HEDIR for health educators

H1N1

Written by hedir on 04 May 2009

Unless one has been in hiding the last week no doubt you have been inundated with information regarding the H1N1 flu virus that has been seen in various pockets of the U.S. It seems like every day there is a more information, but as of this writing it appears (and not that the emphasis is on appears) that the flu is not as bad as been feared. Nonetheless, the U.S. is moving forward with its plans to implement strategies to deal with this potential pandemic.

For those of us in health education and public health this has been a fascinating time. Removing the human side of the issues (deaths, illness, etc.) and looking at this from strictly a public health issue this has been a wonderful case study on how to deal with an emergency. For those in educational settings this is well worth time talking about this situation. A few things that I’ve noted:

Despite a lackluster effort in the last few years of his administration, the Bush’s Administration appears to have done exceptional preparation (based on the Avian Flu) for dealing with this sort of problem. Let’s give credit where credit is due. A few years ago we were concerned about the Bird Flu (which didn’t really pan out). Yet, efforts were made to provide a framework to prepare for this. We’re seeing the results of this plan and it appears to be working well.
We’re seeing the importance that public health is playing in this situation. It’s so refreshing to see public health officials who are acknowledged for their expertise and knowledge rather than demonized (as we have seen in the past). Most people don’t want to pay taxes, but if they do they want to see the benefits resulting from such. I think the fact that the U.S. has the best established public health routine in the world is pretty evident with an event such as this, and most people that I have talked to feel that the money we’ve invested in the CDC is well worth it.
We’re seeing the continuing emergence of the county public health department as the leader in emergency preparedness. I’m not sure how it is in the other states, but after 9-11 we realized that our emergency preparedness was in a real disarray. In a study that Dale Ritzel (former colleague of mine) and I did in the early 90s we found that everybody in our community (probably true with most places throughout the U.S.) had their own unique emergency preparedness plan but nobody was talking to the other players in the community. For example, here in Carbondale, SIU had a plan; the local hospital had a plan; the emergency personnel had a plan; the city had a plan, but nobody coordinated all such parties (or if they did nobody knew about it). After 9-11, here in Illinois, the county health departments stepped up to the plate and took over that control. Here in Jackson County (home county of SIU), the emergency preparedness coordinator at the health department is an MPH health educator. It makes perfect sense for this type of person to take over the lead. They have great planning and organizing skills, know how to work with various groups. What a great opportunity to show our students what health educators actually do.

I’m also privy to a very special situation. My wife, also an MPH trained health educator also works at the local health department (Division Director of HIV Services) who is also a key person in the emergency preparedness scenario. In addition to her regular work expectations, she also has key roles in emergencies. I can’t go into detail because of security (and probably because I don’t know them myself), but she has played a key role in receiving medical supplies to deal with the H1N1 outbreak. Last week she was awakened at 2:00 am to receive the drop of supplies. Besides carrying a cool badge she also gets to boss people around (she’s had plenty of practice with me—the difference is that most of these other people listen to her).

Earlier on the HEDIR blog there was a discussion on the terms community health public health. I think this recent event further supports the term that the health education profession needs to affiliate themselves much more with the term public health more and to identify themselves not as community health educators but rather public health educators. Public health has received great attention and it’s becoming a much more revered and respected term.

Tags: H1N1, Public Health
Posted in Generally Speaking, Politics & Policy, Thoughts | 3 Comments »

Get Involved

Written by hedir on 30 January 2009

One of the things that was “ingrained” in many of us who are entering the “senior phase” of our respective careers is the concept of “giving back” to the profession. One of the ways we “give back” is to attend professional meetings, present at these meetings, support those who are presenting at professional meetings, and “urge” those who follow us to also get involved and attend professional meetings. To be honest, in the 40+ years I have been attending these types of meetings, I can’t recall that I have ever received an “incentive” to attend (unless you call presenting and eventually publishing papers, which, in many institutions, is required for promotion and tenure). Yes, I have been reimbursed for much of the cost for attending many of these meetings, generally from funds that I built into the various funded projects on which I was working. I also recall that in one particular institution, we would teach an extra class a semester, not be paid, but then have those monies available to us as travel funds. Yes, we did report this as income so taxes were paid. We also understood that if we opted to do this and did not expend the full amount of the funds, we could not then ask to have the balance given to us. It was put into the “general fund” for the department. Everyone agreed with and really liked that system.

I know the economy is tough, but we are seeing drops in professional memberships, across the board, and the attendance at the professional meetings is also appearing to be diminishing. Remember, we are in this for the “long haul.” The dividend is learning what our professional colleagues are doing and maybe, just maybe, we can get a new idea or three that will help us, as individuals and professionals, also improve our own “practice of health education.

