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The focus of health promotion and wellness deals is
to understand how policy, environmental, institutional, and
individual actions
can improve the public's health. This work, usually done
in partnership with organizations and communities, uses principles
and methods from the social and behavioral sciences to promote
health in diverse settings across Louisiana, the US and the
globe.
An important motivation for our work is that, in many
cases, scientists and practitioners have identified which
actions should and can be taken to improve public health,
but these actions are often either carried out ineffectively
or at too small a scale. For example, at least half of the
worldwide annual deaths of 11 million children under 5 years
old can be prevented by proven actions, but we lack sufficient
understanding of how to effectively mobilize sociopolitical
processes, program design and implementation, and community
partnerships to enact these actions. Behavioral and social
research, training, and outreach aimed at acquiring, sharing,
and applying knowledge about effective mobilization and coordination
processes can therefore have large public health impacts.
Students who pursue the area of Health Promotion & Wellness may take course work leading to certification by National Commission For Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC). Health Promotion & Wellness
has a broad area of occupations. Students will perform service
learning hours from among the following: hospitals, schools,
government agencies,
colleges, and corporate businesses.
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