Our colleagues Lucia Bosakova and Zuzana Dankulincova attended annual network meeting of DIPEx international online. On November 16, 22 and 23 network members from all around the world discussed their work progress in the last year, limitations and opportunities raised during COVID-19 pandemic and plans for international collaboration in the upcoming years. What a wonderful time with inspiring people.

DIPEx International is a unique global collaboration of scholars, clinicians, and patients committed to enriching our understanding of people’s experiences of health, healthcare and illness and bringing that new knowledge into the world.

In case you want to learn more about DIPEx international, visit https://dipexinternational.org/

Prof. Andrea Madarasová Gecková, a head of Department of Health Psychology and Research Methodology at Medical Faculty of PJ Safarik University in Kosice and Bc. Marek Džalaj, a head of Children organisation Fénix met on 23 November 2021 and signed a Memorandum. We continue our collaboration on health and health-related behaviour of adolescents and we are looking forward to the next productive steps ahead of us.

Experts from various fields focused on teachers’ mental health spoke openly about the effects of pandemics, lockdowns and distance learning on teachers mental health and how they cope with this difficult life situation.

Prof. Andrea Madarasova Geckova sumarized research findings on mental health challenges of being teacher during pandemic and preliminary research findings from our APVV GenZer study on the role of teachers in school-related well-being of school-aged children.

Link on lecture: https://youtu.be/rXg-J1bXmr8?list=TLGGPkYtOtOogRUyMzExMjAyMQ

Link on online conference: https://www.dusevnaimunitaucitelov.sk/

On 19th November our PhD students Veronika Pacutova and Viktoryia Karchynskaya met with Sofie Koch, who is PhD student in SDU and one of the authors of the article “Exploring implementation of a nationwide requirement to increase physical activity in the curriculum in Danish public schools: a mixed methods study” (https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12152-2). They discussed physical activity among Danish and Slovak adolescents.

Veronika Pacutova and Viktoryia Karchynskaya embraced the possibility from Erasmus+ program for Student Mobility for Traineeships. Currently they are visiting the University of Southern Denmark in Odense (SDU). They have plans to meet various professionals focusing on similar topics of their research from Odense, Esbjerg and Copenhagen.  

On 18th November, they firstly personally met their supervisor from SDU, who is associate professor Gabriel Gulis with his focus on health promotion (https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daaa127).  

Our research team realised a cross-sectional survey focused on mental health challenges of health care workers during first and second wave of coronavirus pandemic in Slovakia. Some preliminary findings were selected and visualized by our colleague Veronika Pacutova.

Link on animation: https://youtu.be/DU-gpsqvLGg

Frontline health care workers are exposed to not only physical but also mental strain during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although they are willing to go beyond their own strength in a given situation, if they remain alone, some of them will withdraw. According to professor Reinhard Strametz, two-thirds of secondary victims of a pandemic respond dysfunctionally to an adverse event. Prof. Andrea Madarasova Gecková was a guest of podcast organized by MediPravnik.

Link on podcast: https://www.podbean.com/pu/pbblog-28pst-6d8aba

What does a health care professional experience after a patient’s health is revealed? As a society, are we able to perceive the complexity of the situation in which the health care provider finds himself? How to approach it with respect and understanding?

These questions were answered and you can listen to them in the following podcast here organized by Chamber of Medical Law – Medius.

Guests:
JUDr. Marika Barabas Pavlíková
JUDr. Ivan Humeník, PhD
MUDr. Branislav Chrenka
prof. Mgr. Andrea Madarasova Geckova, PhD
PhDr. Silvia Pekarcikova, MPH, MHA
Moderator: Zuzana Kovačič Hanzelová

This time we visited an elementary school in Prešov in collaboration with the team from University of Prešov. The usual data collection was accompanied by the objective measures. We are confident to continue the data collection despite the current deteriorating epidemiological situation.

Members of the Slovakia team attended online meetings of the Autumn HBSC Meeting 2021 that took place between 3^rd – 5^th of November. We shared valuable information with our colleagues from other countries concerning current pilot data collection as well as the upcoming main data collection scheduled for the Spring 2022.

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