Give detailed description of various types of Health Education.
Answers
There are at least three types of health education. The first and most common is education about the body and how to look after it. The provision of information and advice on human biology and hygiene is vital for each new generation. The second is about health services-information about available services and the 'sensible' use of health care resources. But the third, about the wider environment within which health choices are made, is relatively neglected. It is concerned with education about national, regional, and local policies, which are too often devised and implemented without taking account of their consequences for health. This third type is part of the currently moribund public health tradition. At a time when many are trying to improve methods of health education at least equal attention should be paid to its content. The present context is a difficult one for type 3 health education but it may be ripe for change. HM Inspectorate on health education in the secondary school curriculum recommends a balance between all three types. Content should 'include knowledge and consideration... [of] the structure of the human body, and its physical and emotional functions' (type 1); 'social and medical services' (type 2); and 'the influence of social and environmental factors on personal and community health before and after birth - for instance, quality of housing; opportunities for leisure; drugs; alcohol; smoking; pollution' - (type 3).