Unit 20: Health Education | Adisa Nicholson | Page 1 of 8

Health Approaches // Behaviour Change // Ethical Issues // The Impact of the Health Scale Health
Campaign // Evaluation

Part 1: Health Approaches

P1: Explain three different approaches to health

education.
Whenever an organisation wants to promote healthy living, or raise awareness
of a health issue such as diabetes, they produce a health campaign which
requires careful consideration regarding the approaches they take.

The aim of Community development is to educate people on health in a way

which people themselves get involved in working personally with people; or
developing the environment these people live in. This includes community
service or holding a weekly health meeting. Examples of which include, stop
smoking meetings and Weight Watchers though it's a commercial organisation.

One aspect of community development is holistic treatments. Holistic therapies

are also known as alternative or complimentary therapies. They include
acupuncture, aromatherapy, and physiotherapy. There also is the other side is
holistic medicine. These medicines are made from natural ingredients and don't
have the millions of pounds in funding, petri dishes and microscopes. Some of
these medicines work. I saw one which was a drink in a documentary which
causes a quick abortion, and it was made from plants in the woods.

Community Development involves understanding the effects that public health

has on the affected community. They also take a more user centred approach
towards promoting public health. This would involve using a holistic route to
improve health rather than to use modern medicine. A scheme which
encourages others to exercise will fall under this category.

Community Development was something that the Department of Health once

overlooked, the organisation responsible for the NHS advertising campaigns.
Once the NHS learnt that there was a certain demographic that was supposedly
immune to all forms of health education techniques. That's why community
development is about, so those people can have a person working in front of
their faces helping them change their behaviours and motivating them for
themselves.

One of these are when people come into schools teaching about sexual health
and not to take drugs. Various schools in the UK get workshops from NHS staff
and David about keeping a “Natural High”. Another example involves youth clubs
which take people off the bad areas of the streets. This would reduce rates of
violence.
 Unit 20: Health Education | Adisa Nicholson | Page 2 of 8

Mass media is a form of health education which we are bombarded with

everyday thanks to advertising. Because of this immense amount of advertising
we are subjected to, we are under the belief that advertising is a very effective
form of educating the public on health. Why else would we have to consider so
much advertising? The downside of mass media is that it's not very effective at
changing the attitudes of people who had their opinion before they've even read
the information.

Newspapers have a great power of saying people's opinion because they are
biased and selectively quote information to get the reader to join the author's
side. To expand on that, Rupert Murdoch owns News Corporation, he owns, The
Sun, News of the World, Myspace, IGN, The Times, and 50% of BskyB so he
basically has the power to control who gets elected in the next elections. Most of
what most people know about politics come from newspapers.

Medical articles are not allowed to be biased as they have to be factual.

On the television, there are self help shows which are not commissioned by the
Department of Health. Shows about dieting, losing weight and exercise educate
and do not particularly encourage others to follow in the footsteps in the people
who participated on the tv show. On “Supersize vs Superskinny”, people learn
about the effects that liquid diets, carbohydrates, and vitamin supplements have
on the body. They then can take that information, and then use it to utilise their
dieting and know what not to do. These shows however are not persuasive
despite their ability to get people talking about their shows.

It is common knowledge that excess sugar can cause diabetes, excess salt can
cause cholesterol, excess food can cause heart disease, excess smoking can
cause cancer; but still people do that. It is up to the television advertisements
which constantly show on our tv to change our attitudes by using psychology in
their advertisements. They have television adverts on using a condom, smoking,
being overweight and drinking. The Department of Health rotates the topics that
get advertised as well as changing the advertising campaign to focus on a
different slant or angle of using advertising to stop people from smoking. There
was adverts about children worried for their parents, if you smoke your children
will copy, the fear of getting cancer, getting off a metaphorical large cigarette,
and how you can get free help at stop smoking meetings.

I don't really see internet advertising being used by the government to promote
health as most online advertising is served by Google as text link ads. And for
the Department of Health to get their message across, they have to use
graphical ads which are not as popular with websites as they are harder for a
website owner to get access to because they pay more than Google ads.
 Unit 20: Health Education | Adisa Nicholson | Page 3 of 8

However, social marketing is a means of changing people's opinions. It is

effective at targeting the low-income high-risk demographics. If it’s something
that involves a behaviour change to solve society’s health problems then it’s
social marketing.

According to the Department on Health, social marketing is a framework which

pulls knowledge from psychology, sociology, anthropology and communications
theory to understand how to influence people’s behaviour. The rest of the
explaining gets confusing, which suggests that the Department of Health have
many of the experts in the fields listed above, and more, so they can
successfully provide social marketing, and health promotion campaigns.

M1: Analyse three different approaches to health

education.
Social marketing includes advertising, but not all advertising is social
marketing however. In Salford, a £20 Tesco voucher for those smokers who
managed to achieve the four week quit target - was “a motivator.

