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Mental health promotion can learn from achievements in the field of health education and promotion. Health education and promotion has seen four major developments in the last decades: the need for planning, the need for evaluation, the behaviour‐environment issue, and the use of theory. A recently presented protocol for developing theory‐based and evidence‐based interventions, Intervention Mapping, is described here in more detail. Implementation is prominent in planning models and intervention protocols. The same expertise and professionalism that we put into the development of health promotion interventions for our target groups should be put into implementation interventions for programme users and decision‐makers.

This paper seeks to explore the theoretical bases for teacher‐delivered and peer‐delivered sexual health promotion and education.

The first section briefly outlines the main theories informing sexual health interventions for young people, and the second discusses their implications for modes of delivery.

Most interventions that claim to be theoretically based draw on social‐psychological cognition theories. Other programmes aim to develop self‐esteem and/or empowerment, while the two main sociological ideas underpinning sexual health programmes are the gendered construction of sexuality and the diffusion of innovations.

More research is necessary to clarify the mechanisms by which sexual health promotion works, which in turn should contribute to more empirically based theory.

If theoretical ideas are to be translated into potentially effective programmes, the specific features of the setting, target group and those delivering the programme must be taken into account.

This paper compares the theoretical justifications for different modes of delivering sexual health promotion, through outreach peer educators, formal school‐based peer educators and teachers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the evolution and characteristics of health education in schools in Spain during the dictatorship of General Franco (1939-1975).

The analysis of two kinds of sources has been performed. First, the reports from international organizations on health education in schools published in the 1950s and 1960s. Second, journals, books and official documents published by public health and education organizations in Franco’s Spain.

Health education in schools evolved in three stages under Franco’s dictatorship. In the first stage (1939-1953), Spanish schools maintained an outdated “school health” approach in the teaching programmes. In the second stage (1953-1965), the agreements with the USA in 1953 ended Spanish isolation, and the regime sought to follow the recommendations of international organizations. Efforts were made to “import” the WHO/UNESCO version of health education in schools but it failed to materialize. A programme that sought to enhance citizen participation and to acknowledge their idiosyncrasies was unlikely to prosper in a dictatorship. However, the less threatening food and nutrition education programme, encouraged by the FAO/UNICEF, did succeed. In the last stage (1965-1975), the Spanish education system entered a period of modernization in which the contents and methods of health education in schools were reformed in order to introduce the less conflictive aspects of the international recommendations.

The paper highlights the tensions between the aspirations to follow international programmes and the recommendations on health education in schools and the difficulties of implementing such schemes under a dictatorship.

The purpose of this paper is to understand if effective road safety education is being provided to students by embedding educational programmes within a curriculum framework.

A qualitative methodology was used to gain in-depth understanding of the health-promoting initiatives of Saudi Arabian universities and colleges in preventing risky driving behaviour among students. Interviews were used to collect data from 11 faculty members.

Results suggest that educational programmes for changing the risky driving behaviour of students are still in their infancy. The findings raise questions about road safety and driving. While initiatives are being taken for promoting awareness within educational institutions on road safety, there is still a lack of awareness of traffic regulations and signs.

Since there is a paucity of research on health promotions specifically related to aberrant and risky driving in the Kingdom, this paper adds value to educators and policy-makers.

The development of a Health Promoting School concept in Hong Kong has faced many challenges, as in other countries. However, there is strong evidence from research findings that there is a need for this development to promote the health of young people effectively. Strategies are currently being developed in Hong Kong to address the key issues and challenges inherent in developing Health Promoting Schools. They include work on teacher training, funding and resources, policy making, the re‐orientation of the education system, participation by the community and parents, and the formation of healthy alliances. All these issues need to be addressed before a school‐based health promotion programme can be developed further. This paper describes current strategies being used by the authors of this paper to tackle these issues to develop a more comprehensive Health Promoting School programme in Hong Kong.

The aim of this study is to examine the rarely heard opinions of participants in alcohol educations – in this case, employees at three workplaces. What opinions were found in relation to the initiative, its content and effects, and what are the underlying notions from which these opinions derive?

The study material consisted of ten group interviews and questionnaire responses (n:298) with both fixed and open response alternatives. The data were analysed using thematic analysis and frequency tables.

The alcohol educations appear to be perceived as legitimate and relatively unproblematic. Most opinions focused on the basic approaches used in alcohol education programmes at a more general level; there should be no lecturing and no moralizing and the content and lecturer should be trustworthy. One important finding is that education programmes like these are perceived as being useful, but mostly for others. These opinions appeared to be associated with two overarching themes in particular: paternalism and beneficence.