For Kelly, I would suggest that if you haven’t already done so, that you consider joining the national organizations within our profession. Such organizations as the Society for Public Health Education, American Association for Health Education (you will join the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance and check AAHE as your professional organization), the American School Health Association, the American College Health Association, and others, all have regional and even state organizations that you can join. Once you join, be sure to “volunteer” to serve the organization. These organizations are always looking for new people to get involved in leadership position.

Who will be the next individual to step to the place. For those of you who belong to the SHES Section of APHA, I am soliciting abstract reviewers for the 2009 annual meetings. For those of you who have not yet done this type activity, it’s a great learning experience and a way to begin to get involved.

In closing this week’s posting, I will just reiterate what I often state when I am making presentations, particularly to young professionals, “Get involved, stay involved, make a difference.” Many of us “old timers” have done exactly that.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Larry

Tags: Health Education, membership organizations, Public Health, school health
Posted in The health education profession | 1 Comment »

What's in a Name?

Written by hedir on 08 December 2008

In Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet, Juliet asks “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose; By any other name would smell as sweet.” If my memory serves me well (and a little help from my source below), Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet meet and fall in love. They are doomed from the start as members of two warring families. Juliet tells Romeo that a name is artificial and meaningless, and that she loves the person who is called “Montague”, not the Montague name and not the Montague family. (I think my high school English teacher would be shocked that I’m discussing Shakespeare 40 years after my high school days).

Generally speaking I would agree…names are just superficial labels. However, sometimes names can give a more clear direction and can definitely improve one’s status in asetting. We have that issue in health education and I think it’s time that we come clean. I know that health education has had it’s history of wanting to change it’s name. We’ve proposed Health Promotion, Wellness, and health behavior as possible names that would more accurately reflect who we are—plus it would remove us from the almost impossible umbrella of being associated with physical education. Yet, the term health education still exists.

More recently, on many occasions, the HEDIR has had a discussion about the difference between public health and community health (or public health education and community health education). We seem to have a lot of confusion and interchangeability of the two terms. So, I’ve decided to look at a variety of resources (all on-line) to see what, if any, is the difference. My question: Is there a difference?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary public health is: the art and science dealing with the protection and improvement of community health by organized community effort and including preventive medicine and sanitary and social science.

When I tried to find the definition of community health the term doesn’t exist? There is NO definition.

I then Googled to see what the difference was. I found a lot of inconsistency. Generally speaking, most sources cited Community health as a field WITHIN public health, and is a discipline that concerns itself with the study and betterment of the health characteristics

Wikipedia (yes I know the drawbacks of such sources) indicated that “Community health, a field within public health, is a discipline that concerns itself with the study and betterment of the health characteristics of biological communities. While the term community can be broadly defined, community health tends to focus on geographic areas rather than people with shared characteristics.”

Wikipedia then goes on to say that Public health is “the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals.”

Based on most resources, it appears that Community Health is a subset of Public Health, yet many of the descriptions are the same for both.

I then proceeded to see if I could just find the definition of public. Here, Wikipedia defined public as something that “is of or pertaining to the people; relating to, or affecting, a nation, state, or community; opposed to private.” For example a private road is owned by a person, whereas a public road is available to all.

When asked to define community, Wikipedia stated “Traditionally a ‘community’ has been defined as a group of interacting people living in a common location.”

So the question to health educators is the following: If you prepare students at the baccalaureate level to work as a health educator following the 7 areas of competencies (and they’re not going into the schools), are you preparing Public Health Educators or Community Health Educators?

Historically, I could understand if somebody would say that Public Health Educators are trained by Schools of Public Health. Prior to the 1980s Schools of Public Health basically ‘owned’ the right to offer MPH degrees. Since we had many non-Schools of Public Health programs offering a similar degree that they may have wanted to use a different term—Community Health. That might have made sense in the 60s or 70s. But since MPH programs outside Schools of Public Health are increasing at exponential rates that logic may not make sense anymore.

I propose that we eliminate the word Community Health Education from our terminology and replace it with Public Health Education. I believe the term more fully describes what health educators do at both the national, state, regional and state level. Public Health is the large umbrella and unless one is preparing health educators for a very specific focus within public health, the term community health education is not practical or useful. Plus, the term public health is HOT! You never heard government officials talk about community health initiatives…it’s always public health initiatives. You don’t hear of the Illinois Department of Community Health…it’s the Illinois Department of PUBLIC HEALTH.

We should be promoting ourselves as PUBLIC Health Educators…not Community Health Educators. In addition, school health educators (those who are truly health educators…not H & PE teachers) should also be identified as part of the public health spectrum and should identify themselves as a public health educator. Isn’t the school an important part of the public and public health continuum?

Source:

Moore, Roger. “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose.” Shakespeare Quotes. eNotes Publishing, 2006. eNotes.com. 6 Dec, 2008 http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/what-s-name-that-which-we-call-rose>

Tags: Health Education, Public Health
Posted in Thoughts | 6 Comments »