Spiritual_Wellness_Holistic_Health_and_the_Practic

CHAPTER
15
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND
HEALTH EDUCATION: AN
EMERGING OPPORTUNITY
C ARL I. F ERTMAN
I think the report of the 2000 Joint Committee on Health Education and Promotion
Terminology (2001) is missing a term. The term is behavioral health . The roots of
the term behavioral health can be traced directly to the managed health care industry.
“ Behavioral health ” in the early 1990s became the managed health care industry
name for services to individuals with mental health and substance abuse disorders
that often required specialized knowledge and skills different from those needed to
manage general medical care (Freeman & Trabin, 1994). However, somewhere
along the way from the early 1990s to today, the term behavioral health has taken
on new meanings; and although I cannot be sure, it does seem that behavioral health
is here to stay and with it is an opportunity for health education and health educators
to become more involved in helping formulate the structure and function of this
arena.
At one time I might have been the first to argue that health education and health
educators do not need to know about or be bothered by a term coined from the managed
health care industry. I have been involved with promoting health and wellness
for children and teenagers. My concern has been keeping youths drug free and mentally