Spiritual_Wellness_Holistic_Health_and_the_Practic

Health Education and Health Promotion 77
of theories and practices from supportive fields. This fact is probably the main reason for
lack of certification; with no real, unique clinical skills and a body of knowledge that is
not our own, certification is probably not a real possibility. The task at hand is to separate
the theories, concepts, skills, methods, approaches and knowledge from other fields and
integrate them into one organized, usable, and recognizable discipline. If we rely on the
philosophy and theories of other disciplines and have a mutual interdependency, we
need not only to accept and recognize this phenomenon, but also to organize it so that
sound theory and research results. Since health education is plagued by lack of uniqueness,
the Role Delineation Project and interest in certification may not be realistic goals
nor easily accomplished.
Because theory development in the health education discipline is still in its infancy,
it must take on the full range of development, from proactive and retrospective exploration
of supportive areas, to delineation of current activities, to planning future directions.
In the field of health education we need to keep the doors open to a constant
questioning and challenging of the discipline and not settle for the status quo. The religiosity
flavor found in promoting the cause of well - being for a nation, quality of life
for the community, and a healthy lifestyle for the individual cannot afford to be blinded
by any resistance to self - criticism. Being self - critical can be the key to advancement of
the profession. Only by questioning and a search for theory, activities, and research
will learned growth and development occur. A close - minded religiosity - type approach
to health education will deny the self - challenging and questioning that allows a healthy
growth and direction. Since health education has the unique position of bringing
together theory from “ the supportive areas, ” only through critical self - questioning will
it as a discipline develop enough to be able to formulate the philosophy, theory, skills,
and learnings in a useful, organized, and practical manner.
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