THE JOURNAL OF SCHOOL HEALTH 589

I I FOR THE MEDICAL DIRECTOR

JOHN LAMPE, M.D. AND EVALYN S. GENDEL, M.D. I 1

The health of school age children, or “school health” Comprehensive Health Planning as a part of the continuum of community health, shares in the hope and frustration of Public Law 89-749 referred to as the new “partnership for health,” or comprehensive health planning legislation. In earlier essays on the subject, Doctor William Stewart, the United States Surgeon General, alluded to the definition of “happiness” as a warm comprehensive plan, thus expressing the trend nationwide for states to participate in the new health planning methodology however i t might be defined. The “partnership for health” philosophy is translated as active, analytic planning for personal, environmental, and mental health. It proposes through persuasion, to bring together those private and public agencies which provide health services a t all levels in order to co- ordinate and integrate their future plans so that overlapping and gapping of services can be eliminated.

For state health and mental health agencies, section (d) of this law requires that requests for federal funds become “block requests” or pro- gram requests based on health needs in the particular states. Categorical grants for tuberculosis, venereal disease, and/or any other specific condi- tion will no longer be dispensed a t a certain fixed funding.

Other sections of the law require that under section (a) the governors of every state designate a health planning agency with a board whose representation is 51% members who are consumers of health services. In approximately 31 states, health departments were designated as the planning agency, in others they have been new organizations of state government operating directly out of the governor’s office or an economic planning agency or other newly created organization.

Section (b) of the law permits areawide health planning groups to be formed, with similar consumer representation to discover and document health needs “across the board” in a particular region of a state. These regions may range across county lines to include specific population needs, problems, or certain merging characteristics for health planmng.

Section (c) is specifically designated as a grant section which is aimed a t training and educating health planners and toward demonstration of particular innovative health programs which would stimulate progress in the health planner field.

Section (e) provides for grants which are designated to meet a unique health problem in ways that have never before been undertaken and which fit that state’s plan and areawide plans.

The expectations of the partnership for health are that education, wel- fare and health groups; public, private, governmental, and professional, will identify their target populations, and the programs, operations, and budgets they hope to use to accomplish certain tasks for that population and that they will share, modify, subordinate, and coordinate their plans to create the greatest helpful impact. If this seems like too much to expect, it is. Especially by persuasion, but it is working!

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The intent of the legislation is to reach such a goal through gradual modification of the social, political, and economic factors which at first glance appear to make the goal unattainable. Currently, the budgets of state health and mental health agencies only are affected. But areawide planning groups which may encompass hospital construction projections, welfare benefits, school health programs, and the private sector of medicine must have their plans approved by the state planning agency before their funding occurs and a regional review committee must also act on such area-wide requests. Regional Medical Programs, varied in style and objectives must also coordinate planning with the comprehensive health planning agency. The Ofice of Economic Opportunity, Neighborhood Health Centers, Children arid Youth, and Maternity and Infant Care Projects, Model Cities’ health components, Title I and Title VI of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and other special health efforts have the opportunity, if not the mandate, to explore together their facilities and potential capabilities.

M o d important, the consumer of preventive treatment and rehabilita- tive hetilth services has been spotlighted. He has been “center stage” before as the recipient of health services for him, many of which hc has rejected for reasons which vary from lack of knowledge about their crea- tion to reaction against the manner in which they were offered. By re- quiring that 51% of the planning boards represent the citizen consumer and that the poor as well as the affluent citizen take part, new insights into the delivery, advocacy, and compliance segments of health care are possible.

The questions of health manpower and education about health are at the core of comprehensive health planning. These are areas which dissect every layer of the planning process involving all of us in the issue of health rights and obligations of citizens. Numerous articles describe in depth the implications of P.L. 89-749, but none of them focus on the school health program as an integral factor. There must come a time when this is considered, when the intent of the health personnel training admend- ments, the health services, sections of the elementary and secondary education act are viewed in the overall planning. The future citizen’s knowledge about health and his interest in careers in this field are de- pendent on the education about health he receives today. Further ex- ploration is needed to demonstrate these relationships.

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REFERENCES King, S. H. Perceptions of Illness and Medical Practice, New York, Russell Sage Foundation, 1962. Apple, D. How Laymen Define Illness, Journal of Hunian Health and Behavior

Mechanic, D. The Concept of Illness Behavior, Journal of Chronic Disease,

Political and Economic Planning. Family Needs and the Social Services, Lon- don, G. Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1961. Kasl, Stanislav B., Ph.D. and Cobb, Sidney, M.D., M.P.H. Health Behavior, Illness Behavior, and Sick Role Behavior, Par t I1 Sick Role Behavior, Archives of Environmental Health, Volume 12, pp. 531-540, April, 1966. Darley, Ward, M.D. and Somers, Anne It. Special Article, Medicine, Money, and Manpower-The Challenge to Professional Education, Par t I1 Oportunity for New Excellence, The New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 276, No. 23, pp. 1291-1296, June 8, 1967.

1: 219-225, 1960.

16: 189-194, 1962.

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7. Darley Ward, M.D. and Somers, Anne R. Special Article, Medicine, Money, and Man ower-The Challenge to Professional Education, Par t IV New Training for Jew Needs, The New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 276, No. 26, pp.

8. breslow, Lester, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.P.H.A. New Partnerships in the Delivery of Services-A Public Health View of the Need, American Journal of Public Health, Volume 57, No. 7, pp. 1094-1099, July, 1967.

9. Somers, Anne R. An American City and its Health Problems: A Case Study on Comprehensive Health Planning, Medical Care, Volume V, No. 3, pp. 129-141. MayJune, 1967.

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p. 1471-1478, June 29, 1967.

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HEALTH EDUCATION VIA EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION

DAN LEVITON, Ph.D.* W E T A Television, 2600 4th St. 12‘. W., Washington, D.C.

While some closed circuit, instructional (ITV) and open circuit, edu- cational television (ETV) has been utilized in teaching health education a t all grade levels, a paucity of descriptive and experimental data exists a t the present time (3, 4). The purpose of this paper is to describe several aspects of our televised health education series which may prove helpful to those contemplating a similar venture.

Goals and Philosophy In 1967, responsible school officials from the counties of Maryland and

Virginia joined in a cooperative effort with the School Television Perrice of WETA Washington, D.C.’s educational television station to produce a series of health education programs. Originally designed for both junior and senior high the target audience was later limited to high school stu- dents. Hopefully, a junior high school series might be produced in

What motivated health education supervisors to investigate the po- tential of ETV? Why cannot classroom health educators do the jot) with- out the aid of ETT’? Simply bccause administrators are faced ni th a demand for formalized, systematic health education while unable to recruit qualified teachers. Traditionally, health education has been assumed by the physical educator, coach, or biology instructor-often to their dis- pleasure. One of the goals of the telecasts was to demonstrate to the classroom teacher that the subject matter of health was a viable and exciting professional area. Second, we wished to offer psychological sup- port to the classroom teacher (regardless of his specialized training). We felt that by reading the professional literature and by exploiting the resources offered by federal, state, and local health agencies arty teacher could organize and teach a superior course of study.

To meet this goal we hired a “talent” (television teacher or host) who was both a professional disc jockey and a high school dramatics teacher.

*Producer, “Health: Your Decision,” WETA, Washington, D.C.’s Educational Television Station; and, Dept. Health Education, University of Maryland, College Park, Md.

1969-1970.

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