Rainbows: a primary health care initiative for primary schools

Within the current Australian health system is the understanding of a need to change from the predominate biomedical model to incorporate a comprehensive primary health care centred approach, embracing the social contexts of health and wellbeing. Recent research investigated the benefits of the primary health care philosophy and strategies in relation to the Rainbows programme which addresses grief and loss in primary school aged students in Western Australia. A multidisciplinary collaboration between the Western Australian Departments of Health and Education enabled community school health nurse coordinators to train teacher facilitators in the implementation of Rainbows, enabling support for students and their parents. The results of this qualitative study indicate that all participants regard Rainbows as effective, with many perceived benefits to students and their families.