Today is our topic of discussion Health Education
Health Education
Definition:
Heath education comprises 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 the individual and community health (Jakarta, 1997).
Changing concept of ‘health education’:
Historically, health-education has been committed to disseminating information and changing human behaviour. Following the Alma-Ata declaration the changing concepts of health education are –
1. Prevention of disease to promotion of healthy lifestyles.
2. The modification of individual behaviour to modification of ‘social environment in which the
3. Community participation to community involvement.
4. Promotion of individual and community ‘self reliance’.
Importance of health education:
1. Health education improves the health of individuals, families, communities and the nation.
2. Health education enhances the quality of life for all people.
3. Health education reduces premature deaths.
4. 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.
Aims and objectives of health education:
1. To encourage people to adopt and sustain health promoting lifestyle and practices.do
2. To promote the proper use of available health services.
3. To arouse interest, provide new knowledge, inprove skills and change attitudes in making rationa! decisions to solve their own problems; and
4. To stimulate individual and community self-reliance and participation to achieve health development through individual and community involvement at every step from identifying problems to solving.
Contents of health education:
1. Nutrition
2. Health habits & personal hygiene
3. Safety rules
4. Basic knowledge of disease & preventive measures
5. Mental health
6. Proper use of health services
7. Sex education
8. Special education for groups (food handlers, occupations, mothers, school health etc.)
9. Principles of healthy life style e.g. sleep, exercise
Principles of health education:
Credibility:
The health-education that is to be applied must be consistent and compatible with local culture and social norms so that the massage is easily perceived as trustworthy by the receiver.
Interest:
The health message is likely to be in vain if its acceptance could not be aroused within mind. Without any benefit or meaningful interest this acceptance usually does not grow.
Participation:
The Alma-Ata Declaration states that ‘the people have a right and duty to participate individually and collectively in the planning and implementation of their health care’.
Motivation:
Awakening the internal driving force is necessary to attain a certain health-education objective.
Comprehension:
Health-education should be based according to the level of literacy of the target people.
Reinforcement:
Repetition of teaching at intervals is necessary.
Learning by doing:
Approach to health behaviour should be practice oriented.
Known to unknown:
The spread of health education behaviour should be a continuum.
Setting an example:
The health educator should comply with the principle of the health behaviour.
Good human relations:
Interpersonal communication is essential for effective application of specific health behaviour.
Feedback:
Feedback is essential to know about the acceptance of a health-education and the different parts of a communication process can be changed accordingly.
Leaders:
Leaders can lead the followers positively and effectively. So, local leaders should be motivated first to make a health-education applicable.
[Q. Criteria of a good health education?
Ans. Same as the ‘principles of health education’]
Components of health education:
1. Information
2. Learning
3. Motivation
[‘Methods’ and ‘media’ of health education described in the next chapter]
Health promotion:
Health promotion has been defined as ‘the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its determinants, and thereby improve their health’.
The basic principles of health promotion:
Prerequisites for health:
The followings are the fundamental conditions and resources for health. Improvement in health requires a secure foundation in these basic prerequisites –
Peace Food Suatainable resources
Shelter Income Social justice and
Education A stable eco-system Equity
Advocacy:
Political, economic, social, cultural, environmental, behavioral and biological factors can all favour health or be harmful to it. Health promotion action aims at making these conditions favourable through advocacy for health.
Enable:
Health promotion focuses on achieving equity in health. Health promotion action aims at reducing differences in current health status and ensuring equal opprtunities and resources to enable all people to achieve their fullest health potential. This includes a secure foundation in a supportive environment, access to information, life skills and opportunities for making healthy choices.
Mediate:
The prerequisites and prospects for health cannot be ensured by the health sector alone. More importantly, health promotion demands coordinated action by all concerned – by governments, by health and other social and economic sectors, by nongovernmental and voluntary organization, by local authorities, by industry and the media.
Health Promotion Actions:
Health Promotion Actions means –
1. Building Healthy Public Policy
2. Create Supportive Environments
3. Strengthen Community Actions
4. Develop Personal Skills
5. Reorient Health Services (beyond its responsibility for providing clinical and curative services)
6. Moving into the Future
See also :