Community Health Promotion | USC | Online Masters in Public Health

Overview

Improve Public Health Through Education
Educate the public about specific interventions to tackle public health problems and facilitate behavioral and environmental changes that improve health. If your ambition is to deliver programs and interventions conducive to health improvement of individuals and communities, becoming a health educator can be a rewarding career choice. Learn more about this track now:

Community Health Promotion Courses

Required Courses

Concentration Total: 20 Units

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PM 526	Communication in Public Health	4 units
Application of communication theories and methods to community health problems. Includes background assessment, program design, evaluation, social marketing, media advocacy and review of major campaigns

PM 528	Program Design & Evaluation	4 units
Core concepts, methods and values of public health program planning and evaluation, including community needs assessment, writing objectives, designing health promotion programs, process and outcome evaluation

PM 562	Intervention Approaches for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention	4 units
Approaches for modifying health behavior in various settings and within diverse populations. Emphasis on practical considerations necessary to design and implement interventions with demonstrated effectiveness

PM 563	Organizing and Mobilizing Communities for Global Health	4 units
Survey of effective community organizing and mobilization efforts in the U.S. and abroad, using participatory, organizational, community empowerment and public-private partnership models

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PM 529	Environmental Health: An Epidemiological Approach	4 units
An overview of environmental health, identifying issues in assessing effects of exposure on health and potential interventions for reducing adverse health risks

PM 536	Program Evaluation & Research	4 units
Overview of concepts, tools, data collection, analysis methods and designs used to evaluate health promotion programs. Examples from substance abuse prevention, family planning and reproductive health programs

Community Health Promotion Careers

A wide avenue of opportunity is open to those interested in health education and promotion. With increasing emphasis on reducing health care costs by teaching people to make better choices regarding maintaining and improving their health, health educators are becoming more important than ever. Health educators today may do anything from working in a hospital’s health education department and designing courses for patients, to developing a strategic campaign for smoking cessation in a local community or even in a private business.

A few of the titles health educators hold include:

Health Promotion Specialist
Health Educator
Public Health Educator
Health Coordinator
Corporate Wellness Trainer

Organizations that employ health educators include:

Federal, state and local government agencies
Nonprofit organizations such as the American Heart Association and the American Red Cross
Community-based organizations, such as rape crisis centers, substance abuse treatment facilities and senior citizen centers
Hospitals, managed care organizations and rehabilitation clinics
Colleges and universities
Private businesses

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of health educators needed is expected to grow by 37% from 2010 to 2020, much faster than the average for all occupations. Statistics from the BLS also show that the following industries employ the greatest number of health educators:

General medical and surgical hospitals—11,050
Local governments—6,420
Individual and family services—5,290

Sources: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/health-educators.htm
http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes211091.htm