Health Education for health students

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Health Education 1
Health Education
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objectives
At the end of this chapter students are expected to:
Define Some Health Education Terminologies
Descibe Aim, Approches and Dimensions
Discuss the Historical Development of H/E
List the Rationale of H/E
Explain the purpose and basic principles of H/E
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3. Terminologies
A general term for communication activities to promote hea
lth.
• Information: A collection of useful briefs or detailed idea
s, processes, data and theories that can be used for a certain
period of time.
• Education: A complex and planned learning experiences t
hat aims to bring about changes in cognitive (knowledge), a
ffective (attitude, belief, value) and psychomotor (skill) do
mains of behavior.
Communication: the process of sharing ideas, information,
knowledge, and experience among people using different ch
annels.
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4. • Behavior Change Communication (BCC): Is an i
nteractive process aimed at changing individual and
social behavior, using targeted, specific messages an
d different communication approaches, which are li
nked to services for effective outcomes.
• Advocacy: A combination of individual and socia
l actions designed to gain political commitment, pol
icy support, social acceptance and systems support f
or a particular health goal or program.
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5. Advocacy
• Refers to communication strategies focusing on pol
icy makers, community leaders and opinion lead
ers to gain commitment and support.
• It is an appeal for a higher-level commitment, inv
olvement and participation in fulfilling a set progra
m agenda.
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?HEALTH?
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7. health cont....
• There are various definitions of "Health", From the lay poi
nt of view
• A person is normally doing his activities and does not o
utwardly show any signs of any disease in him.
• In the Oxford dictionary health means `the state of bei
ng free from sickness, injury or disease, bodily conditions;
something indicating good bodily condition.
• WHO (1948) defined it as "Health is a state of complete p
hysical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely absen
ce of disease or infirmity."
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8. • Physical health – refers to anatomical integrity and phy
siological functioning of the body.
• Mental health - ability to learn and think clearly. A pers
on with good mental health is able to handle day-to-day
events and obstacles, work towards important goals, and
function effectively in society.
• Social health – ability to make and maintain acceptable
interactions with other people. E.g. To feel sad when so
mebody close to you passes away.
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9. • Emotional health-- The ability to recognize emotions suc
h as fear, joy, and anger and to express such emotions app
ropriately.
– Emotional health also means coping with stress, tension, depress
ion and anxiety.
Eg, Feeling of fear, angry, etc.
• Spiritual health--is the integrity of one’s personal values,
beliefs and principles.
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10. The following examples could be considered to contribute to
social health?
(a) Mourning when a close family member dies
(b) Going to a football match or involvement in a community
meeting
(c) Celebrating traditional festivals within your community
(d) Shopping in the market
(e) Creating and maintaining friendship.
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11. • The absence of health is denoted by such terms as
disease, illness and sickness.
• which usually mean the same thing though social
scientists give them different meaning to each.
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12. • Disease is the existence of some pathology or abn
ormality of the body, which is capable of detection
using, accepted investigation methods.
• Illness is the subjective state of a person who feels
aware of not being well.
• Sickness is a state of social dysfunction: a role tha
t an individual assumes when ill.
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Definition of Health Education
(H/E)
• As there are multiple definitions of health, there are also m
ultiple definitions of Health Education
• H/E "comprises of consciously constructed opportunities f
or learning involving some form of communication designe
d to improve health literacy, including improving knowledg
e, and developing life skills which are conducive to individu
al and community health” (WHO)
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Definition…
• “Any combination of learning experiences desig
ned to facilitate voluntary action conducive to h
ealth”
(Lawrence Green)
• Health education is considered as a partnership action between th
e clients and other health professionals
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15. Combination: emphasizes the importance of matching the multiple
determinants of behavior with multiple learning experiences or
educational interventions.
Designed: distinguishes health education from incidental learning
experiences as systematically planned activity.
Facilitate means create favorable conditions for action.
Voluntary action means behavioral measures are undertaken by an
individual, group or community to achieve an intended health effect
with out the use of force, i.e., with full understanding and acceptan
ce of purposes.
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16. “Health Education is a process with intellectual,
psychological and social dimensions relating to
activities that increase the abilities of people to
make informed decisions affecting their persona
l, family and community well-being.” (Hubley, 1
993).
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Health promotion (HP) Vs H/E
• Until 1980, HP simply referred to H/E.
• HP is a term of more recent origin than HE.
• According to Green & Kreuter (1999), HP is the combination
of educational and environmental supports (organizational, p
olitical and economic) for actions conducive to health.
• The process of enabling people to increase control over, and t
o improve, their health’.
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• HP is not just confined to health professiona
ls and health care services but everyone in di
fferent sectors of society.
• H/E is part of, but not the sum of HP
• One writer has distilled the r/n ship b/n H/
E and HP into the formula:
HP = H/E × Healthy Public Policy
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19. Aims of HE
• Motivating people to adopt health-promoting beh
aviors by providing appropriate knowledge and h
elping to develop positive attitude.
• Helping people to make decisions about their healt
h and acquire the necessary confidence and skill
s to put their decisions into practice.
