title: [Health education: an experience in the Secretaria de Salud of the São Paulo State].
abstract: The authors make a detailed analysis of social research and educational programs carried on in the last 10 years by the Public Health Education Service, an agency of the São Paulo State Health Department. They emphasize the priorities that have been established and achievements made in the field of health education. They show how educational activities have generally been centered around teaching, especially the biological sciences, aiming at the adoption by the individual of standards considered adequate to attain greater well-being. From this point of view, educational activities take on an authoritarian character, stemming from an asymmetrical relationship between technical personnel and the population, which limits the evolution a real health awareness. In the authors' opinion, health education--in the present historical, political, and social context of Brazil and particularly of São Paulo State--requires that priorities be established, based on the main health needs of the majority of the population, through mechanisms that ensure the active participation of the community.
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D006266:Health Education
vernacular_title: Educación en salud: una experiencia en la Secretaría de Salud del Estado de São Paulo.