Health Education: Challenges, Issues & Impact

Health education is the profession of educating people about health. Areas within this profession encompass environmental health, physical health, social health, emotional health, intellectual health, and spiritual health. Recent statistics show that, in many countries, one in four individuals will experience mental illness during their lifetime, with mental health conditions contributing more to disability than any other single disease group, including cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The Emergency Department (ED) may be the only site where some isolated and marginalised mentally ill populations such as the homeless receive their healthcare -- medical as well as psychiatric. The authors of this book examine mental health and illness in the ED. Challenges presented in nursing patients who attend an ER following an incident of self-harm or attempted suicide is also examined. In addition, researchers have reported that children are involved in very few conversations with their doctors. Positive practices relating to improved doctor-child communications are discussed. Other chapters in this book examine the use of drugs among adolescents, childrens and parents perceptions about managing their diabetes, a discussion on how the concept of spirituality is defined/described in the professional health literature, the importance of understanding lay appraisal of illness symptoms as a facet of successful health education interventions, and the role of primary care practice nurses in making patients aware of changes that could improve their health.