PERCEPTION OF CHILDREN TOWARDS IDEAL HEALTH EDUCATION

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Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements of the course Communication Skills 2

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By: Mary Joyce M. Manzano

ABE-ICBA Tacloban City March 2012

CHAPTER I Introduction

Who is your favorite celebrity? Katrina Halili, Angel Locsin, and Marian Rivera? Or Dingdong Dantes, Piolo Pascual, and Aljur Abrenica? What can you say about them? What is common of them? Well, if youre an avid fan of them definitely you will say they are famous actresses and actors of this generation, aside from that they had a sexy and beautiful stand and body figure. Does being sexy means healthy? It is believed that the product of being healthy is being sexy. Well, some say yes, for they are engaged in practicing a healthy lifestyle. But we are not aware a sexy body is just a bonus effect of attaining healthy body. One does not have to be famous to be motivated to be healthy or sexy. One does not need to look for any reason to practice better lifestyle. To be healthy alone is enough. But when can one call himself/herself healthy? It was mentioned earlier that it is not only by means of being sexy but as a whole. To be healthy requires discipline, proper education and self-motivation. Nowadays, many people involve themselves in different vices , jeopardizing their bodies. According to Shore the public lacks the scientific knowledge to understand fully about the relationship between their behaviorsmoking, drinking, overeating, and drug abusing, she further asserts that public believes that the doctor can fix anything or dont think they have to take responsibility for they themselves. The World Health Organization, further defines health as an ability of an individual to perform its daily function without undue fatigue, and not merely the absence of disease or deformity. The question however, is how to achieve optimum health. Florence Nightingale

state that health will be achieved through environmental sanitation and proper education. Does education make a difference in the health behavior of the people? Government surveys show that the higher educational attainment a person has, the more regards are given to health, thus comes the difference of each individuals behavior towards health. This paper therefore, aims to prove that health can be in the hands of the people by imparting knowledge that will awaken the public to their responsibility towards health.

CHAPTER II Discussion

Definition of Health Education Health has various meanings to different people. Because it is composed of many component, it is neither easily nor wholly measurable. Today, the definition of health as stated by Avelino (199,p.35) is turning toward the idea of optimum state of living effectiveness. Health is considered as a vital process that involves a whole person and ones own unique pattern of living. Many interrelated factors play vital parts in the development and maintenance of health. According to Olsen (1995,pp.20-22) through education, unhealthy habits can be changed so that chief threats to help can be eliminated. Education about healthful living is increasingly important in promoting the health, welfare and economy of any country. New terminologies have evolved in the recent years descriptive of the greater health consciousness, holistic, health, total fitness, health promotion, risk education, health prevention, and high-level wellness. All of these concepts involve the whole person and focus on the behavioral aspects of promoting optimal health. Building effective mechanism to attack the health care for all people, greater emphasis must be placed on health education. One of the most important aims of this education is to persuade us that we must take responsibility for our own well-being. Everyone has the potential for wellness. It is not the exclusive domain of those without diagnosed disease or illness. Wellness suggests degrees or level of health, a state of being that

ranges from sub-optimal level of barely being that ranges to high-level wellness. An optimal health which is realization of the full potential of the individual wellness activities are things an individual does to build up and key health because it feels right. Health education is the process of providing health information in order to favorably influence understanding, attitudes, and practices relating to ones individual, family, and community health. It is the profession of educating people about health. Areas within profession encompass environmental health, intellectual health, and spiritual health. It can be defined as the principle by which individuals and groups of people learn to behave in a manner conducive to the promotion, maintenance, or restoration of health, mentioned by Olsen (1995,p28). The objective of health promotion is not only to prevent serious disease, but also to prolong life and to improve our ability to enjoy life. These outcomes result from a life-long practice of good health habits. Proponents of preventive medicine and health promotion agree that good health is related to nutrition, physical fitness, stress management and environmental safety. The purpose of health appraisals is to help you do a private assessment of your health status, attitudes and practices.

