SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION IN DISEASE PREVENTION AND CONTROL

In this school and community health education in disease prevention and control,
an overview of disease was discussed, considering meaning, classification, factors
and levels of prevention. The concept of community health education was analyzed,
where discussion centred on the premise that the onus of creating a healthy
community lies on the individual members who strive to attain high level of
personal health status and then work together as a team to attain, promote and
maintain optimum community health. School health education was discussed as a
component of community health, where it is seen as that which provides students
with planned and sequential learning experiences as applied to community based
programmes to build a healthy community. School children influence the
community through their parents with positive health habits gained from health
instruction; On the other hand, schools utilise the health facilities of the
communities for healthcare and learning purposes. These are complimenting roles
of school and community through health education in the prevention and control
of diseases. There are a number of militating factors against the effective
implementation of school and community health education, of which advocates of
these fields have proffered solutions to. It was therefore concluded that working
together to address and improve health concerns as community members, will
enhance the growth of community and school health education. Among other
recommendations given was that there should be evaluation of schools’ and
communities’ responsibilities in disease prevention and health promotion, with
particular reference to the improvement of environmental conditions.