Health Education

“What is a health educator?” I have been asked this question many times. My answer was always, “I educate people about health.” This is a very pat answer, but doesn’t really answer the question. To answer the question, we must define health. The definition stated by the World Health Organization (WHO) states “health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” (Introduction to Health Education: pg 6) There are many aspects to health: physical and mental, social, and spiritual well-being. How does this help us determine what a health educator does? This defines the boundaries for the health educator.

How do we obtain the goal of health? Here is where we define health promotion. This is a set of processes that can be employed to change the conditions that affect health. This is accomplished through interventions that are designed to help change behaviors of bad health. This is what the health educator does.

In my position with the Center for Health Promotion, I work in injury prevention, specifically child passenger safety (CPS). The idea is car seats and seat belts save lives. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injury death for children age 1-14. (NSKC: 2001) As a health educator, one of my responsibilities is to educate. One way this is accomplished is through workshops for childcare and healthcare providers, parents, and civic organizations.

Another responsibility is to develop the interventions and/or programs that address the needs of the community. In CPS, we know that the children between the ages of four and eight are the ones that have been forgotten. They are too big for car seats but not big enough for the seat belt. The traditional strategy is to hold large check up events where parents and care givers can come and have their seats checked. The problem is this is addressing the people who have already decided there is a problem. We need to address...