NutritionGlobal Health Promotion And Health Education The Focus Of Special Journal Issues
The International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) and the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) are pleased to release special, complementary peer-reviewed journals containing ten articles on strengthening standards and quality assurance systems of global capacity in health promotion and health education.
SOPHE"s journal, Health Education & Behavior (Vol. 36, No. 3, June 2009), and IUHPE"s journal, Global Health Promotion (Vol. 16, No. 2, June 2009), feature the results of a transatlantic meeting held in Galway, Ireland in June 2008 on the status of, and needed improvements in, developing competency-based standards throughout the world to strengthen workforce capacity in health promotion. Conference deliberations resulted in the first articulation of eight domains of core competency that are required to engage in effective global health promotion practice, as well as recommendations for a baseline acceptable standard of quality and performance to strengthen academic preparation through systems of peer review.
Conference co-chairs, Prof. John Allegrante of Columbia University, a SOPHE past president, and Prof. Margaret Barry of the National University of Ireland, Galway, who serves as the IUHPE Global Vice-President for Capacity-building, Education and Training, served as guest co-editors for the special journals. To promote the widest dissemination possible, both issues are available via online open access.
"The publication of this unique collection of articles represents a milestone toward international collaboration in health education and health promotion," comments Marie-Claude Lamarre, Executive Director of the Paris-headquartered IUHPE. "We are grateful to the distinguished co-guest editors, editorial board, authors, and all those individuals who participated in the Galway conference and/or commented on its findings."
In addition to the background leading up to the Galway Conference, articles explore similarities and differences in terminology and definitions related to global credentialing systems for health promotion; development and current status of credentialing systems in the U.S. and in Europe; efforts to strengthen workforce capacity and continuing education; and the Galway Consensus statement enumerating the eight domains of core competency. Invited commentaries are also included from experts in Africa, Australia, Latin America and Canada, as well as those who reviewed the draft consensus statement during a six-month public comment period following the June 2008 conference.
"The recent outbreak of the H1NI virus underscores the need for a global health education workforce that is adequately trained and ready to effectively communicate with diverse segments of the public, media, and many other stakeholders," says M. Elaine Auld, MPH, CHES, Chief Executive Officer of SOPHE. "Using these recommendations as a roadmap will help protect the public and elevate health education and health promotion to assume a prominent role in global health."
M. Elaine Auld
SAGE Publications UK