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Empowering individuals is a big role of being a health educator. When practitioners empower service users, they are helping to give them the confidence to take responsibility of their own health. It also gives service users the confidence to make changes to their daily habit which can minimise the risk of catching illness. Once individuals have been empowered to change their habits, health editors must them motivate them to maintain that lifestyle change. For example, a community nurse may motivate an individual to quit smoking, but they then must support them to maintain that positive lifestyle change. This helps to improve quality of life and health for the individual.

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Assessing needs is when a health educator looks at an individuals specific needs and preferences and changes their way of practice to suit them. To assess needs also means to look at an individuals care needs and change them if they are not working. For example, if an individual is going to art therapy and not seeing any changes in their mental health, their care team may look into changing that form of therapy to music therapy instead. Assessing needs also allows health educators to identify further support that may be needed in promoting the health of an individual. Health educators can then assess what forms of care are not working for an individual and change them to ways which might.

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Supporting informed decision making is when health educators give service users the correct information to be able to make an educated decision. This may be making a decision on the care they receive or the medication they are put on, which means it is very important that service users receive the most information they can to make the right choice for their specific needs. Health educators must also clarify information, answer any questions an individual may have and support them in the decision making process to be able to support this role. Practitioners also have a role to encourage all service users to have their own voice and participate in any decision making about their care. They can assist service users in the decision making by giving them guidance on the best options suitable for their needs.

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4. INCREASE SELF AWARENESS OF OWN HEALTH

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4. INCREASE SELF AWARENESS OF OWN HEALTH

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Health educators have a role to increase an individuals self awareness of their own health. This is so that service users can identify ways to improve their health independently. Health educators must therefore be able to identify the lack of knowledge a service user has and then educate them. Individuals will then be able identify ways in which they can manage and improve their health. For example, becoming self aware of your own health may help an individual to identify that they will benefit if they go on a diet and start exercising more to lose weight.

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Health educators also have a role to provide information. This includes information about all aspects of a health issue, such as the condition itself, the signs and symptoms sometimes shown, treatment plans, prevention methods and cures. This is one of the biggest roles of a health educator because they have a job to educate the public, which can be done by providing information. Information can be provided in a range of different methods, such as leaflets in GP waiting rooms, adverts on billboards in high populated areas and social media adverts on platforms such as Spotify or Instagram. Providing information can also include giving guidance to the public on other relevant services, such as therapists, dieticians, other doctors and counsellors. Sign posting therefore helps individual to receive the maximum benefits of their care if they are being given access to other information and services.

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2. PROMOTE COMMUNITY EDUCATION SURROUNDING HEALTH ISSUES

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2. PROMOTE COMMUNITY EDUCATION SURROUNDING HEALTH ISSUES

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Promoting community education surrounding health issues is when specific groups are targeted for the specific health issues they are more prone to develop. For example, Diabetes is promoted in BME communities because they have a high prevalence of cases which can be reduced. This also includes protected characteristics, for example, education on breast cancer will be targeted at women between a certain age group. Health educators therefore have a role to adapt their practice to meet the needs of communities. They can do this by adapting everything, from interpreters in non speaking communities to drop in sessions for the traveller community.

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Raising awareness is one of they key roles of a health educator. Health educators have a role to raise awareness on subjects such as new conditions, i.e. Coronavirus. This is because they are a role model who must educate the general public on relevant health issues. Raising awareness also includes giving the general public information regarding signs and symptoms of health issues, side effects of treatment and medication and ways they can minimise risks. This is so that individuals can catch a diagnosis for their health issues quickly, increasing their overall health. Prevention methods help to raise awareness too if individuals are educated on how they can prevent health issues from occurring in the first instance. For example, wearing a condom during sexual intercourse helps to prevent STD's from being caught.

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A health educator is a person who raises awareness and promotes service users health. Health educators teach people about how they can incorporate positive and healthy habits into their lives to improve their health. The seven main roles which all health educators have are to: