He is on a quest to improve health conditions for minorities without having the costs go up so high it becomes prohibitive. Gold goes on to assert that the current "electronic media" available (television, radio) to promote health education are not adequate. In order to accomplish some of the goals that Gold's philosophy embraces, he says there need to be better databases to record and make available a great deal of information on individuals, communities and states. What are the capacities of people? What can individuals do in order to become more productive? Gold says we don't know that now but with better digital databases making this information available, the health education community can help the citizens become healthier and more productive.
Gold believes that more interactivity in the field of health education is needed in order to "motivate ever larger numbers to achieve their potential." He is correct when he says "right now there is a favorable atmosphere for developing…alternative technology-based solutions." He tends to be a bit on the professorial side, using phrases and language like "dealing equitably and intersectorally"...
But his point is extremely valid: the technology revolution is here, we must put it to better use to improve the health of the population.
Mary Rose Colley references Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs as an important component of health education strategies. She goes on to explain that health education should assist people to identify the resources that can help them, and health education professionals should be responsible to help people build up their own skills so they can take their health needs into their own hands, and not necessarily have others telling them what they need to do to become healthier. Colley also believes people can be taught to change their own environments, when they have sufficient information available, and the skills, and the tools, to make those needed changes. Her story is very interesting and her outlook is impressively humanitarian in scope.
Works Cited
Colley, Mary Rose. (2010). Health Education Philosophy. The University of Alabama.
Gold, Robert S. (2010). Health Education Philosophy. The University of Alabama.
