Health Education in Action

One of the overarching roles of a health educator is to promote activities, behaviors, and lifestyles that support well-being and reduce the chance of disease and injury. This may include services provided to an individual or to an entire community. One of the responsibilities of a public health professional may be to determine and/or efficiently mobilize an action plan to resolve a community health issue. In this Discussion, you are provided a community health scenario and, as a group, you will decide how to proceed to resolve the issue.

To Prepare: In this scenario, you have been called to educate a specific population about a certain health issue. You will discuss ways to educate the population and resolve the issue by considering the questions below and applying them to the scenario that was posted by your Instructor.

Scenario: You are a health educator at the local county health department.  You have been asked to help a local daycare address a recent lice outbreak.

Discussion questions to address:

1. Who is your target audience?
2. Should there be a secondary audience?
3. What is the message you are trying to relay to your audience(s)?
4. How exactly will you educate your audience(s) about this message? Provide specifics.
5. Discuss any use of social media as a means for reaching your audience(s).
6. What are some specific actions that can impact the incidence rates (number of new cases) and prevalence rates (number of existing cases) of your health concern? Are these actions to be taken by individuals, public health professionals, health education professionals, or others?
7. In what ways can teams work together to take action on a health issue?

Start the Discussion by Day 3 with your suggestions for who your target audience is and whether there should be a secondary audience. Discuss the options in your group and come to a consensus so that you can move on to the next step.

Continue the Discussion by Day 5 with your suggestions about the message and how you will educate your audience(s). Discuss social media options for conveying your message. Come to a consensus on your message and tactics so that you can move on to the next step.

Continue the Discussion by Day 10 by recommending actions that could be taken to reduce new cases and resolve existing cases. Be sure to discuss who exactly would be taking these actions and the challenges and barriers to implementing these actions. Consider the ways that teams can work together to take action on this issue. Remember to provide resources such as research studies that support your choices. Continue this discussion until the end of the module, Day 14.

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