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The American Camp Association and Association of Camp Nursing collaborated for the creation of the Healthy Camps initiatives from 2006-2020. During that time, the initiative developed a holistic approach to a healthy camp framework by examining and addressing a range of challenges experienced by camp programs in the United States. Camper and staff mental, emotional, and social health (MESH) became an important focus, as camp professionals grew increasingly concerned with the behaviors and challenges exhibited by campers and staff during their programs. The purpose of this article is to share the extensive work and resources developed by the Healthy Camps initiatives to help camp professionals address the mental, emotional and social health needs of their campers and staff.

Background: Camp experiences contribute to a range of positive developmental youth outcomes, but camp experiences also pose a risk for youth because of potential exposure to injuries and illnesses. The camp community has lacked both a methodology and effective benchmarks for injury and illness monitoring. Furthermore, camp-related policy recommendations have lacked the support of generalizable data addressing the risk of injuries and illnesses at camp. The need for systematic exploration of when, where, and how injuries and illness occur in camps created an opportunity for administrators and healthcare providers to improve camp safety by understanding injury and illness trends and implementing effective practices to better manage risk. Purpose: The purposes of this study were to benchmark illness and injury rates among campers and staff at U.S. summer camps; to understand risk factors associated with such adverse events; and to use the surveillance methodology to identify intervention strategies to reduce the incidence of camp injuries and illnesses. Methods: Data were collected using a Web-based injury and illness surveillance program called CampRIO™ (Reporting Information Online). During the 10-week summer data collection period, healthcare staff from participating camps logged into CampRIO™ weekly to enter exposure and illness/injury data. Data were also collected using a post-study camp director survey. Results: The sample size ranged from 186 (low) to 295 (high) participating camps across the five study years. The overall illness rates indicated that campers and staff in both day and resident camps tended to have twice as many illness events than injury events. In addition, campers and staff involved in day camps tended to have lower rates of illness than campers and staff involved in resident camps. In some study years illnesses associated with the respiratory tract were most prevalent and in other study years illnesses associated with the gastro-intestinal tract were most prevalent. Data indicated that lower extremity injuries were most common and slips, trips, or falls was the most common mechanism of injury. In about 40% of all injuries protective equipment was a required component of a camp activity but not used in about 15% of these cases. Sixty percent of resident camper injuries and almost 30% of day camper injuries occurred during free time. Online modules were created and delivered to participating camps and a number of promising healthcare practices were learned through completion of the online modules. Conclusion: The systematic monitoring of injuries and illnesses in camps illuminated trends that yielded specific, practical strategies that camp healthcare staff and administrators could use to improve camp experiences for participants and staff. Camps now have an evidence base in the form of national injury and illness benchmarks provided by this study, and these benchmarks can guide both promising practices and effective policies. Methodologies like the one used in this study contribute to the viable tools available to camp providers for illness and injury surveillance.

"Transition of care" is defined as the movement of an individual from one setting of care to another and involves communicating with appropriate out-of-camp stakeholders such as parents, teachers, and community health care providers to identify youth needs (before camp) and outcomes achieved (after camp) so desired health goals may be shared across youth settings (e.g., home, school, community). Informed by management continuity and informational continuity theoretical frameworks, transition of care describes how activities such as recordkeeping and sharing of information from one team of caregivers to another improves the quality of services. When considered within the context of a child's summertime experiences such as summer camp, attention to transition of care from a child's academic year to summer, and from summer to a child's academic year, may improve the quality of children's summertime experiences by ensuring that a child's health and well-being are both fully supported and promoted across the calendar year. Transition of care communication practices are strengthened through the use of electronic health records (EHRs) and systems that support the sharing of information across stakeholders. This article contextualizes transition of care communication for the camp community, addressing implications for practice, research, and policy, to encourage the development of a comprehensive system that supports transition of care practices; a system that will require the buy-in of camp institutions, third-party camp software companies, camp organizations, and families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevention of injuries to children and staff is of critical importance to recreation providers. Although program providers often document participant illnesses and injuries, the power of intentionally monitoring and sharing this information has not often been tapped in the recreation field. This article demonstrates how an injury and illness surveillance program was used to reveal patterns of injuries and illnesses within day and resident camps. These patterns suggested that children are less likely to be injured in day and resident camp settings when compared with participation in community-based sports, and, additionally, illustrated an organizing framework for injury and illness prevention that may to useful to other youth program providers. Primary injury topics appeared to be supervision patterns, falling on uneven terrain, and head injuries. Preventative strategies suggest analysis of levels of supervision, footwear policies, and activity-specific head protection. Two significant clusters of illness were identified. One included throat, nose, lung, ear, and eye maladies, while the second was comprised of upper and lower gastrointestinal illnesses, those often associated with what one eats or is exposed to (e.g., Norwalk virus). Proactive approaches to illness management center on maintaining resilience so people are less susceptible to pathogens and implementing practices that minimize the potential that someone will get ill. The innovation of sharing of data in a systematic way proved helpful in understanding illness and injury. The systematic investigation of when, where, and how injuries and illnesses occurred brought to light trends that yielded specific, practical strategies that administrators can implement to improve safety for staff and participants. This new approach to understanding what is happening in youth programs allows for targeted intervention based on real data rather than perceptions of trends. As program administrators work to improve health and safety, understanding the trends related to illness, injury, and proactive management can make a difference in safety improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the management of communicable diseases in the camp setting, with differences between day and resident camps regarding communicable illness exposure. Several strategies that, if utilized, help minimize the potential that communicable illness will occur and prevent them include ask that each camper and staff member arrives well rested, nourished and hydrated, and state that the camp reserves the right not to admit people who pose a communicable disease risk to others.