Chronic Illness Alliance

Invisible Illness

an online resource about
children and young people with chronic conditions
for school communities

Group of kids with some partly invisible

Student Health Support Plan

Why should a Student have a Health Support Plan?

This resource was made possible
by a grant from
The Jack Brockhoff Foundation

The Jack Brockhoff Foundation logo and link to their website

In preparing this section on
Student Health Support Plans,
the Chronic Illness Alliance would
like to thank and acknowledge the
important contribution made by
each of the following organisations:

The Royal Children's Hospital Education Institute logo and link to their website

ChIPS - Chronic Illness Peer Support logo and link to their website

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development logo and link to their website

Catholic Education Commission Victoria logo and link to their website

Independent Schools Victoria logo and link to their website

 

We are particularly grateful to Eliza, James, Jemma, Sarah, Tamara and Vassie for giving us the opportunity to learn from their many experiences at school.

 

About 15% of school-aged children and young people experience chronic illness.

Examples of chronic illnesses are Asthma, Cancer, Cystic Fibrosis, Diabetes, Epilepsy and Haemophilia.

 

A chronic illness is any long-lasting health condition that requires regular, but not necessarily constant, monitoring and treatment. It is often ‘invisible’ without any outward signs of physical limitation or disability. 

 

The illness may affect the student’s diet, learning style and capacity to exercise. It will certainly affect their quality of life and capacity to participate in activities. It may even be life threatening.

 

Work in Partnership with them...In most cases, how the illness is managed on a day-to-day basis will affect the student’s health and general well-being. The most effective way to support the individual needs of a student with a chronic illness is to work in partnership with them and their family or carer to devise a Student Health Support Plan.

 

To help all parties involved we have developed a step-by-step guide to preparing a Student Health Support Plan. A Student Health Support Plan outlines how the school will support a student’s health care needs, based on health advice received from the student’s medical/health practitioner.We have also created six very short video clips of students giving practical examples of how their schools helped them to overcome their individual challenges.

 

This is a link to a webpageA step-by-step guide to preparing a Student Health Support Plan

 

This is a link to a webpageView students telling their stories of practical school support

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