Trainer Attachment 16A: The aims of health education

Adapt the following examples and copy them on slips of paper for use in the activity described in Step 1. Make sure that all groups have some of the same examples of aims, so they do not debate unnecessarily over equally acceptable aims. You need 20 strips with examples and 16 strips with items that are not examples of aims of health education. Divide these into four piles so that each group gets 5 slips with good examples and slips with bad examples.

The Following are Aims of Community Health Education

- Helps people become self-reliant in dealing with health problems
- Addresses people's wants, needs, resources and social context
- Works with communities and families as well as individuals
- Considers psychological and social as well as physical well-being
- Contributes to the goals of primary health care
- Encourages people to want to be healthy
- Teaches people how to stay healthy
- Encourages people to seek help from health workers when needed.
- Strengthens health and teaching skills of health workers
- Provides socially and culturally acceptable and relevant health information
- Bases activities on careful planning, monitoring, evaluation, using measurable objectives.
- Emphasizes active participation by learners

The Following are not Aims of Community Health Education

- Communicates health information from experts to the public
- Persuades people to change bad health practices
- Promotes "modern" health technology to replace traditional health practices
- Discourages lay contributions to health care
- Emphasizes treatment rather than prevention of illness
- Distributes posters and pamphlets to as many places as possible
- Promotes a centralized health care service delivery
- Encourages immediate action rather than long-tern planning
- Focuses on individuals apart from their social setting.