Scopes of Health Education

Health has many components the totality of a person. A whole individual is composed of different factors that attribute to become healthy. There are two mainly components of

Health as further discussed by Olsen (1995,pp.23-24): Mental Health The term mental health sometimes is a description of behavior. If your social and personal behavior appears to be reasonably well-integrated, you appear to be reasonably wellhappy. If society approves your behavior and your means of coping with yourself and your environment you are said to be psychologically healthy or well-adjusted. Keeping your mind together is a complex process involving ways of thinking. Feeling and behaving. It has personal as well as the social dimension. Your attitudes, ideals, values, and self-concept are involved with customs of society. The congruence or reconciliation of personal attribute with cultural values involves learning. Learning to cope with yourself, to relate effectively with your environment are life process. According to Shaphito, the public knows about mental illness and has many conceptions. The better educated are somewhat better informed. Emotional Health Emotional or psychological health are learned and improved by learning so behave in personally and socially satisfactory ways. Emotions affect your physical state of mind. Severe emotional shock, traumatic experiences or situations involving persistent stress and conflict may produce serious and permanent effects. They may precipitate mental illness as well as a variety of physical symptom.

Social Behavioral Outcomes from Ideal Health Education Mentioned by Olsen(1995,pp.34-37) these are possible social behavior outcomes for attaining health education. These are the following as presented: building self-concept, adjusting to life, autonomy on your own feet, becoming the you, and creating the harmony with mankind. Building a Self-Concept Some psychologists feel that the central concept in good mental health is the way the individual perceives oneself (self-concept) and how one feels about his or her self (self-esteem). Each person develops a general idea of the kind of a person he or she rather early in life and then tends to act in accordance with this self-image. Well integrated, stable and personally satisfying self-esteem to withstand the development tasks of life. Self-esteem also implies the complementary concept of others. The individuals concept of others includes a series of social expectancies: the social oughts and should. However, when an individual becomes so other- directed that personal acts are continually monitored in terms of what will other people think of me, one cannot be true to oneself. He or she cannot function optionally. In addition, if an individual has developed an overly rigid set of values (conscience), it similarly reduces the capacity for optimum functioning. Adjusting to Life People learn to respond to lifes ups and downs in various ways. These ways of responding become routinized through reinforcement and repetition. When they become wellestablished habit patterns, they are called defense mechanism.

In learning to respond to situations that threaten to ones self-respect or prestige, the typical first response is simply to withdraw from the situations. If this is not satisfactory and situation persists, the response is varied in an attempt to find a more successful solution. Almost any response that will reduce the tension and anxiety will be attempted. First one kind of behavior and then other is tried until something satisfactory found. Autonomy on Your Own Two Feet Although social and personal contacts are important in building good mental health, autonomy is equally important. Excessive social conformity has a stagnating effect on selfrealization and creativity. Reaction against social forces contributing to conformity, but nonconformity can become just as rigid and compulsive as social conformity. Both extreme adjustment patterns are handicapping and maladaptive. In a well-adjusted personality, creative activity involves the capacity to engage in loose, unrelated thinking (divergent thinking) and the ability to return to critical and related thought (convergent thinking) as the occasion requires. Creativity requires a well-balanced and nicely modulated relating of reality and fantasy-tied processes, in the same way that adjustment in general requires the balancing of stable and integrated personality components with flexible ones. Becoming the You Self realization, a distinctly human trait, is a central concept for many humanistically oriented psychologists. This trait is also called self-actualization or competence. According to Rogers, self-actualization is the highest motivational construct. All of the organic drives

(food-seeking, sexual satisfaction) are basically motivated by and subsidiary to, the actualizing tendency. Maslow places the need for self-actualization at the topof his developmental hierarchy of needs: (1) physiologic needs, (2) safety needs, (3) love and affection needs, (4) self-esteem needs and ultimately, (5) self-actualization needs. Creating Harmony with Mankind and Nature Persons displaying optimal adjustment focus strongly on problems outside themselves and have the ability to lose themselves in work or play. Individuals high in this dimension have missions in life, significant tasks to fulfill, movements or activities that enlist much of their time and energy. The problems and movements in which they become immersed tend to be large, social, moral or philosophical ones rather that the more immediate and specific day-to-day tasks. Being concerned with a wide frame of reference and a total commitment often imparts to them a certain serenity and a lack of anxiety over immediate concerns. Since they are more problem-centered than ego-centered, they are more concerned with their own wishes and ambitions with reference to the situation. Proper Practices of Health Education Among Children Health Education for children focus mainly in two concerns: Hygiene and Nutrition. These are both essential in promoting health that geared towards wellness. These two must be introduced and practiced religiously if the purpose is good health. These must be observed through proper diet, cleanliness in the body as referring to the personal hygiene, enough exercise,

