Definition Dr.

7/29/2019 Definition Dr.

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HEALTH EDUCATION

Definition

The definition adopted by National Conference on Preventive

Medicine in U.S.A is as follows. "Health education is a process that

informs, motivates and helps people to adopt and maintain healthy

practices and life styles, advocates environmental changes as

needed to facilitate the goal and conducts professional training and

research to the same end''2

Changing concepts

Following the Alma-Ata declaration in 1978 emphasis has shifted

from.

Prevention of disease to promotion of healthy life styles. Modification of individual behaviour to modification of social

environment in which the individual lives.

Community participation to community involvement.


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OBJECTIVES

1.Informing the peopleThe first directive of health education is to inform the people

or disseminate scientific knowledge about prevention of

disease and promotion of health. Exposure to knowledge will

melt away the barriers of ignorance. Prejudices, and

misconceptions, people may have about health and disease.2

This creates an awareness of health needs and problems and

also of responsibilities on the part of the people.

2.Motivating peopleTelling the people about health is not enough. They must he

motivated to change their habits and the ways of liv big. since

many present day problems of community health require

alteration of human behaviour or changes in health practices

which are detrimental to health, like poll ta ion or water,

cigarette sinokink4 physical activity etc. The accent should be

on motivating the "consumer- to make his own decision and

choices about health matters, that is what kind or health

actions to be taken, and when and under what conditions totake them.


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3.Guiding into actionPeople need help to adopt and maintain healthy practices and

life styles, which may be totally new to them. Governments

have a major responsibility to provide the necessary infra

structure of health services. People need to be encouraged "to

use judiciously and wisely the health services available to

them"2 Governments are now beginning to realise that the

services and facilities they provide to improve the socio-

economic and health status of the people will not be fully

effective unless the people not only make use of the services

but also undertake various practical self help measures to

improve their own health status and the communities in which

they live in.

Contents

The following contents health education.

1.Human biology.2.Nutrition.3.Hygiene. (personal and environmental hygiene)4.Family health care.5.Control of communicable and non-communicable diseases.6.Mental health.7.Prevention of accidents.


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PRINCIPLES

1.Interest:It is a psychological principle that people are unlikely to listen

to those things, which are not of their interest. Health teaching

should relate to the interest of the people. If a health

programme is based on -felt needs,- people will gladly

participate in the programme and only then it will be a

people's programme.

2.Participation:It is a key word in health education. Participation is based on

psychological principle of active learning: it is better than

passive learning. Group discussion, panel discussion, workshop

all provide opportunities for active learning.

3.Known to unknown:In health education work, we proceed from the known to

unknown. i.e. start where the people are and with what they

understand and then proceed to new knowledge. New

knowledge will bring about a new, enlarged understanding,

which can give rise to an insight into the problem.4.Comprehension:

In health education we must know the level of understanding.

education and literacy of people to whom the teachings are


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directed. One barrier to communication is using words, which

cannot be understood .We should always communicate in the

language people understand, and never use words, which are

strange and new to them. Teaching should be within the

menial capacity of the audience.

5.ReinforcementFew people can learn all that is new in a single period.

Repetition at intervals is extremely useful. Every health

campaign needs reinforcement, we may call it a "booster (lose.

6.Motivation:In every person there is desire to learn. Awakening this desire

is called motivation. There are two types of motives-primary

and secondary motives. Primary motives are driving forces

initiating people into actions, these motives are inborn desires.

Secondary motives are based on desires created by outside

forces or incentives.

7.Learning by doing:Learning is an action-process; not a memorizing one in a

narrow sense. The Chinese proverb: "if I hear. l forget: if I see. I

remember: if I do: I know." illustrates the importance of

learning by doing.

8.Soil, Seed and Sower:


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The people are the soil, the health facts are the seeds and the

transmitting media the sower. The seeds or health facts BUN

be truthful and based on scientific knowledge. The trans-

mitting media should be attractive, palatable and acceptable.

9.Good human relations: Good human relations are of utmostimportance in learning. The health educator must be kind and

sympathetic.

10.Leaders:We learn best from people whom we respect and regard. In the

work a health education, we try to penetrate the community

through the local leaders the village headman, the

schoolteacher or the political worker. If the leaders are

convinced first about the programme the task of implementing

the programme will be easy.

