Spiritual_Wellness_Holistic_Health_and_the_Practic

Health Educators and the Future 61
empowering. Let me suggest some key words that will characterize it: values, process,
cost effectiveness, quality of life, integration, and multi - level.
Values
Many of the problems we are confronting as a society are a matter of values. The pro -
choice movement is a matter of values. Operation Rescue is a matter of values.
Economic growth versus protection of the ecology — values. Money for the military
versus money for health programs — values. Alas, scientific advances only complicate
the question of values.
There are no formulae for doing what ’ s right. Being right requires careful thought,
humility, and hard work.
As a society we have to get agreements on what is important, what we value.
It ’ s not a matter of your values being better than mine. It ’ s a matter of creating a
society where both our values can co - exist. I was reading an article (Simon, 1992)
about the woman who is the head of the American Librarians Association. She said,
“ Three areas that seem to be the focus of a great deal of censorship are sex education,
satanism and witchcraft, and health education. ” Health education is going to
have to go to the ground for some values — for example, the right to know. We can ’t
possibly do our work if we can ’ t address the issues. I ’ m sure you ’ re aware that we
are the only developed country that runs obscure ads on television about AIDS —
the basic message is “ learn about AIDS ” — great, from whom? In other countries, in
Europe at least, people are given the facts, and the what ’ s needed to protect oneself
is clearly presented. In this country, TV can show murder and mayhem but not
condoms.
Health education of the future will place more emphasis on values clarification —
in helping people to be courageous, to find out what they really value, to make informed
choices.
In helping people to get clear about their values, we also have to account for culture
and the different way values are played out in different cultures. We have to focus
on the things that make people feel valued and respected. A lot has been said about
being politically correct. But, political correctness can risk trivializing an important principle.
What we have to focus on is not creating so many new politically correct labels
that we ’ re afraid to talk to each other — but on creating dignity and respect for all. A
colleague of mine has put it very well. He says, “ [W]e (health educators) have to begin
with developing an awareness and knowledge of culture which implies a non -
judgmental acceptance of the worth of all ethnic groups — a willingness to see people
as much as human beings as members of a particular group . . . . [T]he final stage is to
be able to perform a specific task while taking culture into account such that the
outcome is better than it would have been had the role of the client ’ s culture not been
considered ” (Neighbors, 1992). This is the kind of value that empowering health education
reflects. And health education has to re - dedicate itself to finding processes that
reach individuals who embrace different values.