Inter-professional collaboration for the promotion of Public Health and Life Skills in upper secondary school – a Norwegian case study

ABSTRACT In Norway, the interdisciplinary theme Public Health and Life Skills has been introduced in the new National K–12 curriculum, with the intention of promoting students’ physical and mental health and enhancing their social and academic coping resources. This paper presents a case study related to a project of expanded student services in an upper secondary school and aims to identify how inter-professional teamwork may promote life skills among students. The data is derived from a case study design with qualitative focus group interviews among 16 teachers, health professionals, social workers, and school leaders. Results identify four main areas to address in the promotion of life skills: (1) teaching about life skills topics, (2) providing emotional support (3) enhancing relational competencies, and (4) facilitating mastery experiences. Clearly, inter-professional collaboration is regarded as mutually beneficial in this work. By involving healthcare professionals in the teaching of life skills topics, teachers feel supported in their teaching practice. Also, by visiting classrooms more often, health care professionals become more familiar to the students and make it easier for students to contact them. Moreover, inter-professional collaboration contributes to identifying students’ complex needs of support and promoting students’ life skills through social and academic mastery.