Everyone knows that smoking can cause cancer. In the 90s

the NHS produced adverts, which highlighted the dangers of
smoking. Nowadays that is not always the case.

Rather than highlight the dangers of smoking, the NHS now

stresses how easier and accessible it is to give up smoking.
The modern advertising campaign on the right about
getting off cigarettes triggers action off people to call the
helpline, make quitting easier by encouraging people to use
a support group, and then reinforcing the motivation to why
these smokers should go smokefree. The annual budget of
this successful campaign was 43 million pounds.

In the past, the NHS used adverts which instead highlighted

how bad smoking was. I think we can all remember the one with the woman on
the sofa with a throaty voice struggling to talk confined to an oxygen tank which
goes up through her nose. It fades to black then says that she died 2 weeks
after filming the advert. That probably the only 90s advert which we all can
remember about. Nowadays statistics regarding fatality rates of smokers are not
used in NHS stop smoking advertising.

The disadvantages of social marketing is that the television adverts are

complained about for being to scary or graphic, like the one where smokers are
hooked to fishing hooked, with a voiceover using the line, “get unhooked, call
0800 xxx xxx)”.
 Unit 20: Health Education | Adisa Nicholson | Page 4 of 8

The advantage of social media is that it takes advantage of social habits that
people have, and uses that to change their social habits rather than to tell them
to do something.

Now to move onto, mass media. Advertising is mass media but not all mass
media is advertising. When we think of mass media, we think of advertising, as
that is what we are bombarded with all the time.

Newspapers also are good at influencing our opinion, as the NHS cannot have a
column in a newspaper, as that would be ruled out for being awfully biased; they
would instead have to introduce an advertising campaign. Such a campaign,
would allow newspaper columnists and people to talk about stuff for themselves.

Community development is not really something a GP or doctor would

prescribe to someone. To let someone take part in a group meeting or to
volunteer. Due to this, it would seem like community developmentdoes not seem
to have such a widespread effect as mass media does however. But it does,
otherwise, it would not exist. So for that reason, you will find GP's and brook
giving out free condoms in an attempt to reduce STIs. You'll find support groups
for quitting smokers. You'll find the British Red Cross and the Samaritans
clothing and feeding the homeless and providing them accommodation. They
also heal the sick. Note that community development is a method of promoting
good health within the community, so a fireman would not be classed under this
category.

References
http://www.psi.org/resources/pubs/what_is_SM.html

http://www.nursingtimes.net/whats-new-in-nursing/primary-care/beyond-
getting-the-message-why-the-nhs-is-adopting-social-marketing/5002452.article

http://www.hsj.co.uk/resource-centre/how-social-marketing-reaches-more-
smokers/5000779.article

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/activit/marketsoc/whatis-qui-eng.php

http://www.nsms.org.uk/public/CSView.aspx?casestudy=103

http://www.nsms.org.uk/public/default.aspx

http://www.nsms.org.uk/public/default.aspx?PageID=10

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Choosinghealth/DH_066342
 Unit 20: Health Education | Adisa Nicholson | Page 5 of 8

Part 2: Behaviour Change

P2: Describe two different models of behaviour change, and the importance of the social and
economic context.

There are various methods that an organiser of a health campaign could use to make sure that
people have a behaviour change in order to become healthier.

There are models of health promotion which are community development, mass media and social
marketing. As a leaflet, poster and presentation on sexual health lacks communication between the
campaign promoter/organiser people, community development is then ruled out.

For my group project on promoting sexual health, mass media and social marketing were used. The
mass media model requires that an output like a leaflet is done in order to mass produce the media
being a leaflet.

To ensure that the mass media approach would not be a waste once the material had been printed
and given out to teenagers, the leaflet had to be attractive, as it was for young people, have text of
a reasonable large size to be easy to read. There also had to be a slogan which people would take
away from the media after reading it. There also had to be a slogan which people would take away
after reading it, this was the most important aspect of the campaign. There also had to be images to
make people think that they would enjoy reading the media.

What mass media does not do is change the opinions of the target audience effectively as it just
raises awareness. That’s what social marketing does.

On the social marketing aspect, that involves doing presentations in schools and then asking
questions. It also is the way that the content is written as social marketing requires a special kind of
writing. That is why I included shock tactics for scary images of STIs, a case study and two
testimonials.

Also the leaflets, poster and presentation are economically cheap to produce.

M2: Explain the approaches and methods used in own health education campaign, relating them
to models of behaviour change.

The social marketing approach meant travelling around to places and then doing presentations by
showing a group our presentation. Handing out leaflets and putting out posters. This was the most
effective part of the campaign.

The mass media approach meant that the leaflets and posters had to be given out.

Community development wasn’t really done as there was no social groups Awareness Is The Key To
Protection setup or any youth work done.

The first thing I did was to use colour, easily readable text and images to ensure that teenagers read
the information rather than ignore it.
 Unit 20: Health Education | Adisa Nicholson | Page 6 of 8

The second thing I did was to collect research which consisted of two facts and three scary images of
STIs. This was to make the media factual.

