Workshops for food handlers and public health workers

With the break down in hygiene and the schools and colleges not teaching microbiology as much as they once did, and also no longer teaching Home Economics, the public awareness of the role of microbes in health and disease has vastly diminished. This is more evident in farm and other workers handling food thereby a serious rise in food borne diseases such as due to E.coli, Salmonella and listeria etc is occurring.

Verbal instructions, even posting signs to wash hands before returning to work as is the common practice in restaurants is not sufficient unless this information is supplemented with actual hands-on demonstration of where the organisms are found and how they can readily transmit from the worker to the food he or she is handling.

The Center offers a two day workshop to food handlers, especially the supervisory staff, but feels that all workers need to take this workshop. Otherwise, it will be the same ineffective approach where the supervisors will be "telling" the workers what to do which becomes a behavior changing problem, a hard thing to accomplish. .

The importance of this workshop cannot be overemphasized especially in the light of human nature. Medical profession is still having hard time convincing surgeons and other hospital staff to wash hands methodically. Imagine how difficult it is for the farm and other food workers who do not have the kind of education the medical people have.

Since one of the purpose pf the Center, being an integrative education center, is to promote health and to bring this message to the masses, we have kept the fee for this workshop very low; only $100.00 for a two day, 8 hour workshop which price also includes all the supplies needed to do a real hands-on workshop.

To register for this workshop click registration for food handlers workshop.

Health care workers are required to have a broader knowledge base as they are to counsel their clients about all of the various aspects of human health which includes but not limited to, nutrition, cleanliness and psychological well being of the whole family including information abut child rearing.

Unfortunately, the component which is now increasingly missing in the repertoire of a health care worker is the knowledge of germs and diseases which is mainly due to the fact that our universities and colleges are no longer teaching hands-on courses of Microbiology as they once did during and up till the mid eighties of the twentieth century.

Likewise, the courses of Home Economics have been phased out making not only the health care worker but also his or her client less and less knowledgeable about the role of germs in health and disease. Reliance on internet as a means of educating the public, although sounds "modern" and a "progressive" way of doing things, does not have the capacity that a direct hands-0n demonstration has and even more so if the participants activity participated in the demonstration testing their own samples of hair and hand prints.

Even seeing the germs from their own mouth under a microscope has far reaching affect as the demonstration leaves a lasting imprint on the mind and the psyche of the individual. See a true story at: http://www.iibbt.com/sepah-eDanish.html of what happened in Iran and Pakistan when such a demonstration was done for the children and the general public.

This knowledge gap of germs and disease has now become so wide that unless steps are taken to bridge the gap, the public health worker will be increasingly fighting a loosing battle.

The Center's approach to alleviate this problem is to offer hands-on workshops to health care workers and also to their clients, especially the mothers.

We also believe that children, especially the elder child should also be required to participate in such workshops.

Consequently, this could be the most cost effective way to contain rising health care costs.

Regarding cost, our aim is to keep the cost as low as possible. Currently, we have set the fee at $100.00 per person for a eight hour two day workshop. This amount includes all the essential lab supplies required for a real hands-on, participatory workshop

To register for this workshop click Registration for health care workers workshop.