rest, and sleep. In food, Thus, observing and practicing healthy lifestyle are as crucial in the developmental years of every child in order to attain a healthy living. Emotional Problems of Children with Poor Health Education When individuals have problems with accepting themselves, with their self-confidence or self-esteem or with relating with others, symptoms of unhappiness appear. It has often been said that most men live out their lives with quiet desperation. Unfortunately this is true, as we see by recognizing problems early and seeking counseling, lives can improve, and, as with any situation, prevention and early treatment are far better than waiting until there is severe pain misery. Psychosomatic Disorder It is defined as disturbance in which emotional maladjustment results in organic changes or dysfunction of physiological system that has primarily emotional causes. Psychosomatic Disorder further limited to the malfunctioning of those organs or parts of the organ controlled by the automatic nervous system, the smooth muscles and glands of the body, it involves the genitourinary tract, the circulatory, respiratory and genitourinary system and other regulatory processes that are controlled directly or indirectly by the automatic nervous system, conditions that may at times be recognized as psychosomatic are: common allergies, ulcers, colitis and hypertension (high blood pressure). Loneliness It is difficult to estimate the number of people who suffer from severe loneliness

because many people find their state too painful to acknowledge, either to themselves or to others. Women rank higher on loneliness scale than men. Loneliness can be described as the feeling of being left out, of not really belonging to a family or group of friends or community. Many times loneliness is identified by the individual who may have vague feelings and negative emotions. The feeling of being lonesome can also derived from personal failure, rejection or personal devaluation. Feelings of Helplessness The feelings of helplessness and hopelessness seem to permeate a persons mood when in a deep depression. A feeling of not making many programs may develop into depression when one sees no immediate hope of improving. The person gives up and seems unable to do anything to help him on herself. If you believe things happen because you make them happy, you are said to believe in internal reinforcement responsibility. If, on the other hand, you believe things happen because of other people, luck, on fate, you are said to believe external responsibility. Depression Depressed people perceive themselves as blocked in every direction so they give up. According to this interpretation, depressed individuals make few attempts to help themselves. They become apathetic, and when they perceive success a poorly chance result.

CHAPTER III Conclusion

This study has presented the different possible effect to an individual that is health educated and self-aware towards healthy living, especially of a child in behavioral, mental and emotional aspect. It has also emphasized the importance of achieving and maintaining a healthy living in a community and as an individual. Furthermore, we had also presented the different possible negative factors that attribute a poor healthy lifestyle that usually encountered, occurred and faced. Therefore, respective government agencies should help the citizens of our it should be us, individuals will be the prime mover and concerns of attaining this goal. It must start from us through proper living and lifestyle. To withdraw in abrupt from vices is difficult, it should be gradual. Proper lifestyle must be observed in our foods, practices, vices, routines and physical involvement. To lack something is unhealthy but too much of something is dangerous. Health is the key of life. Therefore, self-control and discipline is the first key towards healthy living. Indulgence a little, rest, enough exercise and proper diet, these can cause a wellness of living. Further research on the field of Health Education especially on childrens awareness or perception towards ideal Health Education and promotion which is possibly have not been tackled by this research. Further investigations should be determined in the effectiveness of programs implemented from retarded individuals in the Philippines.

Bibliography

A.Books

Avelino, Soledad E., et al.Personality Development and Human Relation. Manila Philippines Rex Bookstore Inc.,1997 Gines, Adelaida C.,et al.Developmental Psychology.Manila: Rex Bookstore Inc.,1999 Olsen,Larry K.Healthy Today.2nd ed.USA:Addison Wesley Publishing,1995 Pantell,Robert H.,et al.Taking Care of Your Child.USA:Addison Wesley Publishising Inc.,1998

B.Internet Sources

www.healthy.com www.healthyliving.com www.personalhygiene.com www.wikipedia.com www.webhealthy.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I

Page

Introduction .1

Chapter II

Discussion.3 Definition of Health Education ........................................3 Scope of Health Education............................4 Mental Health5 Emotional Health..5 Social Behavioral Outcomes from Ideal Health Education..6 Building a Self-Concept6 Adjusting to Life ..6 Autonomy on Your Own Feet...7 Becoming the You7 Creating Harmony with Mankind and Nature..8 Proper Practices of Health Education Among children8 Emotional Problems of Children with Poor Health Education.8 Psychosomatic Disorder....9 Loneliness.9 Feelings of Helplessness....10 Depression...10

Chapter III Conclusion..11 Bibliography...12