Health education programs cover a huge range of subjects; from preventative medicine to highlighting awareness of potentially damaging behaviour. In the US, many of these healthcare programs are aimed at helping people to find affordable healthcare or giving them advice on their insurance. All the people working for these organisations are trained healthcare professionals, who will not only have undergone the necessary training at the start of their career, but have now decided to specialise in one particular area, and then use their newly gained knowledge to help others.

Chronic illness healthcare groups

Healthcare programs not only cover preventative measures, such as organisations promoting the use of contraception or those educating about the consequences of alcohol or illegal drugs. Many of these health education groups work with people who have just been diagnosed with serious illnesses and conditions. Cancer support groups are very common, but many offer more than just a safe environment to talk. Many places offer practical help from healthcare professionals about how you can stay as healthy as possible during cancer treatment, what you should eat to feel as good as possible and to educate the patients fully about what to expect from chemotherapy or radiotherapy. In the UK, Maggie’s Centres, based at many of the country’s major cancer hospitals, go one step further and offer massage therapies, a comfortable place for patients and survivors to get together and even a crèche service while you are undergoing treatment. The healthcare professionals who work there also run health education programs on subjects such as cancer diet, exercise and even sex!

Preventative healthcare programs

The majority of healthcare programs focus on preventative medicine. After all, it is easier for the health system if they do not have to deal with teen pregnancies, drug addicts or HIV positive people; and these are all situations or conditions that can generally be avoided if people receive appropriate healthcare information and follow the advice they have been given. Much as the government and the healthcare industry would like it to see these issues disappear, this is unlikely to happen. Indeed, many pregnant girls tell doctors they didn’t realise they could get pregnant the first time while other people still claim they didn’t know that certain drugs were addictive. Despite the wide number of healthcare programs on these subjects, it is obvious that more are needed as the message still isn’t getting through to everyone.

Funding cuts

Unfortunately, just as health education programs like these need more money, governments are being forced to tighten their belts and cut public funding. It is likely it will be “extra” projects like healthcare programs which will suffer, putting an extra strain on the health system as they have to deal with the consequences of a generation of teens who don’t know about contraception or the dangers of drugs, or cancer patients who have made themselves ill through stress.