Community Health Promotion

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

PM 526 Communication in Public Health 4 units
PM 528 Program Design & Evaluation 4 units
PM 562 Intervention Approaches for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention 4 units
PM 563 Organizing and Mobilizing Communities for Global Health 4 units

And choose one of these courses:

PM 529 Environmental Health: An Epidemiological Approach 4 units
PM 536 Program Evaluation & Research 4 units

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