Helping Health Workers Learn

Helping Health Workers Learn
A book of methods, aids, and ideas for instructors at the village level
by David Werner and Bill Bower
paperback
642 pages, illustrated
English ed. ISBN: 0-942364-10-4

Helping Health Workers Learn is an indispensable resource for all health educators. This heavily illustrated book shows how to make health education engaging and effective, while emphasizing a people-centered approach to care. It also presents strategies for effective community involvement through participatory education.

Topics include:

• activities for mothers and children
• tips for using theater, flannel-boards, and other techniques
• strategies for producing low-cost teaching aids
• how to build on a community's traditions, experiences, and strengths

Related Materials

• Available in Spanish: Aprendiendo a promover la salud.
• If you are interested in basic health care resources, you may also find Where There Is No Doctor and Where Women Have No Doctor to be useful tools.

What people have to say about Helping Health Workers Learn:

"Hesperian materials are invaluable, particularly when working at the community level. Though Helen Keller Worldwide uses a number of Hesperian publications, I feel Helping Health Workers Learn and Where There Is No Doctor are absolutely essential for public health organizations working in countries with limited infrastructure. We at Helen Keller Worldwide feel a strong connection with the Hesperian approach of designing health education and intervention from the point of view of the recipient, thereby guaranteeing community involvement and program efficiency."
Chad MacArthur, MPH, MEd, Director of Training and Community Education
Helen Keller Worldwide

"The "health workers" of the title are not doctors and nurses, but village health workers - laypeople with a special interest in and calling for working with health problems, laypeople who are natural helpers. But there is much in this volume for professional health workers to learn. Helping Health Workers Learn is one of the few books on health education that face up to this major problem: Many health education programs increase layfolks' dependence on all-powerful professionals and undermine people's sense of their own abilities to take care of them selves. The authors clearly recognize that one of the biggest obstacles to self responsibility in health is the unwillingness of professionals to let go of control."
-Tom Ferguson, MD
Self Care Archives