Communication in Health Education

Education is primarily a matter of communication. The purpose of

education is to transmit information from one person or group of

persons to other persons or groups; with a view to bring about

behavioural changes. The key, element in communication press are

the COMMUNICATOR (he is the originator of the message and must

know the interests and the needs of the audience). MESSAGE (it is

the information a communicator wishes his audience to receive,


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understand. accept. and act upon.), AUDIUNCE (they are the

consumers or the message and maybe the total population or

specific group). CHANNELS OF COMMUNI-CATION (it is the medium

of communication and an attempt should be made to provide variety

in selecting the channels so as to keep the teaching process

interesting and entertaining.)3

Barriers of Communication

These can be

I. Physiological-difficulties in hearing expression.II. Psychological-emotional disturbances and neurosis.

III. Environmental-noise. Invisibility. conges-tion.IV. Cultural-levels of knowledge and under-standing, CUSIOMS,

beliefs, attitudes.

The barriers should be identified and removed for achieving

effective communication.


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PRACTICE OF HEALTH EDUCATION

The practice of health education involves a number or health

education materials.3 They are;

1.Audiovisual aidsThese help to simplify unfamiliar concepts and bring about

understanding where words fail. They can be classified into

A.Auditory aids: Radio, tape recorder. microphones.Amplifiers, and earphones.

B.Visual aids:1.Not requiring projection: Chalk board, leaflets, posters,

charts, flannel graphs, exhibits, models, specimens. etc.

2.Requiring projection: Slides, filmstrips.3.Combined audio visual aids: Television, sound films,

slides tape combination.

2.Methods in health communicationThe methods in health communication may be grouped as:

a.Individual approachHealth education may be given in personal interviews in the

consultation room or in the health centre or in the homes of

the people. Public health nurses. health visitors and health

inspectors have plenty of opportunities for individual health

teaching.


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Advantages:

Can discuss, argue and persuade the individual to change his

behaviour.

Provides opportunities to ask questions in terms of specific

interests.

Disadvantages:

Numbers vie reach are small

b.Group approachGroup teaching is an effective way of educating the

community. The subject must relate directly to the interest

of the people. A brief account of the methods of group

teaching is given below.

1.Chalk and talk (Lecture): A lecture may be defined ascarefully prepared oral presentation of facts, organized

thoughts and ideas by a qualified person. The group

should not be more than 30 and the talk should not

exceed 15 to 20 minutes. The lecture method can be made

more effective by combining with suitable audiovisual

aids such as clipcharts, flannel graphs, exhibits, films,

charts. etc.

Disadvantage:

Learning is passive and it does not stimulate thinking and

problem solving capacity.


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2.Demonstrations: A demonstration is a carefullyprepared presentation to show how to perform a skill or

procedure. It is carried out step by step before an

audience or target group. The demonstrator involves the

audience in discussion.

3.Group discussion: Group discussion permits theindividual to learn by freely exchanging their knowledge,

ideas and opinions. Where long-term compliance is

involved (eg. Cessation of smoking) group discussion is

considered valuable. For effective group discussion, the

group should comprise not less than 6 and not more than

12 members. The participants should be visible to each

other. There should be a group leader who initiates the

subject, helps the discussion in die proper manner,

prevents side conversations, encourages everyone to

participate and sums up the discussion in the end. If the

discussion goes well, the group may arrive at decisions.

which no individual member would have been able to

make alone. In a group discussion, the members should

observe the following rules:

4.(a) express ideas clearly and concisely (b) listen to whatothers say (c) do not interrupt when others are speaking

(d) make only relevant remarks e) accept criticism


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gracefully and n help to reach conclusions. The decision

taken by the group tends to be adopted more readily than

in situations where the decision is a solitary one.

Limitations: Those who are shy may not take part in the

discussions. Sonic may dominate the discussion. Sonic

members may deviate from the subject and make the

discussion irrelevant or unprofitable.

5. Panel discussion: In a panel discussion persons who arequalified to talk about the topic sit and discuss a given

problem, or the topic. in front of a large group or

audience. The panel comprisesof a chairman and about 4

to 8 speakers. The chairman opens the meeting.

welcomes the group and introduces the panel speakers.

He introduces the topic briefly and invites the panel

speakers to present their point:, of view. The chairman

has to keep the discussion going and develop the train of

thought. After the main aspects of the subject are

explored by the panel speakers. the audience is invited to

lake part. Panel discussion can be an extremely effective

method of education, provided it is properly planned and

guidet

6.Symposium: A symposium is a series of speeches on aselected subject. Each person or expert presents an


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aspect of the subject briefly.. There is no discussion

among the symposium members in the panel discussion.

In the end the audience may raise questions. A chairman

makes a comprehensive summary at the end or the entire

section.

7.Workshop: It consist of series of meetings usually 4 ormore with emphasis on individual work, within the

group. with help of consultants and resource personnel.

The total workshop may be divided into small groups and

each group will choose a chairman and a recorder. The

individuals work, solve c a part of the problem through

their personnel effort with the help of consultants,

contribute to group work and group discussion and leave

the workshop with the plan of action on the problem. The

workshop provides each participant opportunity to

improve his effectiveness as a professional worker.

8.Role playing: Role-playing or socio-drama is based onthe assumption that many values in a situation cannot be

expressed in words and the communication can be more

effective if the situation is dramatized by the group. 'f he

audience are not passive but actively concerned with

drama. It is particularly a useful educational device for

school children.


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9.Conferences and Seminars: This category contains alarge component of commercialized continu1n2

education. The programmes are usually held on a

regional, state or national level.

Mass approach - Education of the general public

No health worker can mount an effective health education

programme for the whole community, except through mass media of

communication.

Mass media are "one way- communication. They are useful in

transmitting messages to people even in remote places.'lhe number

of people reached usually count in millions. Their effectiveness can

give high returns for the time and money involved. The mass medias

includes.

1.Television.2.Radio.3.Health magazine.4.News papers.5.Printed materials.6.Direct mailing.7.Posters. bill boards and signs.8.Health museums and exhibitions.


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9.Films.The Site of Oral Health Education

1.In the Office or ClinicThe process of education for oral health applies in the one-to-

one selling with a patient. First, of course, is the advantage of

working with one person at a time. Second, the dental

professional often sees these same persons periodically over

longer periods of time, perhaps for many years permiiting thedevelopment of high levels of trust and allowing reinforcement

and gradually refinement of desirable skills, knowledge and

attitudes is not necessary to teach everything at once, a

reasonable long- range educational plan can he developed and

implemented for each patient.

2.In the SchoolAn atmosphere in which the pursuit of knowledge prevails

would seem the ideal location to bring about extensive changes

in oral health behaviours, attitudes and knowledge. Recent

teaching has focused on developing the knowledge and skills

needed to brush and floss the teeth. Attention also has been

directed to establishing desired habits by including supervised

plaque removal in the class. Should a classroom session be

planned, several factors must be remembered. First, the visit


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should be cleared with all persons who have responsibility for

monitoring instructions by non-school personnel. Prior to (he

visit the process of planning, including a careful identification

of needs for instruction should be conducted and appropriate

objectives established-preferably jointly with the teacher and

the student,. Finally after instruction has been given, it should

be evaluated against the objective)

3.In the CommunityEducation for oral health in the community often seems limited

to activities such as puppet shows, smile contests or public

service announcements on television, radio, or newspaper. The

dental health professional should pursue the planning process

particularly when the objective is to improve oral health

status.' The content should emphasis the known effective

preventive measures, eg., fluorides and sealants, and

educational methods should encompass activities such as

community organization and community development.


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PLANNING A DENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION

PROGRAMME

1.Collect background informationThe first stage is to collect relevant information on the

problem. It is necessary in establish the correct scientific facts

which are to be communicated.

2.Define the target populationThe target population will ensure efficient utilization of

resources by preventing the inclusion of irrelevant group.

3.Assessment of baseline knowledgeToo often health educators tell people what they already know

and fail to give information that the target group wants.

4.Anchorage attitudesThese are basic to a person's way of life and are a form of

personal identity. People strongly resist the attempt to change

them Health educators should try to utilize These believes and

opinions in a positive way.

5.Level of literacyBefore using visual or written presentation it is essential to

assess population levels of literacy so that the appropriate

educational techniques are utilized.


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6.Define objectivesIt is necessary to precise objectives stated in terms of the

knowledge or behaviour that are expected from the target

group. .

7.Assess resourcesIt is important to ensure. that the necessary facilities and

personnel are available to carry out the programme. It is

necessary to consider the possible effects of programme on

other professional groups. .

8.Pilot studyIdeas are put into practice on a small scale so that problems

can be discovered and necessary modifications made before

the main programme is initiated. .

9.Timing of a programmeIt is important to gie careful consideration in the tuning of a

health education. This will reduce the possibility of the target

population not being available and receptive. .

10.EvaluationThis should occur during the amdtici of the programme and at

the end.

a. Midterm evaluation; It is important to monitor theprogramme as if is being conducted 10 ensure that it is

proceeding as designed and planned.


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b.End term evaluation. The evaluation of the health educationprogramme can be done at the end of the programme.

provided the objectives of the programme are clearly

defined. It is possible to measure the change in knowledge

and attitudes by well-designed questionnaire.

Definition Dr.

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