Spiritual_Wellness_Holistic_Health_and_the_Practic

316 Philosophical Foundations of Health Education
health educators, to appropriations of major health programs (such as Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, Health Resources and Services Administration,
National Institutes of Health).
In 1995, the CNHEO and the National Commission for Health Education
Credentialing sponsored an invitational meeting in Atlanta, titled “ The Health
Education Profession in the Twenty - first Century: Setting the Stage, ” to address the
future of the health education profession (National Commission for Health Education
Credentialing & Coalition of National Health Education Organizations, 1995).
Advocacy emerged as one of six priority areas, with participants identifying fifteen
actions needed with the profession and fourteen actions needed external to the profession
to move it into a significant role within the United States. Many of these advocacy
goals are being addressed, in part, through sponsorship of an annual Health Education
Advocacy Summit.
The First and Second Annual Health Education Advocacy Summits were conducted
during the spring of 1998 and 1999. The Summits provided health education
organizations the opportunity to come together for the first time to develop a common
advocacy agenda and to collectively advocate for these issues on Capitol Hill. They
also provided the catalyst for participating groups to subsequently provide training,
materials, and other resources to their leaderships, members, and chapters on key
health education issues. This has been accomplished through special sessions of the
groups ’ annual meetings, newsletter articles, Web pages, and targeted mailings.
Particularly exciting is the role of students and new professionals from Eta Sigma
Gamma in the Summit and in encouraging grassroots follow - up through its chapters.
The Summit provides the students an opportunity to “ practice what is preached ” in the
classroom.
Support for the Summit grew from 1998 to 1999, both financially and in terms of
the number of participating organizations, and appears to be gaining momentum for
future years as an ongoing mechanism for the profession ’ s advocacy goals. The
Summits also have helped forge new partnerships and coalitions with organizations
such as the National Education Association, Effective National Action for Control of
Tobacco, the Campaign for Tobacco - Free Kids, and the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention Coalition. Planning is now [1999] underway for the third Health
Education Advocacy Summit in March 2000.
Health education organizations have also made significant progress in recent years
in terms of developing external systems to influence public policy and affecting policy
changes in support of health education. Almost all groups have had input into broad
policy - related documents such as the proposed Healthy People 2010 Objectives, which,
in part, provide the basis for policy and resource allocation at the state and local levels. In
1997 – 98, SOPHE spearheaded an effort involving the CNHEO to obtain recognition by
the Departments of Labor and Commerce for the distinct occupational classification of
“ health educator, ” which was a major victory (Auld, 1997). For the first time, the federal
government and states will begin gathering data about the geographic distribution,
salaries, and other essential data for the profession. In addition, the Association of State