ANU medical student group paper - Utilising peer groups: a road to action to enable sustainability and health

Utilising peer groups: a road to action to enable sustainability and health

Paper by Rosalyn L. Hunt, Jacqueline S. Lam, Amy E. McKenzie,

Ellen A. Millard, Jennifer R. Moran, Louise F. Ragg, Amy E. Swanson, Scott A. Sypek

All authors are members of the Australian National University (ANU) medical student group,

the Sustainability and Health Action Committee (SHAC)

Short Biography

This paper was put together by eight students from the Susustainability and health action Committee (SHAC). SHAC was established in the ANU medical student body in Novemeber 2004 as a way of promoting action for sustainability and health at an every day level. Through various activities, SHAC has been successful in inciting individual changes for sustainability and health.

Abstract

Today’s society has become all too familiar with the knowledge that our unsustainable lifestyles are causing irreversible damage to the earths ecosystems. Yet this information has not been enough to incite the radical lifestyle changes necessary to halt, or even slow the predictions of environmental disaster. On the contrary, it seems that the doom and gloom predictions have only served to make the problems seem impenetrable. People need to be educated not only on the state of the environment, but more importantly on how to act to enable sustainability and health. This paper presents a practical model of a small peer group who have enabled changes in attitudes and behaviour towards sustainable living. Developed in a student body, this model could easily be utilised across all sectors to mobilise change for sustainability and health.

Introduction

This paper presents a practical model of how a small group have enabled changes in attitudes and behaviour towards sustainable living. Although the actions currently practiced by the group will influence global environmental health in a small way, it is the practicing of these actions, and the associated changes in individual and group psychology that will have the most far reaching benefits towards achieving sustainability and health.

Today’s young people are more informed about deforestation, pollution, emissions, extinction, salination and land exploitation than any previous generation. Despite this often frightening information overload, few of the radical changes necessary for sustainability and health have been undertaken. Clearly information overload and shock tactics are not enough to incite action. While it is necessary to be informed of the current and future state of the environment, it is equally important to be educated and empowered in ways to act.

This paper presents the use of a peer as one practical way of educating people in ways of acting to enable changes for sustainability and health.

The SHAC model

The Sustainability and Health Action Committee (SHAC) was formed in the Australian National University (ANU) medical student body in November 2004 as an action research project investigating the use of a peer group as an educative tool. The project was initiated in response to apparent poor environmental practices and knowledge of issues relevant to sustainability and health in the medical student body.

SHAC membership was open to all interested students, with the emphasis being on action for sustainability and health. Student support for the group was outstanding with 25% of the student population attending the first meeting. In its first six months of inception, SHAC organised an array of activities including the establishment of paper and non-paper recycling practices within the medical school; the promotion of the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle principles of sustainability; a ride to uni BBQ day; a seminar with world leading speakers entitled Sustainability of the environment and human health: how do they interact and what action should we be taking?; World Environment Day celebrations; participation in Clean-up Australia day and more.

In terms of group structure, SHAC operated on a philosophy of inclusiveness, with an open door policy for any new members who wished to join. The group encouraged the involvement of all members in group activities and decisions, utilising a rotating chairperson to ensure shared leadership. This allowed all members to develop leadership skills and responsibility for projects and activities, as well as ensuring sustainability of the group as a whole. All of these factors worked to develop a positive, creative, safe and fun working environment, and a socially cohesive group with a strong sense of group identity.

Although the model was developed in a medical school student body, this model could equally be applied to any sector looking to enable the changes necessary for sustainability.

The influence of the peer group: short term

Because SHAC began as part of an action research project, its influence was monitored from its inception. It was found that in the short study time of six months, 15% of the wider non-SHAC medical student peer group reported undertaking some sort of change in sustainable practice attributable to the influence of SHAC .

Of equal significance was the finding that 50% of SHAC members reported they had implemented changes in sustainable practice as a consequence of being involved in SHAC. Members also benefited from the SHAC process in that it made them more likely to act to initiate changes and advocate for the environment. On reflection of what they learnt from the SHAC process, most members commented on the positive and empowering experiences of working in a small group of similarly motivated people. As SHAC membership appeared to be the most powerful determinant of individual change it was encouraging that many students were either already group members (19% of the total student body), or reported considering joining SHAC (18% of the remaining “non-SHAC” student body).

The existence of SHAC in the student body has already influenced behavioural change. In this model of change however, it is not the individual changes in behaviour that will have the greatest influence on sustainability and health. It is the individual shift in psychology, and the collective shift in normative values that students will take with them into their future student and professional lives. The remainder of this paper discusses the components of the SHAC model that we consider to be useful in engendering long-term changes for sustainability and health.

The influence of the peer group: long term

Empowerment: ideas into action

Psychological studies have established that a strong factor in the process of empowering people to act is involvement in small groups . According to Zimmerman (1995), empowerment of individual group members is interdependent with the empowerment of the group as a whole to gain mastery over the issues of concern to them. The small group helps members to enhance their skills and gives them the mutual support necessary to achieve group goals and community level change.

The inclusive structure and common values of SHAC created energy to work towards common goals. The group worked on the premise that small steps can make a difference. Recycling and minimising power and water usage does contribute to a sustainable way of living. When such behaviours become normalised, they are then easily transferred to the workplace and community. Once ingrained, these sustainable ways of living will have quantifiable consequences for global health.

