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Peer Education ist ein Ansatz zur Gesundheitsförderung, in denen Mitglieder einer Gemeinschaft unterstützt werden, um gesundheitsfördernde Veränderungen unter ihren Altersgenossen zu fördern. Die Idee dahinter ist öffentliche Aufklärungsarbeit durch Laien statt von Gesundheitsexperten. Durch ihre Angehörigkeit zur jeweiligen Gruppen sind sie in der besten Postion, gesundes Verhalten untereinander zu fördern.

Einsatzgebiete

Peer Education ist in dem weiten Feld der HIV-Prävention sehr populär geworden. Es ist eine tragende Säule der HIV-Prävention in vielen Entwicklungsländern, in Gruppen mit jungen Menschen, Sexarbeitern, Männern die Sex mit Männern haben oder bei intravenösen Drogenkonsumenten.

Peer education wird auch mit den Bemühungen verbunden, den Tabak, Drogen -oder Alkoholkonsum unter Jugendlichen zu verhindern.

The Process

A peer education programme is usually initiated by health or community professionals, who recruit members of the ‘target’ community to serve as peer educators. The recruited peer educators are trained in relevant health information and communication skills. Armed with these skills, the peer educators then engage their peers in conversations about the issue of concern, seeking to promote health-enhancing knowledge and skills. The intention is that familiar people, giving locally-relevant and meaningful suggestions, in appropriate local language and taking account of the local context, will be most likely to be able to promote health-enhancing behaviour change.

There is a great variety in the support provided to peer educators. Sometimes they are unpaid volunteers, sometimes they are given a small honorarium, sometimes they receive a reasonable salary. The peer educators may be supported by regular meetings and training, or expected to continue their work without formal supports.

Theories

A variety of theories are offered regarding the question of how peer education is supposed to achieve positive results.

Kelly’s popular opinion leader theory

The popular opinion leader theory suggests a parallel between peer education and the marketing of commercial products. Peer educators are seen as ‘opinion leaders’ – respected and admired by other members of the community. These opinion leaders espouse a certain lifestyle (such as safer sex, or not smoking, etc.) – and their peers wish to emulate them.

Critical consciousness

Campbell argues that what peer education ought to do is to promote the kind of critical consciousness theorised by Paulo Freire This means that peers use the peer education process to critically discuss their circumstances, especially the social factors impacting upon their health. Becoming critically aware of these forces is the first step to tackling them. So, for instance, if local norms regarding sexuality and gender put people’s health at risk, this approach argues that peers should critically discuss those norms, so that they can then collectively seek to establish new more health-enhancing norms.

Debates

Despite its popularity, the evidence about peer education is mixed, and there is no consensus on whether it works or how it works.

One important line of inquiry suggests that peer education may work in some contexts but not in others. A study comparing peer education among sex workers in India and South Africa found that the more successful Indian group benefited from a supportive social and political context, and a more effective community development ethos, rather than the biomedical focus of the South African intervention.

See also

• Peer mentoring
• Peer-led Team Learning
• Peer tutor
• Peer feedback
• Peer-mediated instruction
• Peer support

References

Category:Health promotion Category:Public health education Category:Peer learning