Question

In your opinion, can a health educator still be helpful to someone who is trying to change his or her behavior even if the health educator does not use the transtheoretical model of change? Why, or why not?

Answer 1

In my opinion, transtheoretical model of change can be used by a health educator for someone who is trying to change his or her behavior . The transtheoretical model also called the stages of change model. It focuses on the decision-making of the individual and is a model of intentional change. There are 6 stages of changes- (A) Precontemplation- people do not intend to take action in the foreseeable future. In this stage people often underestimate the pros of changing behavior and place too much emphasis on the cons of changing behavior. (B)Contemplation-In this stage , people are intending to start the healthy behavior in the foreseeable future.With this recognition,people may still feel ambivalent toward changing their behavior.(C)Preparation- In this stage, people are ready to take action within next 30 days.(D) Action- In this stage, people have recently changed their behavior and intend to keep moving forward with the behavior change. (E) Maintenance- In this stage, people have sustained their behavior change for a while and intend to maintain the behavior change going forward.People in this stage work to prevent relapse to earlier stages.(F) Termination- In this stage, people have no desire to return to their unhealthy behaviors and are sure they will not relapse.These processes result in strategies that help people make and maintain change- consciousness raising, dramatic relief, self-reevaluation, social liberation, helping relationships. For instances, stress management,adherence to antihypertensive medication,adherence to lipid-lowering drugs,depression prevention,weight management, smoking cessation.