Teaching Elementary School Health Education/Consumer and Community Health

Introduction

Consumer and community health is the area of health that focuses on acquiring knowledge of laws to protect health, recognizing rights as a consumer, taking action if consumer rights are violated, making a plan to manage time and money, choosing healthful entertainment, analyzing the ways that messages delivered through technology might affect health status, making responsible choices about health care providers and facilities, evaluating ways to pay for health care, investigating health careers, and investigating public and international health needs. This chapter provides the health knowledge needed to teach young people important life skills for consumer and community health.

Health Goals For Consumer and Community Health


 * Acquire knowledge of laws to protect health.
 * Recognize my rights as a consumer.
 * Take action if my consumer rights are violated.
 * Make a plan to manage time and money.
 * Choose healthful entertainment.
 * Analyze ways messages delivered through technology might affect health status.
 * Make responsible choices about health care providers and facilities.
 * Evaluate ways to pay for health care.
 * Investiage health careers.
 * Investigate public and international health needs.

Being a consumer we all have rights or privileges that we are guaranteed. These rights consist of:
 * 1. The right to choose
 * 2. The right to be heard
 * 3. The right to safety
 * 4. The right to be informed
 * 5. The right to satisfaction of basic needs
 * 6. The right to redress or remedy
 * 7. The right to consumer education
 * 8. The right to environmental health.

One of the biggest rights we have is the ability to appeal health related frauds or false information.

Health Fraud - Is the advertising, promotion, and sale of products and services that have not been scientifically proven safe and effective

The food and drug administration (FDA) identified categories in which health fraud is most frequent. These are:


 * 1. Instant weight loss schemes
 * 2. AIDS cures
 * 3. Arthritis products
 * 4. Cancer treatments
 * 5. Baldness Treatments
 * 6. Nutrtional supplements.

In order for individuals to find information and report suspected health fraud there are several federal agencies that one can contact.


 * - Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
 * - Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
 * - Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
 * - Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
 * - National Health Information Center (NHIC)

Managing time and money are very important when learning to live a healthy life.


 * Time management is organizing time to accomplish priorities. This may include spending time with family and friends have managing time for doing homework.  In order to manage time organization needs to be present.  Here are a few tips for staying Organized.
 * Keep a calender or organizer as a reminder of when important tasks need to be done.
 * Keep a daily to-do list
 * Keep your room and locker neat.

Managing money is very important in a person life. People who manage their money have less stress and are not worried about paying bills or over spending. An important aspect of managing money is the use of a budget.

Follow these simple steps to complete a budget that will help you manage your money!!! * List all income - Income is money that is received. A students income may include, an allowance, money from part time jobs, and money that is given as a gift.
 * List Expenses - Expenses are the amounts of money needed to purchase or do something.
 * Keep a balanced budget - A budget is a plan in which a person's income is equal to or more than expenses.

"Comprehensive School Health Education" 5th Edition. Linda Meeks, Philip Heit, Randy Page.