Kumasi, July 5, GNA- Professor (Mrs) Ewura Ama Addy, Director of the Department of Community Health, School of Medical Sciences (SMS) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has urged community health educators to develop skills and expertise that could influence the behaviour of the people in their communities.
She said promotion of good health required education about health and there was the need for health educators to initiate plans and strategies that could positively influence health behavioural patterns of communities.
Professor Addy was speaking at the 11th graduation of students in Health Education, and organised by the Department of Community Health, on Saturday.
Thirty participants from various fields of endeavour participated in the one-year course.
Professor Addy said the objective of the course was to provide a framework within which the participants could develop skills and expertise as effective health educators in their fields of endeavour. She said improper eating habits, inactivity, alcoholism, drug abuse, truancy and other bad behaviours had become the basic lifestyles of many people especially the youth.
She therefore advised the participants to make maximum use of their expertise to change the behaviour of the people to promote good health. Mrs Anowu Nsiah Ababio, a nutrition officer at the Kumasi metropolitan health unit, urged the educators to be dedicated to their work in order to promote good health among the people.
She also advised them to work as a team and appreciate the efforts of each other to ensure success of the programme.
