Spiritual_Wellness_Holistic_Health_and_the_Practic

70 Philosophical Foundations of Health Education
change approaches are most likely the area of health education to come under the scrutiny
of cost effective performance appraisal, especially in hospitals and the worksite
where accountability is measured in terms of productivity, funds produced, clientele
seen, costs contained, and increased efficiency and effectiveness (Parlette, Glogow, &
D ’ Onofrio, 1981). Behavior change in the form of behavior modification and behavioral
therapy is also the tool of counseling psychology, clinical psychology, marriage
and family counselors, social workers, psychiatrists, and psychiatric nurses, all of which
are licensed clinical fields, thus putting health education in an uncomfortable position as
being considered not a clinical area nor licensed to practice.
Educational psychology has been useful to health education in its understanding of
processes that occur in the teaching side and learning end of health education activities
or in health promotion programs involving individual or group instruction. Counseling
approaches, techniques, and methodology which has roots in counseling, psychology,
social work, marriage and family counseling have been looked to also for patient education
and health counseling aspects of the broader health education field.
A long - standing approach to health education centers around cognitive development,
another fundamental principle of psychology. As used in health education, cognitive
development is directed toward making students more independent thinkers and
learners. Viewed from a cognitive perspective, health education is directed at enhancing
the intellectual domain as it relates to health. Students are taught concepts, learning
techniques, and are shown how to assemble bits and pieces of knowledge to arrive
at rational conclusions. Cognitive psychology added to the entanglement of the field
attempts to increase awareness among learners concerning the position that health and
lifestyle occupy in an individual ’ s experiences and goals. However, it does not address
behavior directly. Thus the recipient of health education is provided with an opportunity
to address intellectually health related concerns deemed important to his or her
well - being. Through cognitive awareness, the gap between lack of knowledge about
health matters and new findings and learnings can be closed more than with only
learned knowledge reinforced.
Health education long has been dependent on certain areas of the social sciences,
mostly sociology, social psychology, anthropology, and marriage and family life.
Community health education particularly has benefited from findings and theories of
these fields. Community health education clearly deals with groups, systems of people,
communities, and the various strata of the populations aligned, not by boundaries of
city or counties, but by age, sex, race, income, minority status, disease commonalities,
or culture.
EDUCATION ’ S CONTRIBUTION
Teaching methods, processes, skills, approaches, techniques, and education theory
always have been the mainstay and foundation for health education, especially school
health instruction aspects. Due to the extensiveness and complexity of the contribution
provided by education, only a brief mention is provided here, as a separate paper