Health Education and Audio visual Aids

Health Education and Audio visual Aids

Introduction

Education brings change in behaviour of the individual in a desirable manner. Education can help to increase knowledge. It is often assumed that knowledge determines attitudes and attitudes determine behaviour.

Health education is a powerful and effective medicine in the treatment and prevention of illness. It is the cheapest but very effective tool. If administered with great awareness by every health worker, in any setting- hospital, school, health centre, home and community as a whole-it will be the best tool in promoting health. It is “to win friends and influence people” in order that they may attain the best of health.

Definition, Aims & Goal of Health Education

Definition

Health education is defined as “the process by which individuals and groups of people learn to behave in a manner conducive to the promotion, maintenance, or restoration of health.

John M. Last

According to National Conference on Preventive Medicine in USA “Health education is a process that informs, motivates and helps people to adopt and maintain healthy practices and life style. Advocates environmental changes as needed to facilitate this goal and conducts professional training and research to the same end.

“A process aimed at encouraging people to want to be healthy, to know hjow to stay healthys, to do what they can individually and collectively to maintain health and to seek help when needed”. -Alma-ata (1978)

Aims of Health Education

The definition adopted by WHO in 1969 and the alma ata declaration adopted in 1978 provided in useful basis for formulating the aims and objectives of health education which may be started as below;

1.        To encourage people to adapt and sustained health promoting lifestyle and practices

2.        To promote the proper use of health services available to them

3.        To arouse interest, provide new knowledge, improve skills and change attitudes in making rational decision to solve their own problems.

4.        To stimulate individual and community self-reliance and participation to achieve health development through individual and community involvement at every step from identifying the problem to solving them.

Goal of health education

The goal of Health education is teaching people to live life to its healthiest – that is to strive towards achieving ones health potentials under given socio-cultural, geo-climatic conditions, at every opportunity a nurse gets to teach a client / patient.