Roles and relationships in health education

Abstract

This article describes the results of a workshop in which community physicians and area health education officers met to consider ways in which they might work more collaboratively, in order to enhance the effectiveness of health education in the health service. The idea for this workshop arose out ofa multidisciplinary meeting on the smoking-related diseases, at which it became obvious that there were a number of issues impeding effective interdisciplinary collaboration. Although a large number of disciplines have an interest in health education, those of most importance in terms of potential for influencing the system, are community medicine and health education. The community physicians occupy a central position within the managerial framework, which empowers them to influence the allocatio,~ of resources to health education. Their training also enables them to understand the philosophy and concepts underlying the practice of health education. Health education officers are the practitioners of the discipline and possess the expertise necessary to affect health behaviour. Originally it was hoped that community physicians and health educators would be matched for health area. However, this was not possible, except in two or three instances. The workship was residential and extended over 3 days.