Gain Health Promotion Skills to Raise Public Awareness
| 4 Min Read
The goal of community health promotion is to enable individuals and communities to improve their health through initiatives that focus on social, environmental and behavioral factors. This area of psychology goes beyond helping individuals to impacting systems that affect group behavior and well-being.
If you are looking to make a difference in your community or organization by promoting community health, Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU) offers a Bachelor of Arts in Community Psychology and Health Promotion online program that can help with that goal. The program’s interdisciplinary curriculum combines community psychology courses with health promotion courses, giving you the comprehensive training you need to create positive change through education programs, communication campaigns and policy development and administration. In addition to exploring areas such as developmental psychology, cross-cultural psychology, advanced health psychology, community and corporate wellness and health promotion, and diverse and at-risk populations, you will complete two internships to gain valuable field experience.
What Is a Health Communication Campaign?
Broadly defined as “purposive attempts to inform or influence behaviors in large audiences,” communication campaigns use an array of messages published through multiple channels. The goal is to produce benefits to individuals and society. Some intervention campaigns that have been highly successful include anti-smoking campaigns that point to the connection between smoking and lung cancer, and the Heart Truth campaigns that raise awareness of heart disease as the leading cause of death for women in the U.S.
Communication campaign plans begin with identifying and targeting specific subgroups that have the most need. Determining who is at risk and who is likely to respond to the message enhances campaign effectiveness. The goal of a public health intervention campaign is to shift behaviors from unhealthy to healthy. Research and related data help community health professionals develop successful campaigns that maximize public health gains.
Improving Public Health Communication
Clear and effective communication is the foundation of an effective campaign. Below are six tips for improving public health communication.
- Identify and understand your audience: The language used needs to resonate with and be relevant to the specific audience being targeted.
- Make sure the message is consistent and inclusive: Language and imagery may change when reaching out to specific community members, but the message needs to remain consistent.
- Create a positive and empowering message: When trying to get a group to protect or improve their health, it’s important to empower the audience to change and not blame them for the problem.
- Ensure the message is straightforward and easy to understand: In order to be effective, messages need to use plain language and be reader-friendly.
- Personalize the message by collaborating with community partners: To achieve community awareness and acceptance, it can be helpful to recruit community leaders, healthcare providers or others trusted by the public to help deliver the message.
- Leverage cost-effective social media channels: Identify the types of social media platforms the audience uses and point them toward helpful, authoritative information.
Health Promotion, Health Protection and Disease Prevention
Community health professionals address health challenges resulting from individual and group behavior. This could be at a local, regional, national or global level. Their goal is to ensure populations stay healthy and achieve positive states of being through the following practices:
- Health promotion: Educates people on ways to improve their own health and avoid potentially harmful behaviors.
- Health protection: Focuses on safeguarding the health of populations against external threats via governmental policies, regulations and laws.
- Disease prevention: Promotes public health restrictions based on shared ethics and values. The goal is to reduce harmful exposure, disease onset and disease progression across populations.
Helping Others Thrive Through Community Health Promotion
By earning your online Bachelor of Arts in Community Psychology and Health Promotion from SMSU, you’ll be equipped with the interdisciplinary knowledge and practical skills needed to design and implement effective health campaigns that create lasting community impact. The program’s rigorous coursework and hands-on internship experiences prepare you to address complex public health challenges and advocate for positive behavioral change within communities.
Students complete the program well positioned to pursue meaningful careers as community health educators, public health program coordinators, wellness specialists or health communication professionals in nonprofit organizations, healthcare systems, government agencies and corporate settings. With the flexibility of a fully online format, you can advance your education while gaining the expertise needed to serve as a catalyst for healthier communities and a champion for those who need it most.
Learn more about SMSU’s online Bachelor of Arts in Community Psychology and Health Promotion program.