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187
HEALTH EDUCATION AND HOME SAFETY
THE AIMS OF HEALTH EDUCATION
Recent discoveries in Science and Medicine have given mankind
mastery over so many factors in his environment that the
man-in-the-street just does not realise the vast regions of nature
which simply have not been explored, and when some tragic
epidemic occurs is staggered, feels that "somebody" is to blame,
and so a scapegoat must be found, preferably amongst those
shadowy but powerful people, the "Scientists", the "Authorities"
or the "Government".
People forget how much we do not know about human illness
even with our present knowledge, and fail to realise that "public
health" is a "public concern". Hygiene is a communal activity
which concerns all of us, not just some of us, and prevention of
disease will not be achieved by casting responsibility on the
shoulders of the few. Progress in controlling infection is truly a
team effort, is not confined to the work of medical men, but needs
the conscious attention of Education Authorities, Commerce,
Industry, and, in fact the whole community. Until the public
generally and in particular those in positions of responsibility,
feel this way, progress will remain slow.
The improvement in health of the British public over the last
100 years has been a combined exercise. Essential roles were
played firstly by the visionaries and pioneers and later by other
dedicated workers in the Public Health Service, by bacteriologists,
engineers, public health inspectors and others. There must also
be added to this team, the people who have developed and provided
weapons for the medical man, and the industrial organisations,
whose own research staff have produced chemotherapeutic substances
and antibiotics for the cure of illness, and disinfectants
and detergents all of which have done so much to prevent the
spread of infection and to help control outbreaks of communicable
disease.
It has been learned that one of the objects of health education
must be to inform people; to give them facts so that they may
better understand the reasons behind modern health principles
and precepts.
The three aims of health education, as defined by an expert
committee of the World Health Organisation are:—
(1) To ensure that the community regards health as an asset.
(2) To equip the individual with skills, knowledge and attitudes
to help him solve his own health problems.
(3) To promote the development of the health services.
But, most important, the application of this knowledge is no
easy task when ingrained habits and customs have to be broken