The results of the study provide some idea of the value placed on education programmes of this kind from the perspective of the participants. Alcohol education programmes are perceived as being important and justified since they produce benefits for others, for those at risk. If the education programme is presented as being health promotive rather than risk reducing it is more likely to be perceived as relating to everyone, not only “the others”. The results may be of relevance for those planning and performing many types of health education programmes.

This paper describes how psychosocial interventions (PSI) have been integrated into an undergraduate mental health nursing programme. The first part of the paper provides the broad context of PSI in nurse education and justifies the need to incorporate skills for PSI into the undergraduate nursing curriculum. A variety of educational theories and research are presented, which have informed the development, structure and delivery of the skills programme underpinned by PSI into the undergraduate programme. The successes and limitations of this skills programme are considered in light of the key issues and challenges concerning the integration of PSI skills into undergraduate nursing education.

The purpose of this paper is to understand early career teachers’ perceptions of the impact of a pre-service health education programme on their health promotion practice in schools and the contextual factors that influence this.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 primary and secondary trainee and qualified teachers who had trained at a university in England. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.

The teachers found the training to be a useful introduction, particularly when it was relevant to their practice. They valued gaining practical skills at university, on placement and in school once qualified. They reported that witnessing pupils’ lives in school had increased their awareness that health education is important. Their personal qualities, life experience, the school’s ethos and competing pressures influenced their practice. Teachers considered that building relationships with colleagues, pupils and parents facilitated health promotion, and that health education needs to be relevant to pupils. Some teachers expressed that teaching about health could be a “minefield”. They also discussed whether schools or parents are responsible for educating pupils about health issues and the place of health promotion within education’s wider purpose.

Few studies have followed-up trainee teachers once they are in teaching posts to explore the longer-term perceived impact of pre-service health education training. The findings suggest that teachers’ development takes place via an interaction between training and practice, suggesting that training could particularly aim to provide teachers with a contextualised understanding of health issues and practical experience.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss a curriculum change in the provision of health promotion in pre‐service teacher education in a one‐year postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) secondary course in one Higher Education Institution (HEI) in England.

The paper describes the iterative development process, from an initial survey and mapping of the existing pre‐service teacher training programme, which provided an evidence base for the piloting of a new health promotion component in the curriculum, and its subsequent evaluation. Changes to the health promotion element of the curriculum reflect the programme philosophy which balances the requirements of a competency based curriculum with a more liberal approach to education and training in which pre‐service teachers are expected to critically reflect on, and evaluate their practice. This work adopts a socio‐constructivist approach to teacher education, in which teachers develop their knowledge, skills and attitudes by interacting with others through dialogue, and learning from more knowledgeable others in a cooperative and scaffolded manner.

The paper presents the results of these changes and discusses implications for their sustainability. The changes made to the health promotion component of the programme and their implementation would not have been possible without the inter‐professional collaboration that took place over three years.

To the authors’ knowledge similar work involving a multi‐disciplinary collaborative approach to the development of a health education component of a pre‐service teacher education curriculum has not been employed or reported.

A literature review was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of external contributors (anyone other than a teacher at the school) in delivering school‐based drug, alcohol and tobacco education (substance use education) programmes.

The review focused upon literature published from 1990 onwards in English. Published reports were identified via electronic searches, supplemented by hand searching of relevant journals. Relevant organisations and individuals were contacted to identify low circulation, difficult to acquire (grey) literature. Judgements were made of methodological quality and only reports judged to be methodologically sound or better are included in this paper.

A total of 114 reports were included in the review (53 published, 61 unpublished), 42 of which were considered methodologically sound. In total 16 types of contributor were evaluated (although only nine in methodologically sound studies) including nurses, police officers, theatre groups, peers and researchers. There was insufficient evidence to judge a particular type of contributor as most effective at delivering substance use education programmes in terms of behavioural, knowledge, intention or mediating outcome measures, although peers show promise. However, process data revealed that pupils enjoy content delivered by external contributors, which is important, as pupils are more likely to attend to information that is enjoyable.

The paper finds that external contributors should be used in a supplementary role in substance use education in a manner reflecting their expertise, when that expertise maps onto the aims and content of the drug education planned by the school.

With over 80 percent of schools in the USA and the UK using external contributors to deliver substance use education, this paper highlights best practice guidance for their use.