What Do Health Educators in Public Health Do?
Those professionals with careers in health education help to improve public health by encouraging people to make healthy choices by developing community-wide education in a wide array of health topics. Those individuals in careers as Health Educators are responsible for:
- Assessing needs of the individuals and community in which they serve
- Development of programs in teaching health topics Helping people to deal with and manage existing health conditions
- Evaluating effectiveness of current and future programs and educational materials for bettering public health
- Helping to find health services and information Providing the necessary training programs for other health professionals and community health workers
- Supervising employees to implement health education programs
- Collection and analyzing data to improve programs and services
- Advocate for improved health resources and policies in the promotion of improving health
What is the salary range and Job Prospect for Health Educators in Public Health?
Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the employment of health educators and community health workers is expected to grow twenty one percent from 2012 to 2022, faster than the average for all occupations. There were more than 99,300 individuals employed in Public Health Education careers in 2012 and US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts there will be over 120,800 by the year 2020. This expansive growth is partly because of the efforts in Public Health to improve outcome of health and the efforts to reduce the costs in healthcare by teaching healthy habits and behaviors and utilizing available health care services.
What are Areas of Employment for Health Educators
(According to the US BLS, The industries that employed the most health educators in 2012 were:
- Various levels of Government employing twenty three percent
- Local, State and private Hospitals employing twenty one percent
- Ambulatory healthcare services employing seventeen percent
- Religious, civic, professional and grant funding organizations employing eleven percent
- Social assistance employing eleven percent
What are the goals for Health Educators in Public Health
As the cost of healthcare in the US continues to increase, employers, insurance companies, and governments try to find methods to improve the quality of healthcare outcomes while keeping costs down. Health educators teach people how to live the healthiest possible lives to help reduces the need for avoid costly medical procedures by reducing the incidence of diseases. Changes in an individual’s lifestyle can help to lower significantly the likelihood of contracting illnesses, such as lung cancer, skin cancer, HIV, and heart disease. When an individual already has a disease such as asthma, health educators help patients to understand proper methods to manage their condition thereby avoiding unnecessary visits to the emergency room. Health educators teach people to understand how their lifestyle can affect their health outcomes. Some of the responsibilities for Health Educators are to:
- Help stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases including cervical cancer and HIV
- Educating teens to become aware of the dangers of unprotected sex, alcohol and drug abuse
- Reduce obesity and other related health problems in both youth and adult populations Improving the quality of life our growing population of seniors
- Designing and implementing health promotion programs including smoking cessation, water and sanitation projects and occupational safety courses.
Public health professionals in Health Education research complex health issues to encourage individuals in their communities to make better use of health services, encouraging self-care practices and become participants in their community’s health system.