Health Philosophy
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is defined as “the state of complete mental, physical, and social wellbeing not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 1947, p.1). In the Health Education & Promotion text, the major concepts for defining health is “a dynamic state or condition that is multidimensional (i.e. physical, emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual, and occupational) a resource for living, and results from a person’s interactions with and adaption to the environment” (Joint Committee, 2012, p.10). I agree more with the texts definition of health over the definition given from the World Health Organization. Health extends beyond a wellbeing state of mental, physical, and social aspects. The WHO left out spiritual and occupational health. Prayer and relying on God to take care of you eliminates stress off of you resulting in better health. Occupational health is important because stress or a manual labor on the job can significantly impact a person’s health.
I believe that health is a constantly changing state. To be healthy, I think it is important to eat healthy, exercise at least 30 minutes a day, relieve stress in healthy ways, and take care of yourself mentally. Faith in God is also proven to extend a person’s life. This is a very important aspect of health. It is also important to form healthy social bonds with family and friends. It has been proven that having positive, strong bonds with family and/or friends can extend your life.
I believe the aspects of health are interrelated. If one aspect of health is off, others indeed can be off. Some aspects are intertwined. For example, when you think of the elderly population, some of those individuals become socially isolated which then results in depression. This concept is similar to the philosophy of symmetry, which says that each component of health is just as important as the other (Rash, 2010, p. 82). I do think there should be a balance of each component of health, but some may be slightly more important than the other. I think if you are physically unhealthy, i.e. obesity, it can be a little more threatening to your life then being emotionally unhealthy.
I do believe it is important to focus on the health of the individual. They are what make up a society and not everyone has the same health needs. Health specialists need to look out for society as a whole, but I would put more emphasis on the individual. We want to see individuals with optimum wellness. Wellness is defined as “a positive quality (as opposed to illness always being negative)” (Donatelle, 2011, p. 82). I do believe any individual has the power to achieve wellness. As health education specialist, we should want individuals to experience this positive state. Once an individual achieves all dimensions of health, one can say they have reached a state of optimal wellness.
There are several factors that influence a person’s health. The 5 social determinants of health are the following: economic stability, education, social and community context, health and health care, and neighborhood/building environment (USDHHS, 2013, p.18). I believe these determinants play a role in a person being healthy or unhealthy. Healthy food can be more expensive at times so if a person doesn’t have the money to spend on health food, they are going to eat unhealthy. The same concept applies to someone who cannot afford health care. Obama has now made health care mandatory but it still depends on the coverage an individual receives. A lack of education can cause a person to be chose behaviors that can be damaging to their health. If they don’t know the behavior is harmful, why would they discontinue it? A person’s social and living environment also impacts their behavior for the good or the bad.
It is important to understand the terms health education and health promotion. Health education is “any combination of planned learning experiences using evidence based practices and/or sound theories that provide the opportunity to acquire knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed adopt and maintain healthy behaviors” (Joint Committee, 2012, p.17). Health promotion has similar aspects of health education but goes beyond educating to an action plan. It is “any planned combination of educational, political, environmental, regulatory, or organizational mechanisms that support actions and conditions of living conducive to health of individuals, groups, and communities” (Joint Committee, 2012, p.18). I believe both health education and health promotion are important. Each has a specific role in influencing and bettering community health.
I personally believe that health promotion is more important than health education. This is due to the fact health promotion takes action in making laws or policies for the good of the public. Health promotion also uses education as a tool. It does the best of both worlds. Health education raises awareness but lacks taking action for actual change. For example, you can educate kids on the negative effects of drinking soda but a more effective approach would be to remove soda machines from all secondary schools.
