Health outreach programmes

CUT is very active in health outreach programmes, commonly in the form of open-lectures, seminars, workshops or community events, some targeted towards health professionals and others towards the wider community (patients, families/carers, general public). In an effort to further enhance the reach, most of these activities are co-organized in collaboration with partners (and stakeholders) from the public sector (e.g. Ministry of Health, the Nursing Services of the MoH, public hospitals), professional associations (e.g. Nurses and Midwifes Association and its various Divisions – Community Nursing, Emergency and Critical Care Nursing, etc.), patient associations (e.g. Alzheimer’s Association, Cyprus League against Rheumatic Diseases), NGOs (e.g. Cyprus Breastfeeding Association, Birth Forward etc), or local schools (e.g. Pachna, rural community) and communities (e.g. Strovolos Municipality). Events and outreach programmes organized by the School of Health Sciences are systematically announced via the University news-announcements website (https://www.cut.ac.cy/news/).  In 2023, 38 listings of different activities (seminars, workshops, articles, outreach activities or other events) appeared in the News-Announcement page of the University – full list of activities.  Some selected characteristic examples are:

Local communities

  1. rECoRD (partnership Epidemiological Community study of Rheumatic Diseases): Joining forces with National League of People with Rheumatic Diseases on a Public Awareness Campaign of the burden of RMD, along with setting-up a day clinic in a rural community to offer free screening for RMD to the local residents, with the voluntary participation of nursing students, accompanied by team of Rheumatology Specialists, https://www.cut.ac.cy/news/article/?contentId=533820.
  2. Raising mental health awareness in primary school students. On October 10th 2023, as part of the celebrations for World Mental Health Day, students from the Master’s program in “Advanced Nursing & Mental Health Care, Nursing Departments’ and the Associate Professor of the Nursing department, Dr Maria Karanikola- Mental Health Nurse, visited the primary school of Pahna in Paphos region. The aim of the visit was to raise awareness among the senior students on mental health issues through experiential exercises focused on depression, anxiety, and anorexia nervosa. The exercises centered on social stereotypes regarding individuals facing mental health challenges, as well as when and from whom to seek help. The students, as well as the school’s teachers, had the opportunity to ask questions and discuss topics related to mental health. A video was also developed by the master’s students to raise awareness on the early access to mental health services, https://www.cut.ac.cy/news/article/?contentId=534270.
  3. The Endocrinology Society of Cyprus and the International Institute of Cyprus for Environmental and Public Health at the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences of CUT organised an open event on the occasion of World Obesity Day (March 4). The event was held under the auspices of the Municipality of Strovolos, https://www.cut.ac.cy/news/article/?contentId=512070.

Disadvantaged people

  1. Conference and workshop on “Shared decision-making between mental health professionals and people with neurocognitive/ neurobiological (mental health) disorders”, organized in the framework of the European Mental Health Week (22-29 May) and World Nurses Day (12 May), bringing together all stakeholders to break silos and give voice to people with lived experience of mental health challenges, who are commonly not represented in policy decisions, https://www.cut.ac.cy/news/article/?contentId=518770.
  2. European project @Erasmus+ SAVE – SCREENING OF ABUSE VICTIMS AMONG ELDERLY (https://www.projectsave.eu/): the programme aims to develop and adopt screening tools to detect elder abuse in health and social care settings, providing training and support to professionals for their effective implementation. The SAVE project co-created and offered the first  online training program in Greek on elder abuse, which was attainted by health and social care professionals and students in clinical programmes. (in  Greek: https://www.projectsave.eu/training/login/index.php), https://www.cut.ac.cy/news/article/?contentId=509580.
  3. As part of the paneuropean activities at the 2023 European Public Health Week, the School of Health Sciences in partnership with the Cyprus Society of Epidemiology and Public Health, organised an outreach event with national reach, addressing the academic, clinical and wider community, entitled “CURO, ERGO SUM: Diversity and Equality in Health”. The event was dedicated to the memory of CUT Professor Christiana Kouta who dedicated her life in the fight of health and social inequality and eliminating gender-based violence. The event featured invited speakers who were collaborators of the late professor, who discussed her research work and contributions, both nationally and internationally, on issues of eliminating discrimination and inequalities in health, protecting rights, and combating gender-based violence. This event had national reach, raining awareness on these issues and was placed under the auspices of the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare and the Office of the Commissioner for Gender Equality, https://www.cut.ac.cy/news/article/?contentId=518470.

Refugee/immigrant communities

The Department of Nursing at the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) launched a two-year European program entitled: “END FGM E-CAMPUS: E-Learning Portal for Professionals to End FGM in Europe”. One of the main aims of the programme is to develop, in partnership with a european network of collaborators, a digital training platform for frontline professionals on female genital mutilation, https://www.cut.ac.cy/news/article/?contentId=514830.