Health Education Revisited

Ms. Esther CL FUNG, MA. BA. RN. RM. RHV.
Nursing Officer, Department of Health

You shall no longer take things at second or third hand...nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres
in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself.

---Walt Whitman, Song of Myself (1855)

Health means different things to different people, as does health education. Many view health education as teaching ways to keep physically fit, whereas others treat health education as a tool to launch community projects the effectiveness of which is seldom evaluated. In textbooks accessed by primary school students health education touches on personal hygiene, healthy diet, exercise and rest, and puberty changes. Little specific information is given about health in the textbooks of secondary school students, except in biology lessons. One of the favorite ways to deliver health education is by handing out leaflets filled with small print, hoping that the words will eventually find their ways into peoples' head. Others put up display boards in the middle of a hall which hurrying individuals seldom stop to read.

Theories and Models of Health Education

For decades, scholars and specialists have tried to establish a special body of knowledge in health education, working strenuously for neat definitions, models and theories. Grout suggested health education to be "the translation of what is known about health into desirable individual and community behavior patterns by means of the educational process (Grout, 1968, p.2). Green gave a simple and clear definition of health education as "any combination of learning experiences designed to facilitate voluntary adaptations of behavior conducive to health" (Green et al., 1980, p.7).

Many models, theories and definitions have been developed by academics and researchers such as Thomas D. Wood,
C.E. Turner, B.K. Tones, and the American Committee on Health Education. Well-known models include the Comprehensive Health Education Model (Sullivan, 1973), the Health Belief Model (Becker, 1974), the Transtheoretical Model (Prochaska, 1979), the Model for Health Education Planning (Ross & Mico, 1980), the PRECEDE Model (Green, 1986), and the Health Action Model (Tones, 1995), just to mention a few. It is perhaps surprising to find health educators memorizing all these definitions, models and theories, and the names of those who developed them.

Positive Health

Positive health is generally something valued by most people, if not all. It is considered an asset taken for granted by individuals, until factors such as disease or disability affect people's lives. Lively babies, healthy children, strong adolescents, competent adults, and content elderly people provide the target for which health workers strive to achieve through health teaching and service provision. One way to secure positive health for all is through individual and concerted efforts of the community. Another method is the individual's intrinsic ability to fight against extrinsic adverse conditions, and to establish responsibility for his/her own health through education.

Education

There is no easy answer only clues to achieving a sound education for an individual. Education is "a process, beginning at birth, of developing intellectual capacity, manual skill, and social awareness, especially by instruction" (Collin's Encyclopedia). In the Chinese culture, education entails two meanings, to teach and to nurture. There is something sacred and fervent about nurture in the agriculture-based country China. Like the growing of the plant ginseng (¤H°Ñ) for example. One has to study carefully the climate, which has to be cool and wet; the soil, which has to be highly permeable and slightly acid; the humidity, which should be set around 35%; and the temperature, which should be constantly around 30 degrees C. Besides these, the seeds have to be carefully spread and tended and insects controlled. After all the hard work is done, the grower has to continuously watch over the seedlings, and to wait patiently for four to five years before the ginseng grows to 10 cm. Throughout the process, great patience and caring are required.

A Chinese saying describes the process; " It takes ten years to grow a tree, but a hundred years to grow a man". Indeed, we can liken the growing of plants to the education of a person. Education is about caring and growing, and because it is always growing it is a continuous process. Although the school curriculum may include subjects of literacy and numeracy, social sciences, life skills and technology, education for health is the most personal and fundamental element to incorporate into all learning and should never be left out.

Health Education - A Built-in Ability

Education for health is a lifelong process congruent to the growth and development of a person. Even when growth ceases, it helps to improve and maintain the quality of life of the individual. It should be a basic element entwined to whatever subjects about the world one is learning, whether personal, environmental or global. A cardinal element inherent in health promotion is health education which can be an intentional process, highly individualized, based on knowledge and skills and a particular ideology adopted by the person. It is about establishing responsibility and relationships, and is truly evaluative.

The scope of health promotion is wide and considered all encompassing and greatly diversified. It entails ensuring favorable conditions in which the person lives and works. Amongst the activities of health promotion, health education empowers parents to raise physically and emotionally healthy children, adolescents to tackle changes bravely when they begin to face problems of the world, adults to stay safe and sound in work and in establishing social relationships, and elderly persons to live in serenity and dignity when approaching the end of life's journey.

Like air, health is unseen and unheard but needed and sought after everywhere in the world. The way to find it is through individual education and concerted community efforts. Health education is not merely a job but an undertaking to help people re-discover what is originally their own divine asset, through knowledge of health determinants, keen observations, sound judgment, and most important of all, achieving health by making feasible choices suitable for their own life conditions. Genuine caring, for the self and for others, is where health education begins.

References

Collins Encyclopedia. Helicon Publishing Ltd. Glasgow, 1995.

Cottrell, R.R., Girvan, J.T., McKenzie, J.F. Principles & Foundations of Health Promotion and Education. Allyn & Bacon, Massachusetts, 1999, pp. 95-114.

Downie, R.S., Tannahill, C., Tannahill, A. Health Promotion, Models and Values, 2nd. Ed. Oxford University Press, N.Y., 1996.

Green, L.W., Kreuter, M.W., Deeds, S.G., & Partridge, K.B. Health Promotion Planning: A diagnostic approach. Palo Alto, CA, 1980.

Grout, R.E. Health Teaching in Schools. W.B. Saunders Co., London, 1968.

Ryder, J., Campbell, L. BALANCING ACTS in personal, social and health education. Routledge, London, 1988.