There are several philosophies that are favored by health education specialists on how to accomplish successful health change. The behavior change philosophy uses behavioral goals, contracts, goal setting, and self-monitoring in order to modify an unhealthy habit of an individual. The cognitive-based philosophy emphasizes facts and statistics to increase subject’s knowledge of a particularly harmful behavior. This allows for individuals to make smarter decisions pertaining to their health. The decision-making philosophy uses problems, case studies, and scenarios to students or clients. The health education specialist seeks the best approach or answer to solving the problem allowing individuals to develop skills to correctly handle health-related choices. The freeing philosophy removes the blame from the individual from situations out of their control. This approach is to “free” people to make own behavior choices that are best for them instead of society as a whole. I will say I do not agree with this approach at all. It takes away the responsibility from the individual choosing to partake in an unhealthy behavior. The final philosophy is the social change philosophy, which focuses on designing social, economic, and political change to profit health of individuals or groups. This is where adoption of policies and laws benefit the health of society (Welle, Russell, and Kittleson, 1995, p. 87-88).
There is a philosophy that combines all of these views, the eclectic health education/promotion philosophy. This is the philosophy I agree with the most. Health education/promotion philosophy is a combination of the behavior change, social change, decision-making, freeing, and cognitive-based philosophies. The fact this philosophy allows for the use or combination of one or more of those philosophies give a more rounded approach on conquering bad health behaviors (Welle, Russel, and Kittleson, 1995, p. 88). I think just confining to one health philosophy can hinder a health education specialist from accomplishing their career to the fullest. The world is constantly changing and different approaches are going to work for different individuals.
References
Donatelle, R.J. (2011). Health: The basics, green edition. San Francisco: Pearson Education.
Joint Committee on Health Education and Health Promotion Terminology. (2012). Report of the 2011 joint committee on health education and promotion terminology. Reston, VA: AAHE.
Rash, J.K. (2010). Philosophical bases for health education. In J.M. Black, S. Furney, H.M. Graf, & A.E. Nolte (Eds.), Philosophical Foundations of Health Education (pp. 7-10). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS). (2013). Healthy People 2020: Social Determinants of Health. Retrieved July 12, 2013, from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020/overview.aspx?topicid=39.
Welle, H.M., Russell, R.D., & Kittleson, M.J. (1995). Philosophical trends in health education: Implications for the 21st century. Journal of Health Education, 26(6), 326-333.
World Health Organization (WHO). (1947). Constitution of the World Health Organization.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is defined as “the state of complete mental, physical, and social wellbeing not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 1947, p.1). In the Health Education & Promotion text, the major concepts for defining health is “a dynamic state or condition that is multidimensional (i.e. physical, emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual, and occupational) a resource for living, and results from a person’s interactions with and adaption to the environment” (Joint Committee, 2012, p.10). I agree more with the texts definition of health over the definition given from the World Health Organization. Health extends beyond a wellbeing state of mental, physical, and social aspects. The WHO left out spiritual and occupational health. Prayer and relying on God to take care of you eliminates stress off of you resulting in better health. Occupational health is important because stress or a manual labor on the job can significantly impact a person’s health.
I believe that health is a constantly changing state. To be healthy, I think it is important to eat healthy, exercise at least 30 minutes a day, relieve stress in healthy ways, and take care of yourself mentally. Faith in God is also proven to extend a person’s life. This is a very important aspect of health. It is also important to form healthy social bonds with family and friends. It has been proven that having positive, strong bonds with family and/or friends can extend your life.
I believe the aspects of health are interrelated. If one aspect of health is off, others indeed can be off. Some aspects are intertwined. For example, when you think of the elderly population, some of those individuals become socially isolated which then results in depression. This concept is similar to the philosophy of symmetry, which says that each component of health is just as important as the other (Rash, 2010, p. 82). I do think there should be a balance of each component of health, but some may be slightly more important than the other. I think if you are physically unhealthy, i.e. obesity, it can be a little more threatening to your life then being emotionally unhealthy.
I do believe it is important to focus on the health of the individual. They are what make up a society and not everyone has the same health needs. Health specialists need to look out for society as a whole, but I would put more emphasis on the individual. We want to see individuals with optimum wellness. Wellness is defined as “a positive quality (as opposed to illness always being negative)” (Donatelle, 2011, p. 82). I do believe any individual has the power to achieve wellness. As health education specialist, we should want individuals to experience this positive state. Once an individual achieves all dimensions of health, one can say they have reached a state of optimal wellness.
