Best Practices In Health Education

For a health educator to carry out their role effectively, they should understand the complicated processes which may influence an individual to change their behaviour.

* Curriculum – to make children aware of being healthy and safe in all aspects of life

Upon reviewing the community vitality data I came to the conclusion that the health problem that a health education program would be most appropriate to address would be childhood nutritional health and fitness. I came to this conclusion after careful data analysis. Of the county’s adults (18+) 77% ate less than five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, this percentage is so high likely because of attitudes and habits these adults picked up when they were children. The second largest age demographic in the county is children aged 10 to 17 are overweight, six percent more than the state average, 88% of children age 10 to 17 are not meeting daily targets for fruit and vegetable consumption and 30% age 10 to 17 watch 3 or

The impacts of health promotion are healthy population and healthy environments. People need to commit themselves in strengthening their learning skills and to change their necessary life styles in order to improve their health.

Health is defined as a state in which human needs are met in an autonomic way, and is not limited to the absence of disease or disablement (V. Henderson). Optimal health is a lively, self-motivated equilibrium of physical, intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and social well-being. The concept of health promotion delineates the method of empowering people to increase control over, and to advance their own overall health.

“The physical and emotional health of an entire generation and the economic health and security of our nation is at stake” a quote made by the First Lady, Michelle Obama, as she launches her comprehensive initiative to change the way children think about nutrition and physical fitness (“Learn the Facts,” 2010). Three decades ago, children lived active lives that kept them healthier. They walked to and from school, ate home cooked, reasonable portion meals with vegetables and played outdoors most of the time. Today, children ride the bus instead of walk, eat more fast food and snacks throughout the day because parents are busier, and watch more television or play video games rather than be active outside with peers (“Learn the Facts,” 2010). Young children are becoming overweight and obese along with being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes more frequently. They are making poor dietary choices, inadequate physical activity, and spending too much screen time all contributing to the obesity crisis. One of the effective solutions to reversing the trend of childhood obesity is to provide safe, affordable and accessible after-school health and physical fitness educational programs for all school ages across the nation.

 I feel like schools should pay closer attention monitoring the health of children because health is such an important factor in everyday life and not all children are given that luxury at home. Some students might feel that they are overweight and schools can help students understand what the real definition of overweight is, how can they stop becoming overweight and the importance of a healthy lifestyle. Sometimes the stigma of being overweight can lead to eating disorders of students so it’s good to promote positive eating

Implementing these lifestyle habits will result in healthier people and lowered rates of chronic illness. One avenue to best prevent the development of chronic disease is to have health and wellness programs in the community, workplace, and schools (NCSL, 2012). If the population was properly educated on how to realistically live healthy lifestyles, then it would be easier to change and adopt healthier habits. This is especially true for adolescents in the school system. If nutrition and health classes were mandatory components of education across the nation, children would be able to learn healthy habits early on in life and more easily maintain those habits as they grow older. Results of these programs would be vastly beneficial due to a reduction in chronic disease prevalence. In addition to promoting healthy lifestyles and chronic disease prevention, discovering and implementing newly effective treatments are paramount to reduce chronic disease. With more advanced technology and medications, early detection and management of chronic diseases are improved and risks for CCM are reduced (Chatterjee et al., 2014). These improvements will not only

The health promoting schools program is a whole school approach and is a very common setting based approach around the world. It facilitates to improve the school environment and bring the health knowledge to individuals and specific

The purpose of health education is to positively persuade the health behavior of individuals and committees as well as living and working conditions that influence their health. Health education is the development of individual group, community, and systemic strategies to improve health knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behavior. Health education is a social science that draws from the biological, environmental, physical, and mental sciences to promote health and prevent disease disability and premature death through education driven voluntary behavior change activities.

School lunches, curriculum focus, and daily activities have changed in elementary schools over the years. The nutritional value in school lunches often meet a bare minimum. Curriculum is focused strongly on idealistic future careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; but often forget teaching basic healthy habits needed for lifelong health. Physical education is no longer required every single day. Obesity has become an epidemic and not just for adults, it is increasingly affecting children as well. Children spend a generous amount of time in the classroom. They spend more time in school than at home or anywhere else. Therefore, schools have a responsibility in preventing obesity in adolescents by teaching them healthy habits, serving them nutritious food, and providing them with adequate physical activity.

According to the (WHO, 2016) The Ottawa Charter aims to ‘reduce differences in current health status and ensure equal opportunities and resources to enable all people to achieve their fullest health potential.’ The Ottawa charter provides the framework to identify what can be done at a; local community level, state level, national government level and international organisation level (WHO, 2016). In this report the Ottawa charter will be used to demonstrate what action areas that can be addressed to improve the nutrition, health and well-being of students at Centenary Heights State High School (CHSHS). The aim of this report is the focus of strengthening and developing each individual student’s personal skills, to help strengthen students’ nutrition, health and wellbeing. According to Better Health Victoria, developing personal of school students allows ‘people to learn (throughout life) how to prepare themselves for all of its stages and to cope with chronic illness and injuries is essential. This has to be facilitated in school, home, work and community settings.’

A healthy lifestyle is a choice each individual must make for their self, choices that health educators are required to inform their clients of. Health educators must know about the theories and models used in health education so they will properly be educated themselves in order to help their clients to a healthy lifestyle. Theories and models

Health education is usually used to give information and advice of the knowledge and skills that the professionals have gained in their sector in order to change the behaviour that affects health an example of this could be using social marketing by putting posters up in busses about eating healthy. Health educators come from a wide range of professions

Health and Physical Education is a mandatory learning area in the school curriculum which provides opportunities for all students to live healthy and active lifestyles. Schools are recognised as primary settings for developing health-related knowledge and skills. Health and physical education supports students to enhance their own and others’ health. HPE is a learning area of Australian curriculum through which students can make healthier choices. It focuses explicitly on developing movement skills and encourage students to participate in range of physical activities. Therefore, Health and Physical Education is a vital learning area in the school curriculum.