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Professional
Associations
The Health Education Authority
The Health Education
Authority
The Health
Education Authority is England's lead body in health promotion, helping
people nationally and internationally to make sustainable improvements in
health, and working to reduce health inequalities.
We advise the government on health
promotion strategy, undertake research within key areas of health
promotion, maintain a substantial knowledge base in the subject, and work
with health professionals on practical projects designed to improve
health. We also communicate extensively with the public on health issues
We're based in London, and we employ some 250 people, with a wide range of
professional skills in research, health, health promotion policy,
education and communications.
We were founded in 1987 as a special
health authority, and are largely funded by the UK government's Department
of Health.
Broadly speaking, our work can be
divided into three types:
- Work we do with decision makers
and opinion formers on health strategy.
- Work we do with and for
professionals who are involved in health and health improvement.
- Work we do with and for members
of the public.
Work we do with decision makers
and opinion formers on health strategy
Developing healthy public policies
is complex, with many factors coming into play. For example: how can we
expect people to eat healthily if the healthiest food options are the most
expensive? Will they be keen to take exercise if there are no leisure
facilities nearby, if facilities are uninviting (eg, a poorly lit park),
or local air quality is poor? We are experienced in weighing the factors
which make for healthy public policies, in determining priorities, and in
advising policy makers accordingly.
Work we do with and for
professionals who are involved in health and health improvement
Often we work with people who are
medically qualified, such as doctors and nurses, and with people who have
a specific management responsibility for health, such as those within
health promotion units, local authorities and health authorities.
But we also often work with people
whose main professional purpose is not specifically health: for example,
teachers and administrative staff in schools; people in personnel
functions within organisations; and people in positions of trust within
local communities, from leisure centre managers to playgroup leaders.
Their roles allow them to influence the health of the people they work
with, and we try to assist them in that process as far as we can.
For professionals from a whole range
of disciplines offer services ranging from training courses to
idea-sharing opportunities.
Work we do with and for members
of the public
To most people, we are probably best
known for our work with the public, to whom we offer information about
health in a variety of ways. These include:
- Publications.
All new mothers in the country receive a free copy of our Pregnancy
Book for instance, and our leaflets are often made available at GP
surgeries.
- Websites and CD-Roms.
Sites such as Thinkfast, on
nutrition, and Wrecked, about
alcohol, have proved popular ways of accessing key advice on healthy
living. Our CD-Rom D-Code similarly presents information about drugs in
a way we hope will interest people as much as it informs.
- Articles in the press, and
programmes on television.
We provide information about health campaigns, comment on health issues
and influence opinion on health concerns in a range of media, including
the national press, TV and radio; the regional press, TV and radio,
consumer magazines, and specialist and professional publications.
- Advertisements on TV, on
radio and in the press.
Many people will know us best for our advertisements - for many years we
have been involved in proposing, and running, public information
campaigns. You may remember some of these from the past (Fly;
Pregnant Man; Nick
O'Teen.) Currently we are running a television advertising campaign
on smoking*, which you may have seen recently.
But it is our work with and for
health strategists and professionals that takes up most of our time, and
this site will probably be of most interest to people with a professional
interest in health.
HEALTH
EDUCATION AUTHORITY
Copyright ©1998
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This page was last updated on 02 July 2005 00:00:00
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