Health education is a profession of
educating people about health. Areas within this profession encompass
environmental health, physical health, social health, emotional health,
intellectual health, and spiritual health, as well as sexual and reproductive
health education.
Health education can be seen as the
principle by which individuals and groups of people learn to behave in a manner
conducive to the promotion, maintenance, or restoration of health.
However, as there are multiple definitions
of health, there are also multiple definitions of health education.
In the U.S., the Joint Committee on Health
Education and Promotion Terminology of 2001 defined Health Education as any
combination of planned learning experiences based on sound theories that
provide individuals, groups, and communities the opportunity to acquire
information and the skills needed to make quality health decisions.
The World Health Organization (WHO) distinct
Health Education as consisting of consciously constructed opportunities for
learning involving some form of communication designed to improve health
literacy, including improving knowledge, and developing life skills which are
conducive to individual and community health.
In knowing the history of health education, It
might be surprising to some to learn that the origins of health education came
from the ancient Greeks in the 6th - 4th centuries B.C.E. Documents have been
found that prove they moved away from supernatural and superstitious views of
health and toward natural causes of diseases. They wrote about fighting illness
and maintaining good health being related to physical health, social
environments, and human behavior.
The Greeks had the goal of empowering
individuals and communities through health education and skill development
identifying supportive environments and policies to encourage taking medicine
and maintaining healthy habits.
In the United States, health education
started with private businesses rather than the government. After a hookworm
epidemic in 1917, the Rockefeller Foundation pushed for professionals who could
dedicate their lives to public health and teaching about proper sanitation to
prevent illnesses.
The founding of the President's Committee on
Health Education in the 1970s started the modern roots of health education.
This was a project championed and started by President Richard Nixon,
recognizing health educators as a profession for the first time.
This was followed by the opening of the
National Center for Health Education in 1975 and the Department of Health and
Human Services and the Department of Education in 1980.
Today there are more than 250 academic
programs to prepare health educators. This includes bachelors, masters, and
doctoral-level degrees in the field.
In this article you will know about what Health is Education? Purpose
and Importance.
What is Health Education?
Health education is a social science that
draws from the biological, environmental, psychological, physical and medical
sciences to promote health and prevent disease, disability and premature death
through education-driven voluntary behavior change activities.
Health education is the development of
individual, group, institutional, community and systemic strategies to improve
health knowledge, attitudes, skills and behavior.
The purpose of health education is to
positively influence the health behavior of individuals and communities as well
as the living and working conditions that influence their health.
Health education can be seen as the
principle by which individuals and groups of people learn to behave in a manner
conducive to the promotion, maintenance, or restoration of health. However, as
there are multiple definitions of health, there are also multiple definitions
of health education.
Health education is can be also as the set
of philosophies and methodologies that educate the general public, healthcare
practitioners, and communities about anything related to health. It draws from
disciplines that include biology, environmental science, ecology, psychology,
physical science, and medical science.
It is used to promote good health as well as
prevent disease, disability, and early death. Health education encourages
voluntary behavioral changes and positive influences. It can happen at the individual, group,
institutional, community, or systemic level. It attempts to address attitudes,
behaviors, and skills that can improve wellness.
Purpose of Health Education
Health education combines and integrates
knowledge from many different
scientific disciplines. It
encourages positive attitudes toward healthy choices and changes. It provides
the skills and knowledge to form lifelong habits.
Health education is about more than just improving the life or health of one person. If one person changes their habit those around them are likely to observe and possibly improve their health.
Parents can teach their children healthy habits to prevent future illnesses. If
an individual is healthier, they save money on health care, have better work
habits, and spend money throughout the economy on aspects such as
entertainment, travel, lifestyle, and other needs, rather than health costs on
preventable illnesses and diseases. If a family is healthier, they have the
same benefits as individuals. The kids can attend school regularly; they can
spend money on toys and activities that might otherwise be spent at hospitals
or on medication.
At the community level, this can reduce the
burden on doctors, clinics, hospitals, and workplaces. The cost of illness is
high both financially
and in terms of human resources. A shortage of doctors, nurses, and other
specialists is less likely among a generally healthy population. These concepts
scale up to the state, national, and world levels.
Preventing premature deaths, avoiding
preventable illnesses and diseases, and maintaining a healthy population is a
benefit to all levels of society.
Health promotion and disease prevention programs focus on keeping people healthy. Health promotion programs aim to engage and empower individuals and communities to choose healthy behaviors, and make changes that reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases and other morbidities.
Defined by the World Health Organization, health promotion: “enables
people to increase control over their own health. It covers a wide range of
social and environmental interventions that are designed to benefit and protect
individual people’s health and quality of life by addressing and preventing the
root causes of ill health, not just focusing on treatment and cure.”
Disease prevention differs from health
promotion because it focuses on specific efforts aimed at reducing the
development and severity of chronic diseases and other morbidities. Wellness is
related to health promotion and disease prevention.
Wellness is described as the attitudes and
active decisions made by an individual that contribute to positive health
behaviors and outcomes.
Health promotion and disease prevention
programs often address social determinants of health, which influence
modifiable risk behaviors.
Social determinants of health are the
economic, social, cultural, and political conditions, in which people are born,
grow, and live that affect health status.
Modifiable risk behaviors include, for
example, tobacco use, poor eating habits, and lack of physical activity, which
contribute to the development of chronic disease.
