To start with, the group, which included and myself, were to discuss a contemporary health issue, which we would then be using this as a presentation. We decided that we would do our presentation on Body Dysmorphic Disorder. We each went away to gather our allocated information. This should enable us to each have a clear understanding of the information researched. We would then feed this back to each other. The information gathered would include what the issue was, how it affected young people, which model of health we would use and to think about which tool we would use to represent the presentation. This would ensure that we all took responsibility of our learning and understanding of the issue involved.
We decided what research each of us would do and fetch this back to the group. was to look at producing a leaflet, would look at models and approaches to health, would look at The World Health Guiding Principles and I would look at causes and symptoms (psychforums 2009) although we all did this as individuals, we shared the information during the presentation. I started the PowerPoint and e-mailed it to all members of the group. Our next meeting involved discussions on whether we could improve the PowerPoint or if we needed to omit any information. We were all very pleased with the PowerPoint and reminded each other that we should remember to add references and a bibliography.
The next stage of collaboration was to discuss how, alongside the PowerPoint presentation, we were to demonstrate the health promotion tool. We decided together that we would produce a leaflet, which explained in a friendly and easy to understand way, all about the issue, which in turn we would hope to get the point across about whether a young person may be suffering from Body Dysmorphic Disorder. ld create this but we would all have an input on its content and layout.
The following week a laptop was used so that we could have a look at the leaflet produced and all decided whether we were happy with it so far. I pointed out to that the leaflet currently made a diagnosis and that I did not feel that this should be the case; changes were made to reflect this. The point was not to say that the young person was suffering the health issue but to demonstrate the possibilities. At this stage of the process, we had a group tutorial. There was one member of the group who due to unforeseen circumstances was unable to fulfil their commitment to the group, therefore the remaining members of the group were to carry on and each take on extra responsibilities in place of the missing member, this being the demographics of Body Dysmorphic Disorder.
Having put together all our information on a PowerPoint, we were ready to have a practice run through. We got together at a Youth Club and ran through the presentation twice. We had decided that what we had researched and created ourselves, we would then be reading at the live presentation. There was one or two amendments to make but we were all in agreement with the changes. We had a thorough read through of the references and bibliography and were happy with those. The only remaining thing left was the leaflet, which was in production, we just had some little adjustments to make and who was producing this would make those adjustments and bring on the presentation day.
The presentation, in my opinion was a success. I was a little disappointed that I did not have time to read over the final version of the leaflet. Although I was nervous, I was confident we knew which part of the presentation we were each discussing and this flowed very well. I had been practising a particular word most of the weekend which I couldn’t say without getting tongue tied (dysmorphophobia), I ended up splitting it up into syllables to help me remember! I did achieve this. I was happy with the presentation and was able to answer questions at the end, every one of us worked hard.
The good news was that we passed, I was very happy as this was my first presentation and I did feel confident working with two second year students. Having the opportunity to work with the second years enabled me to take this experience into another presentation I was involved in so from my point of view I was thrilled to have been given this opportunity. I felt very proud throughout the whole group process; I was working amongst enthusiastic people and this I feel helped the group process run smoothly.