018, the “Scopheroes leadership” program will become an official one to adopt by the committee.
->For subgoal 3:
1- reaching at least 2 capable and equipped public health leaders from this program to run for 2 future positions in SCOPH locally and nationally in LeMSIC through the upcoming term 2018-2019
2- by the end of the first round of the program for this year in March, at least one of the graduated SCOPHEROES would carry on to attend another similar meeting for the same objectives stated above.
3- the 10 graduated SCOPHEROES would implement this program for the upcoming term 2018-2019 and help in ameliorating its success indicators, impact, number of participants (more than 10) and overall professionalism and visibility.
–>for goal 2:
1- increase the visibility of the whole program nationally by being covered by all social media outlets and at least by one TV channel
2- attempt a schedule to be set with the institutions for 2 other future specific meetings to be attended by 2 to 3 SCOPHEROES as of the beginning of the end new term 2018-2019
–>our indicators of success:
a- in terms of building capacity:
1- the completion of the training schedule for the 10 participants that will become experts in the fields of PH, SDs, HiAP, lobbying, grassroots and UHC.
2- the attendance of 2 scopheroes into one of the scheduled meetings with the municipalities and being able to convey their opinions regarding the ongoing discussions along with their acquired knowledge
3- publication of an equipped and professional survival kit
b- in terms of collaboration with the stakeholders of our community:
1-the acceptance of our sponsorship proposals by more than one municipality
2- satisfactory participation by the external speakers and trainers
c- in terms of impact on public health:
1- the reach of our activity to more than 1000 person of the public who have online access to be monitored by our social media outlet posts and views of the TV coverage online
2- acceptance for future meetings in the upcoming terms by the municipalities

Methodology:

Objectives implementation:
1- The OC was formed following one of our integral monthly meetings for this special activity and is comprised of 10 members from our SCOPH miniEB in collaboration with the Training Division Director.
2- the activity planning form including goals, objectives, methodology, barriers and SWOT analysis was placed by the OC before the initiation of the preparation for the event
3- Each member of the OC was then allocated a task relevant to the event as mentioned in the following points:
 Booking a suitable location in a university for the training
 preparation of sponsorship proposals for the municipalities to be contacted
 Recruitment 3-5 trainers including external speakers who are experts in the field of law and politics as well as experienced family physician
 preparation for a graduation ceremony to celebrate the SCOPHEROES and exhibit the benefits of the event
 Budget estimation and fundraising from our upcoming pre-screening event that already has a preformed OC
 SK preparation after the termination of the event
 establishment of the schedule of the training to be set in terms of titles and goals/objectives for each session to be delivered to the participants
 the recruitment process by determining the set of criteria on which the members will be chosen and how
 the evaluation process of the whole event for the participant as well as for the receiving institutions
 Advertisement for the event
according to the previous, each 2 members of the OC handled one of these responsibilities to be handled:
the visibility
 sponsorship
logistics
training with the TSDD
registration, selection and evaluation
each group already has a whats app group and we are receiving updates on the current flow and progress of work.
–>we are currently in the process of contacting the municipalities and trainers and setting up the training format as well as the schedule.
the activity timeline will go as the following:
1- the registration form will be sent once the preparatory phase is the activity is settled by the end of February.
2- the 3 training days will be separated on 2 weekends on fridays and saturdays by the be ginning of the month of March.
3- the graduation ceremony occurs by the end of March
4- the attended meetings in the municipalities is supposed to be schedules by the end of march after the graduation ceremony as well as the upcoming months on days specified by the municipality itself
5- the survival kit will be published in mid-May to be available for the members.
the overall duration of the event will be approximately a month and a half.

Plans for evaluation:

our evaluation process is divided into 2 phases:
–> the first one is a written evaluation sent to the accepted participant via a timed online google form testing their previous knowledge to be delivered in the training and to be filled.
++ the form will also contain a section for the expectations of the participants and their aspirations for this event
–> the post evaluation will also be sent to be filled online immediately after the end of the training which is similar to the pre-form and also will be set for a short period of time
the selection of the meeting attendants will be based 60% on the post-evaluation, 10% on the admitted motivation letters and 40% on their performance in their graduation ceremony that will exhibit all the communication and soft skills they have.
–> the second evaluation would be a verbal one by meeting up in a feedback gathering with the attendants of the meetings to evaluate the impact achieved through the training and their reflections.
–> an evaluation form will also be sent to the municipality(s) which will receive us to obtain a full picture of the attitude and presence of our SCOPHEROES and the reaction of the decision makers they sat with on the same table.