Health programs help prevent diseases, disabilities and premature death through education-driven voluntary behavior change activities. They are a core public health function that involves the multi-disciplinary field of behavioral science (including biological, environmental, psychological and physical sciences). The practice of health promotion can be found in schools, colleges, workplaces, medical care settings, and the community at large. Health educators may design, promote, lead and/or evaluate education programs on weight control, hypertension, nutrition, alcohol abuse prevention, physical fitness, smoking cessation and stress management. In addition, health educators assist in developing educational materials and applying for grants to fund these projects.
The most effective health programs have a focus on both individual and population-level interventions. They are grounded in the principles of evidence-based practice and use a technical package that includes a limited number of high priority, effective interventions that are known to have a major impact. This approach sharpens and focuses the commitment to action and avoids a scattershot of individual and sometimes disjointed interventions that might have a small impact.
Many of the most important health programs have broad participation by community members and involve partners in the private sector, government, academia, philanthropy and civil society. These partnerships are necessary to identify, plan and carry out interventions that are too large for any one organization to tackle alone. They are also essential to ensuring that those most affected by a health issue are engaged in the planning and implementation of programs, and have a voice in shaping those programs.
In addition, to be effective, public health programs must address the need for innovation and sustainable funding. They must be designed to reach the right people at the right time with the most appropriate information and messages, using newer technologies for communication like social media, text messaging and electronic outreach. And they must be capable of integrating with the current system for data collection and analysis to ensure that all available information is used.
Finally, public health programs must be culturally competent and include people from marginalized identities who are trained to be leaders in their communities. This is necessary to advance both the quality of health programs and the public health workforce. It requires building educational pathways into the profession, improving wages and creating opportunities for advancement — all while ensuring that these individuals have access to the services they are helping to provide. This will ultimately help to build more inclusive societies and stronger, healthier communities. It will also ensure that the next generation of public health leaders can meet the demands and expectations of our changing world.