7 Core Responsibilities of a Health Educator

Image Source: NCHEC,1996

The above image outlines the 7 core responsibilities of a health educator, as defined by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing. I feel like often health education is overlooked in the mental health field. Yet, mental health is so stigmatized and people believe so many myths that health educators really do need to be educating people about mental illness. Not only that, but issues like depression and eating disorders are on the rise. These issues shouldn't be dismissed, but instead should be targeted and addressed, just like any other disease or community problem.

While many may believe that mental health issues can't be addressed by health educators, I don't believe that to be the case. Let's take eating disorders, for example. If we were to assess individual and community needs, we would find that our adolescent and college-aged women are most prone to this deadly disease. We would then have a target population. Using a theory, we could implement an intervention that hopefully helps to prevent eating disorders from occurring, focusing on the things in the environment that we can change and promoting that people talk about food and weight and nutrition in a way that does not encourage eating disordered behavior. We can then evaluate whether or not the program has at least changed the perception of eating disorders. Too many people think them to be glamorous or silly, when this is clearly not the case. Perhaps it is possible to reduce the amount of people with eating disorders by showing people that the harm they will do to themselves isn't worth the benefits of thinness. If that message can be dispensed before people are engulfed by their eating disorders, then perhaps some good can be done.

As health educators, we definitely need to advocate for more prevention-based activities and education to occur that deals with mental health. We need to promote both physical and mental well being, for both contribute to our quality of life.