There are several factors that influence a person’s health. The 5 social determinants of health are the following: economic stability, education, social and community context, health and health care, and neighborhood/building environment (USDHHS, 2013, p.18). I believe these determinants play a role in a person being healthy or unhealthy. Healthy food can be more expensive at times so if a person doesn’t have the money to spend on health food, they are going to eat unhealthy. The same concept applies to someone who cannot afford health care. Obama has now made health care mandatory but it still depends on the coverage an individual receives. A lack of education can cause a person to be chose behaviors that can be damaging to their health. If they don’t know the behavior is harmful, why would they discontinue it? A person’s social and living environment also impacts their behavior for the good or the bad.
It is important to understand the terms health education and health promotion. Health education is “any combination of planned learning experiences using evidence based practices and/or sound theories that provide the opportunity to acquire knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed adopt and maintain healthy behaviors” (Joint Committee, 2012, p.17). Health promotion has similar aspects of health education but goes beyond educating to an action plan. It is “any planned combination of educational, political, environmental, regulatory, or organizational mechanisms that support actions and conditions of living conducive to health of individuals, groups, and communities” (Joint Committee, 2012, p.18). I believe both health education and health promotion are important. Each has a specific role in influencing and bettering community health.
I personally believe that health promotion is more important than health education. This is due to the fact health promotion takes action in making laws or policies for the good of the public. Health promotion also uses education as a tool. It does the best of both worlds. Health education raises awareness but lacks taking action for actual change. For example, you can educate kids on the negative effects of drinking soda but a more effective approach would be to remove soda machines from all secondary schools.
There are several philosophies that are favored by health education specialists on how to accomplish successful health change. The behavior change philosophy uses behavioral goals, contracts, goal setting, and self-monitoring in order to modify an unhealthy habit of an individual. The cognitive-based philosophy emphasizes facts and statistics to increase subject’s knowledge of a particularly harmful behavior. This allows for individuals to make smarter decisions pertaining to their health. The decision-making philosophy uses problems, case studies, and scenarios to students or clients. The health education specialist seeks the best approach or answer to solving the problem allowing individuals to develop skills to correctly handle health-related choices. The freeing philosophy removes the blame from the individual from situations out of their control. This approach is to “free” people to make own behavior choices that are best for them instead of society as a whole. I will say I do not agree with this approach at all. It takes away the responsibility from the individual choosing to partake in an unhealthy behavior. The final philosophy is the social change philosophy, which focuses on designing social, economic, and political change to profit health of individuals or groups. This is where adoption of policies and laws benefit the health of society (Welle, Russell, and Kittleson, 1995, p. 87-88).
There is a philosophy that combines all of these views, the eclectic health education/promotion philosophy. This is the philosophy I agree with the most. Health education/promotion philosophy is a combination of the behavior change, social change, decision-making, freeing, and cognitive-based philosophies. The fact this philosophy allows for the use or combination of one or more of those philosophies give a more rounded approach on conquering bad health behaviors (Welle, Russel, and Kittleson, 1995, p. 88). I think just confining to one health philosophy can hinder a health education specialist from accomplishing their career to the fullest. The world is constantly changing and different approaches are going to work for different individuals.
References
Donatelle, R.J. (2011). Health: The basics, green edition. San Francisco: Pearson Education.
Joint Committee on Health Education and Health Promotion Terminology. (2012). Report of the 2011 joint committee on health education and promotion terminology. Reston, VA: AAHE.
Rash, J.K. (2010). Philosophical bases for health education. In J.M. Black, S. Furney, H.M. Graf, & A.E. Nolte (Eds.), Philosophical Foundations of Health Education (pp. 7-10). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS). (2013). Healthy People 2020: Social Determinants of Health. Retrieved July 12, 2013, from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020/overview.aspx?topicid=39.
Welle, H.M., Russell, R.D., & Kittleson, M.J. (1995). Philosophical trends in health education: Implications for the 21st century. Journal of Health Education, 26(6), 326-333.
World Health Organization (WHO). (1947). Constitution of the World Health Organization.