Psychological and Social Aspects of Health Education Essay Example

Health Education is a blend of learning experiences that are purposely designed to aid communities and also individuals in the improvement of the personal health, health education, therefore, cuts across various aspects of an individual, for example, physical health, social health, mental health, spiritual health as well as sexual and reproductive health. All these are components that are addressed under health education, and they in cooperate the totalism of the health of an individual. The following essay, therefore, seeks to explain a health education setting and description of strategies that apply to individuals, families, and communities experiencing loss a limb, loss of home, loss of school, loss of friends, or loss of workplace from a violent weather-related event.

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Recently the occurrence of violent weather-related events has increased, and with the increase in these events, there is also an increase in the number of people who have been adversely affected by these events. A health education setting that can be applied in such a situation is social and mental health education to the affected families. Most people who are affected by adverse weather events like hurricanes or tsunamis end up suffering from anxiety, fear, PTSD, and anger. Hence these people health education that touches more than their physical being because that can be rectified easily by doctors and surgeons. People who experience loss often feel like they are all alone in this world and as a result, they tend to isolate themselves, and their emotional and mental health begins being affected.

One of the significant functions of health education is to help affected individuals cope with situations that affect their life whether physically, socially or mentally. Hence one of the psychosocial theories that could be applied in such a case would be the coping theory. Several strategies can be used when implementing the coping approach, and they include confrontation, distancing, and self-control among others. Hence, I would ensure that I encourage the affected families to practice distancing and self-control as a way of coping with the disaster. Confrontation often leads to reopening of the wound, hence by helping the families and individuals to distance and practice self-control during this process would go a long way in helping the families overcome the traumatic event that has affected their lives.

Another way of helping the families and the community is by use of the social support theory which allows the people to cope with their tragedy by being around other people who have also experienced the same thing. All the people affected people to get together, and they get to share their experiences on how they are coping with the situation. Several strategies are applied in the social support theory, and they include neighborhood helper strategy and community empowerment. This will help the affected families and the community to understand each other's cultures, beliefs, support each other and forge caring relationships between each other. As a result, the affected community will overcome the tragedy and form forward to rebuild their lives after the disaster (Brown, Stenner, 2009).

Finally, there is the application of self-efficacy theory which is concerned primarily with the behavior of human beings. This involves showing the people affected by the tragedy of how other people had survived the same disaster before and survived it. This specific strategy would require the application of the modeling technique which is very useful as the affected people will be more motivated to overcome the trauma and feel better since other people have done it before.

Conclusion

In conclusion as a health educator, I would ensure that I am fully experienced in applying all the psychosocial theories to help victims of change and grief overcome their tragedy. I would also ensure that I focus more on the emotional and mental health of such victims before most of the times this is aspects of health education that are mostly ignored. Many people end up losing way more when their mental health is not addressed before it is an unseen disease and without being entire with affected people one can easily miss some symptoms in a victim which generally turn into adverse health issues and also a risk of life.

References

Brown, S. D., & Stenner, P. (2009). Psychology without foundations: History, philosophy, and psychosocial theory. Sage.