The theater has long been used to promote activities about complex topics of health (aids, obesity, alcohol, smoking). The strength of the theater for healthy lifestyles focuses on: being an instrument of knowledge, working with others (co-creation); awareness of verbal and non-verbal language to facilitate the inclusion of the less literate; helping the actors and the audience to reflect on their attitudes/behaviors; stimulating social behavioral change towards a vision of health promotion.

1. The theater for health promotion: a strategy for social
inclusion of the community tested by the
Local Health Unit of Modena (Italy)
Daghio Maria Monica, Vanoli Marco, Ciardullo Anna Vittoria, Fattori Giuseppe
The 22nd
International Conference on Health Promoting Hospitals
& Health Services, Barcellona (Spagna), 23-25 Aprile 2014
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2.
The theater for health promotion: a strategy for social inclusion of the
community tested by the Local Health Unit of Modena (Italy)
Daghio Maria Monica, Vanoli Marco, Ciardullo Anna Vittoria, Fattori Giuseppe
Introduction
The theater has long been used to promote activities about complex topics of health (aids,
obesity, alcohol, smoking). The strength of the theater for healthy lifestyles focuses on:
being an instrument of knowledge, working with others (co-creation); awareness of verbal
and non-verbal language to facilitate the inclusion of the less literate; helping the actors
and the audience to reflect on their attitudes/behaviors; stimulating social behavioral
change towards a vision of health promotion.
Purpose/Methods
In the Local Health Unit of Modena, a multidisciplinary group of health professionals
(hospital doctors, general practitioners, nurses, administrative operators, volunteers) is
testing the use of theater to actively involve the local community in health promotion. The
troupe “Anna & the Hospitalist”, create and perform sketches based on real life using ironic
and simple language which make people from every social group able to comprehend the
importance to adopting healthy lifestyles.
Conclusions
The participatory building of each performance, based on short comedy sketches, songs,
poems for promoting health, gives each one of the health professionals the opportunity to
become actively involved, understand the points of view of others and to learn which
words and gestures can reach and involve everyone, independent from the age, social and
cultural group. In this vision, the theater is an effective instrument of community building.
Friday, April 25, 2014