Typical
activities for health promotion, disease prevention, and wellness programs
include:
· Communication:
Raising awareness about healthy behaviors for the general public. Examples of
communication strategies include public service announcements, health fairs,
mass media campaigns, and newsletters.
· Education:
Empowering behavior change and actions through increased knowledge. Examples of
health education strategies include courses, trainings, and support groups.
· Policy, Systems, and Environment:
Making systematic changes – through improved laws, rules, and regulations
(policy), functional organizational components (systems), and economic, social,
or physical environment – to encourage, make available, and enable healthy
choices.
Why is Health Education Important?
• Health education improves the health
status of individuals, families, communities, states, and the nation.
• Health education enhances the quality of
life for all people.
• Health education reduces premature deaths.
• By focusing on prevention, health education
reduces the costs (both financial and human) that individuals, employers,
families, insurance companies, medical facilities, communities, the state and
the nation would spend on medical treatment.
Often Asked Questions on Health Education
Who Provides Health Education?
• Some people specialize in health education (trained and/or certified health education specialists). Others perform selected health education functions as part of what they consider their primary responsibility (medical treatment, nursing, social work, physical therapy, oral hygiene, etc.). Lay workers learn on the job to do specific, limited educational tasks to encourage healthy behavior.
• Para-professionals and health professionals from other disciplines are not familiar with the specialized body of health education knowledge, skills, theories, and research, nor is it their primary interest or professional development focus. This will limit their effectiveness with clients and communities, and their cost-effectiveness.
• Health education requires intensive specialized study. Over 250 colleges and universities in the US offer undergraduate and graduate (Masters and Doctorate) degrees in school or community health education, health promotion and other related titles.
• Nationally, voluntary credentialing as a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) is available from the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc (NCHEC).
• CHES competencies (health education needs assessment; program planning, implementation and evaluation; service coordination; and Health Education needs, concerns, resource communication) are generic to the practice of health education, whether it takes place in schools, colleges, workplaces, medical care settings, public health settings or other educational settings of the community. CHES are re-certified every five years based on documentation of participation in 75 hours of approved continuing education activities.
What is Health Education and Why is it Important?
Health education is giving people the
skills, tools, and knowledge to live healthier. It has been proven to reduce
early death, preventable diseases, and it is cheaper than treating the
illnesses it prevents.
What are Examples of Health Education?
Health education is everything from signs
reminding someone to wash hands in the bathroom to courses on advanced
nutrition. It can happen at the personal level or the community level. It can
be in advertising and workplace incentive programs.
What is the Main Purpose of Health Education?
The main purpose of health education is to
teach people how to make healthier choices. This could happen at the individual
level through the societal level. It offers the skills, training, and knowledge to decrease
illness and preventable diseases.
Where is Health Educators Employed?
• In schools health educators teach health
as a subject and promote and implement Coordinated School Health Programs,
including health services, student, staff and parent health education, and
promote healthy school environments and school-community partnerships. At the
school district level they develop education methods and materials; coordinate,
promote, and evaluate programs; and write funding proposals.
• Working on a college/university campus,
health educators are part of a team working to create an environment in which
students feel empowered to make healthy choices and create a caring community.
They identify needs; advocate and do community organizing; teach whole courses
or individual classes; develop mass media campaigns; and train peer educators,
counselors, and/or advocates. They address issues related to disease
prevention; consumer, environmental, emotional, sexual health; first aid,
safety and disaster preparedness; substance abuse prevention; human growth and
development; and nutrition and eating issues. They may manage grants and
conduct research.
• In companies, health educators perform or
coordinate employee counseling as well as education services, employee health
risk appraisals, and health screenings. They design, promote, lead and/or
evaluate programs about weight control, hypertension, nutrition, substance
abuse prevention, physical fitness, stress management and smoking cessation;
develop educational materials; and write grants for money to support these
projects. They help companies meet occupational health and safety regulations,
work with the media, and identify community health resources for employees.
• In health care settings health educators
educate patients about medical procedures, operations, services and therapeutic
regimens, create activities and incentives to encourage use of services by high
risk patients; conduct staff training and consult with other health care
providers about behavioral, cultural or social barriers to health; promote self-care;
develop activities to improve patient participation on clinical processes;
educate individuals to protect, promote or maintain their health and reduce
risky behaviors; make appropriate community-based referrals, and write grants.
• In community organizations and government
agencies health educators help a community identify its needs, draw upon its
problem-solving abilities and mobilize its resources to develop, promote,
implement and evaluate strategies to improve its own health status. Health educators
do community organizing and outreach, grant writing, coalition building,
advocacy and develop, produce, and evaluate mass media health campaigns.
What does a Trained Health Educator Do?
· Advocate
for health related issues
· Assess
individual and community needs
· Build
coalitions
· Conduct
research
· Coordinate
health education programs
· Develop
audio, visual, print and electronic materials
· Develop
health education programs
· Develop
social marketing and mass media campaigns
· Encourage
healthy behavior
· Evaluate
health education programs
· Handle
controversial health issues/content
· Identify
resources
· Implement
health education programs
· Make
referrals
· Manage
health education programs & personnel
· Organize/
mobilize communities for action
· Plan
health education programs
· Use
a variety of education/training methods
· Write
grants
· Write
scholarly articles
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