Health administrators and health education: some mixed feelings

It is no secret that many health administrators still consider systematic or professional health education as a discipline towards which one has to pay a certain lip service, but which in its most common interpretation (i.e. imparting knowledge) has no formal place in the health services. Yet with the growing dissatisfaction of the public with the quality of health care and the growing costs incurred in the different parts of the health services, especially the hospital sector, the authorities could certainly use a skilled group of people, trained both in the health and medical fields and in pedagogic techniques, who would serve as a bridge between health services on the one side, and the population, and especially the politicians, on the other. In parts of the world where ignorance, superstition and harmful traditions still prevail, there is no doubt that health educators are of the utmost importance. In the more or highly developed parts of the world, where consumer participation in daily work and decision-making is becoming more and more common and more and more difficult, there is an urgent need for education of the public and politicians, and also of the medical profession in "community health" as different from "individual health". This is by far the most difficult task, and will require special training, both in background knoweledge and in techniques to reach the population. These considerations serve to reinforce the pressing demand of the World Health Organization for the "professionalization of health education activities without regard to the educational background of the agents who carry out the activity" -- an area where the International Union for Health Education has also an important responsibility.