[H133]Health & Education Services

Good health isn't automatic. Your personal responsibilities for maintaining and improving your health are a lifelong obligation---not a privilege. If you don't comply with what health care providers, including home health care nurses, are telling you to do, you suffer. The problem with complying is an ever increasing struggle to get enough time in direct contact with the physician or other healthcare provider to be properly and fully informed.

Your healthcare suffers accordingly.

The smarter you are through health education about how the healthcare system works, and how to use strategies for manipulating the medical care process for your benefit the more ability you will have to easily and quickly propel your healthcare to top. This article tells you how to do that in abbreviated terms.

How much importance you assign to maintaining your health defines your responsibilities for improving it. Obesity is an example of those who consider their health secondary in importance to other things. Who cares?.......We all do.

I hate to tell you this, but the hefty responsibility for medical treatment and care is gradually being transferred to your own shoulders. Medical doctors, in a sense, are moving from a position of directing your medical care to a position of assisting in your healthcare. And what does that mean to you?

You are now offered ?choices? instead of ?being told? what is going to be done. You must be medically knowledgeable enough to make the right decision/choice for yourself. Health education is key.

Your time with any healthcare professional is so limited that you are now being forced to resolve your healthcare questions another way.

Your resources for health information have changed from a quickie office visit with the healthcare provider who used to provide knowledge to books, articles, and newsletters.

Your ability to speak directly with healthcare providers for medical information has become severely restricted. Now, you must rely on second guessing whether the office staffer's answers are correct, complete, and reliable.

Second hand medical information is well known to be unreliable?.even dangerous on occasion.
For these and many other reasons you will increasingly need outside resources for reliable healthcare information which will at least help you to maintain adequate healthcare, if not improve it.

Your health responsibilities, however, go well beyond becoming an expert about your own disease problems. Your family will expect you to be their healthcare advocate as well. Once you discover where you can find reliable healthcare information, whether it's online at Cullmanchat Medical Forum, from a home health care nurse, or by reading articles about health you become a highly regarded asset to your family and friends. Talk about a way to improve your self-esteem! Wow!

So where are those reliable sources for health education you need?

1.Physicians? online doctors or in the medical office.
2.Internet? trusted medical websites or websites publishing peer reviewed info.
3.Healthcare Institutions? hospitals, clinics, and doctor offices.
4.Medical Educational Facilities? medical schools, teaching hospitals.
5.Internet Article Directories? where medical information is peer reviewed.
6.Public Libraries

Health education and information are often available in many formats, such as CDs, MP3 audios, downloaded/printed from Internet sites, medical newsletters, email advice or recommendations, articles about health, and others.

Then??.. there's another responsibility beyond all those mentioned above. Want to take a guess what that is?

Applying your health education and medical information aggressively.

Just learning all you need is not enough??..you have to use it in a beneficial way. Weight loss is a hot topic in the media today along with dieting and special dieting programs. If you're obese, then lose weight. If you're depressed, seek immediate mental health services.

Why do most people know what to do, but never do it? The answer to that question is multi-faceted and quietly resides inside each person's mind. A common reason for procrastination and inertia is way beyond problems with motivation, desire, goal setting, self-intimidation, and distractions.

No one takes time to tell you exactly how to do it.

It's a fact that has long been neglected in the medical community. How many times have you been told, ?Lose some weight, or get yourself together, or forget all that crap.? But, how often does anyone then go on to tell you the best, fastest, safest, and proper way to go about it? Doesn't that fry your oysters?

If anyone has an idea to do something and doesn't know how, how do you think most people react to that? You bet?put it off for a better time (which never comes), find something easier to do, find someone to do it for you. It's exactly the way people react to healthcare problems and issues.

If you know and understand the what, how, why, and when about some area in healthcare you should take action on, you are much more likely to go at it.

Ask yourself these questions:

1.If I knew exactly how to improve my health, would I likely go ahead
and do it?

2.If I knew where I can find legitimate reliable healthcare information, would I feel more secure about how I am being treated medically by my doctor?

3.If I have a place that explains healthcare issues in an understandable way, wouldn't I be able to get much more out of my visit with my doctor?

4.If my medical and healthcare is worsening, wouldn't it be smart to dig into the health education information available to me and benefit from it?

Comment: Eventually everyone will be taking on all these responsibilities. The problems with our health care system will require it?unless you have no plans to live long enough to ever enjoy your grandchildren. The solution to better healthcare is knowing what to do and how to do it by diving into every source of health information available. Health education materials are available nearly everywhere?..grab ?em!

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