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20. Approaches to health education
• The persuasion approach –deliberate attempt to i
nfluence the other persons to do what we want the
m to do (DIRECTIVE APPROACH)
• The informed decision making approach-giving
people information, problem solving and decision
making skills to make decisions but leaving the act
ual choice to the people.
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21. Dimensions and characteristics of health educa
tion
• Health, and therefore health education is concerned with th
e whole person and encompasses physical, mental, social,
aspects of health.
• Touches upon many fields:
• Is a life long process from birth to death, helping people to
change and adapt at all stages.
• Concerned with people at all points of health and illness
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22. • Concerned with helping people to help themselves and to
work towards creating healthier conditions for everybody.
• Involves formal and informal teaching and learning usin
g a range of methods.
• Concerned with a range of goals, including giving inform
ation, attitude change, behavior change and social change.
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Historical Development of H/E profession
• As a practice as old as human being
• As a profession in the world ~100 years – USA
• Health belief model 1966: the oldest model
• As a course: Gondar Health science ~ 1954
• As a profession in Ethiopia: JU <8 y
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Rationale for H/E
• The continued existence and spread of CDs
• For some diseases H/E is the only practical choice
• The tendency of increasing magnitude of chronic
conditions
• Increasing threats to the young from new and har
mful bhr
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Rationale…
• Increased awareness of people on chronic health proble
ms and the need to know preventive actions.
(right to health and right to information)
• Fairness/Justice- the minority ill need bhr change and th
e majority need to protect and promote their health thro
ugh bhr change
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Rationale…
MDGs and H/E
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria,
7. Ensure envl sustainability
Is that possible to achieve the MDGs
without H/E (behavior change)???
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Rationale…
Health Education and PHC
• One of the elements of PHC
• Cross cutting issue in the other elements
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Rationale…
It is the Recommendation Part of Most Public Health Rese
archers and Findings
• ……..Awareness raising is needed…..
• …..IEC/BCC intervention is needed…….
• …….Health education is needed….
• …….health information is needed…
 Program strategies of malaria,HIV/AIDs…….documents
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Rationale…
“We must recognize that most of the world’s major Health p
roblems and premature death are preventable through cha
nges in human behaviors and at low cost. We have the kno
w –how and technology but they have to be transformed int
o effective action at the community level”
(Dr.Hiroshi Nakajiima, Director – General, WHO, 1998)
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30. Determinant of Health
The major causes of death in developing count
ies, including Ethiopia, are communicable dise
ases, such as TB, HIV/AIDS, Malaria, & Diarr
heal diseases.
However, in most cases these diseases and ass
ociated health problems can be prevented or ca
n be controlled through appropriated health be
haviors change and health behaviors modificati
ons.
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31. Broadly, health is determined by two major catego
ries of determinants or factors. These are Behavio
rs and environmental determinants.
Behaviors are those daily actions which are under
the possibility of the control of the person/individu
al/ where as environmental determinants or factor
s are those factors which are not easily under the c
ontrol of the person.
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32. Behaviour
Environment
Health
F.g.1. Relationships of Behaviors/life style & environment as a
cause of health
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33. Generally,
An important justification for health education and healt
h promotion comes from the fact that health is determined,
not by medical services and drugs, but by ordinary huma
n actions and behaviors.
Many health education programs have failed because they
put too much emphasis on individual behavior and neglect
ed to understand the cultural, social, economic and politi
cal factors that influence his/her behaviors or actions.
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34. However, a proper understanding of the influenc
es outside the individual’s control will avoid the
pitfall of victim-blaming.
These outside influences could include advertisi
ng health-damaging products such as cigarettes
, government policies such as promoting tobacc
o cultivation or location of health services, pov
erty and unemployment.
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Basic Principles of H/E
• Principle of educational planning
• Principle of Participation
• Principle of multiple methods
• Facts: H/E should be based on scientific findings
/facts and current knowledge
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Basic Principles…
• behavior change should be voluntary
Cultural acc
eptance
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Basic Principles…
Need based
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Basic Principles…
• There should be a free flow of communication.
• HE should be specific and relevant to the problems and the availa
ble solution.
• Changing bhr is a process, not an event
• Health education should be acceptable by the audience. Has to
win the confidence of the audience.
• Use of audio-visual aids for support and reinforcement
• Psychological factors, notably beliefs, Knowledge and values, inf
luence how people behave
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39. • Do not pump a bulk of information on one exposure. The
communication has to be done step by step.
• Use simple terms that can be understood immediately. Avo
id highly scientific jargons.
• Health education should start from the existing culture an
d gradually try a change of habits and practices
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40. Challenges in Health Education
The process of health education is often challenging,
because:
– People are usually preoccupied with many other impo
rtant daily activities;
– There is a failure to see the value of health teaching b
y many health professionals;
– Health education is not considered important during n
ormal life. People are concerned about diseases;
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41. Cont….
• Largely related to behavior; changing health beh
avior is conditioned by many factors: social, ps
ychological, economic, cultural, accessibility and
quality of services, political environmental, etc.
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•Knowledge is Power.
•Information is a Tool.
•Behaviour is Action.
•Change is a Process.
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Thank You!
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