Individual health counselling and education: Emerging directions from current theory, research, and practice

Abstract

Some recent developments related to individual health counselling and education are presented. Developments in theories of compliance are described. Leventhal's model of self-regulation has some features that warrant further examination for both research and practice. Developments in behavioral diagnosis or educational assessments indicate that without such an analysis, health-care providers are more likely to use “shotgun” approaches rather than individually tailored approaches to health counselling and education. Health counselling strategies are also described. The art of counselling is becoming more of a science, and applications in the health field are accelerating rapidly, thus creating a need among health-care providers to become more knowledgeable about health-decision counselling methods.

These developments suggest that greater importance needs to be given to the individual in health counselling and education and that the support for doing so can be found in some of the current developments in theory, research, and practice and in the techniques themselves. The movement toward greater concern for individual differences and for greater emphasis on cognitive psychological theory has been supported by developments in assessment techniques and in instructional technology. Although the social health model of care, with its emphasis on prevention, health promotion, and self-care and with its community action orientations, will cointinue to be of interest, there will continue to be a need for new approaches that will work within the framework of the existing health-care system. Individual health counselling and education is one of those important opportunities