The third thing I did was to create a logo and slogan for the campaign.

Shock tactics imprint fear to ensure that the audience don’t forget the information that they should
remember. And facts make the media real by highlighting the harsh reality of real life.

After designing and whist creating the leaflet it was evident that more information had to fit onto
the leaflet. So then I used a case study I researched and then created two testimonials. More
information was added to accompany the newly added information. I chose to add what I added to
make the leaflet more entertaining than it was edutainment. The new stuff made it real and the old
stuff showed what was real to the target audience.

D1: Evaluate the approaches and methods used in own health education campaign relating them
to models in behaviour change.

I think that it was good for me to use the approaches methods above as it made it easier for me to
relate to a younger audience.

The mass media approach was the main way to get the message out there to the teenagers and the
social marketing approach was used in the leaflet. Without this, the campaign would have been
nothing.

The community development meant to travel around asking questions,

By that, I mean that this leaflet won’t be the first time these teenagers are asked to change their
behaviours regarding sexual health. As this is so, an entirely new approach had to be done in order
to get teenagers to at least listen and not dismiss what the leaflet, presentation and poster had to
say.

Part 3: Ethical Issues

P4: Explain how your own education campaign met the aims and objectives, and explain the
ethical issues involved.

The aim of the “Awareness is the key to protection” campaign is not to tell teenagers about safe sex
but to instead make them think about it instead and get rid of that “it’s not going to happen to me”
attitude.

The objective I used to ensure the aim got done was to make the content of the media rather than
the presentation of the media. Rather than just use statistics such as “1 in 3 people are affected by
cancer”, which readers would dismiss as selective quoting or scaremongering; I instead used two
facts and the rest was to use a case study and two testimonials in order to relate sexual health as a
real life issue rather than something ridiculous and out of place like an soapland storyline or a
terrorist bombing in the UK.
 Unit 20: Health Education | Adisa Nicholson | Page 7 of 8

Once that had been done with the tone and content used, the next step would be to then to teach
these people how to go about using contraception, what it is, and what kinds there are. The leaflet
does not to that as that is not the aim.

The only ethical issue would be to be sexist by placing blame on either males or females for the
problem, which the leaflet is and did not. It had testimonials of both male and female.

I do not think that religious groups would agree that the material encourages underage sex as it just
asks people to think about their own decisions logically by making the decisions important and
relating the outcome to realistic real life issues. The material does not mention about abortions or
the morning after pill so it would not offend people who are pro-life.

Part 4: The Impact of the Health Scale Health Campaign

P3: Describe the design and implementation of own small scale health education campaign.

The design was targeted at teenagers, so I used pictures and colour so they could tell that the leaflet
was for them. This was also done for the poster and presentation. The design was to make the
material read, and identifiable as a quick read. The good thing about quick reads is that if someone
wastes time reading with something they don’t like, they would not have wasted a long time as it is a
quick read.

Also, the campaign was implemented at schools and youth clubs.

M3: Analyse how your own health education campaign met the aims and objectives and
addressed any ethical issues.

The campaign has had a positive impact because people read the information and took it on board.
The audience did not find the material sexist or think that it passed blame onto people. I had made
the media ethical by not making it judgemental.

I had an issue with putting shocking images on my leaflets and disagreed with it but my group
outvoted me so I put it on anyway. People did not seem to mind, as it enhanced the presentation.

P5: Explain how own small scale health education campaign links to local/national/international
targets and strategies for health.

There is an existing NHS campaign called “Want respect, use a condom”. We knew that this
campaign was spread virally such as in YouTube, flash banner advertising (online), posters,
supporting the Urban Music Awards, stickers, and a myspace page as the website for it.

This campaign was a bit undercover as once someone knows about it, it’s gone. There were no real
leaflets given out. But this campaign is more persuasive than it is trying to personify the campaign as
a role model.
 Unit 20: Health Education | Adisa Nicholson | Page 8 of 8

M4: Analyse the role of small scale health education campaign in terms of
local/national/international targets and strategies for health.

So how exactly can this campaign make a difference? In fact all campaigns can support or change in
order to make a difference big or small and if the readers/audience agree that the campaign is
effective, it has then done its job.

It will be difficult to know which people have changed as a result of the campaign, as the minority is
the reason why the campaign exists. It will be hard to know how small the minority is in the school
or park which the material is targeted.

What can be done is taking statistics and speaking to people or collecting a survey to determine
which people have changed as a result of the campaign.

Part 5: Evaluation

D2: Evaluate your own health education campaign.

The campaign went really well, it was ethical, cheap and it got the job done. It made a lasting
impression on the teenagers who were a part of it.

It had done it’s aim as the teenagers had read the material and then took the information and learnt
from it which would mean that they would apply in their everyday lives.

Also, for a week’s work of creating the campaign, it was very good as that was the feedback I got.