The empowering features of the small group process were evident in a survey of SHAC members conducted six months into the group’s existence. Members were asked what they had learnt from being a member of SHAC. 54 percent cited the benefits of working in a team, and 35% that small steps and individual actions are worthwhile:

• a small group of people can together achieve quite a lot. Achieving this does not require time and effort to the point of interfering with other things in my life, in fact it enhances and complements. Being a member of something like SHAC makes me feel good

• the idea we can actually make a difference, before it felt like it was beyond my control

• I’ve gained willingness to initiate change, rather than follow once change has been in place

• that a lot of people (non-SHAC members) don’t believe that their small actions can make a difference. I learnt as a member of SHAC that they can.

Benefits of a peer group: changing from within

SHAC was particularly successful in enabling change because it was a subset of a larger peer group. By utilising already established connections amongst group members, and the appropriate peer mode and manner of communication, the peer group is in an ideal position to deliver successful day-to-day education on issues of sustainability and health. This social cohesiveness allowed for ideas to permeate in an ‘inside out’ manner, facilitating the timely uptake of ideas, and the conversion of these ideas into action.

The peer group model is an especially powerful tool in the student setting. Students enter the workplace as relative outsiders, not yet institutionalised. Team this with a strong commitment to sustainable practice and an awareness of how change can be enacted at an every day level, students are in an ideal position to question accepted practice and identify areas where sustainability could be improved. As they gradually become a part of a new peer group in the hospital setting, students will be in an even stronger position to enable change.

Another important use of peer groups that exist in many work places is the use of mentors. As students or workers progress towards more senior positions, they are likely to adopt the role of mentor for more junior incoming workers. Mentors have a very important and influential role in teaching and role modelling the art of their profession. In this often one to one teaching capacity, mentors are in the perfect position to influence their mentees towards actions for sustainability and health.

Nurturing the enlightened

In the SHAC model it was observed that the most marked shifts in attitudes and behaviour were among people who were directly involved in the SHAC group. This is consistent with a social identity theory of group dynamics which predicts that individuals who identify with a group find that their own ideals and practices begin to conform more closely to the ideals of the group .

In the SHAC model, it is likely that those who chose to participate in SHAC were already dedicated to acting for environmental sustainability. Involvement in a group of like-minded individuals gave these people a supportive environment that enabled them to develop their views and encourage sustainable behaviour. Whilst critics may brand this “preaching to the converted,” it is perhaps better to label it “nurturing the enlightened”. It is conceivable that without a support network such as SHAC, commitment to sustainability could weaken in the face of competing pressures such as study, work and peer group apathy.

Equally in this model, when students graduate and move away from the student body they will need to seek their supportive nourishment from a similar peer group, whether it is one they establish themselves, or a national professional body like Doctors for the Environment Australia.

It is likely that in many sectors there are groups of individuals that care about working for sustainability and health, but are unlikely to act without the synergy created by interacting with like-minded people. “Nurturing the enlightened,” is indeed a powerful tool in facilitating change for sustainability and health.

Shifting the norm

Perhaps the most powerfullong-term benefit of the peer group is its capacity to shift the cultural norms of the larger group of which it is a part. They can do this through modelling, education and information campaigns, but also simply by involving community members in the group itself. This normative effect on the larger group was evident in the SHAC experience.

The visible presence of SHAC and its awareness raising activities put the message of sustainability into the consciousness of the larger group. When a substantial proportion of the peer group demonstrate a commitment to sustainability it changes the way even those who do not agree with the principle think about it. Rather than being an obscure and radical idea easily dismissed, it becomes normalised and even mainstream, and therefore a message more likely to be given attention.

Huge cultural shifts can and do occur. Previously unheard of behaviours quickly become normal in our society. Mobile phones, e-mail, and ‘surfing the net’ are examples of how change has rapidly been adopted by all ages, sectors and socioeconomic groups. This new use of technology became the norm, and people quickly shifted to fit it. A similar example is the rapid uptake and use of “green bags” in supermarkets.

If we are to change the foundations of our consumerist society that are causing us to live in an unsustainable way, we will need a rapid and widely adopted cultural shift making sustainable practices normative. This will be made possible by the action of many peer groups amongst all sectors working to enable change from within.

Today’s society has become all too familiar with the knowledge that our unsustainable lifestyles are depleting the earth’s natural resources and causing irreversible damage to its ecosystems. Yet this information has not been enough to incite the radical lifestyle changes necessary to halt or even slow the catastrophic predictions of environmental disaster. On the contrary, it seems that the doom and gloom predictions have only served to make the problems seem impenetrable. People need to be educated not only on the state of the environment, but more importantly how to act to enable sustainability and health. This paper has presented one successful model for enabling change.

The SHAC model empowered individuals to effect change through the nurturing qualities of being in a group of like-minded people. The individual’s action is made more worthwhile knowing that similar action is being echoed by a peer, and a more significant result will thus be achieved. A group environment is able to reinforce ideas within the group, whilst strengthening its merit to outsiders. By utilising established relationships and modes of communication, a peer group is in a powerful position to influence the wider peer group from the inside out. This allows for a shift in the cultural norm to occur, eventually extending the effects beyond the peer group itself.

The power of this cultural shift extends beyond the parameters of the original small group in which it was developed. Whether the original peer group is within a university faculty or an office workplace, the individuals will in time move to different positions, carrying with them ideas and ways of acting for sustainability and health. In these new positions, they will be part of a new workplace, empowered with the tools and strategies of utilising a peer group to facilitate change from within.

If we are to make improvements to our lifestyles in order to achieve sustainability and health, all people must learn how to practice change in their everyday lives. This paper has presented one strategy of empowering people to effect these necessary changes.

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