Environmental Health Officer

Assist individuals and communities to adopt healthy behaviors. Conduct outreach for medical personnel or health organizations to implement programs in the community that promote, maintain, and improve individual and community health. May provide information on available resources, provide social support and informal counseling, advocate for individuals and community health needs, and provide services such as first aid and blood pressure screening. May collect data to help identify community health needs.

Sample of reported job titles: Apprise Counselor, Assistant Director of Nutrition and Wellness Programs, Chief Program Officer, Community Health Outreach Worker, Community Health Program Coordinator, Community Health Program Representative (Community Health Program Rep), Community Health Promoter, Community Health Worker (CHW), and Community Nutrition Educator, HIV CTS Specialist (Human Immunodeficiency Virus Counseling and Testing Services Specialist)

Daily/Routine Tasks

1. 1.Maintain updated client records with plans, notes, appropriate forms, or related information.
2. 2.Advice clients or community groups on issues related to improving general health, such as diet or exercise.
3. 3.Identify or contact members of high-risk or otherwise targeted groups, such as members of minority populations, low-income populations, or pregnant women.
4. 4.Advice clients or community groups on issues related to risk or prevention of conditions such as lead poisoning, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), prenatal substance abuse, or domestic violence.
5. 5.Advocate for individual or community health needs with government agencies or health service providers.
6. 6.Advice clients or community groups on issues related to sanitation or hygiene and issues related to self-care, such as proper disposal of wastes or hand washing, diabetes management.
7. 7.Collect information from individuals to compile vital statistics about the general health of community members.
8. 8.Interpret, translate, or provide cultural mediation related to health services or information for community members.
9. 9.Advise clients or community groups to ensure parental understanding of the importance of childhood immunizations and how to access immunization services.
10. 10.Provide feedback to health service providers regarding improving service accessibility or acceptability.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Customer and Personal Service — Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• English Language — Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Administration and Management — Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Medicine and Dentistry — Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
• Psychology — Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
• Clerical — Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
• Computers and Electronics — Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.

Skills Needed

• Active Listening — Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Social Perceptiveness — Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• Speaking — Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Writing — Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
• Reading Comprehension — Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

Career Interests

Interest Code: SIE

• Social — Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.
• Investigative — Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.
• Enterprising — Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

Work Styles               

• Dependability — Job requires being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations.
• Integrity — Job requires being honest and ethical.
• Cooperation — Job requires being pleasant with others on the job and displaying a good-natured, cooperative attitude.
• Adaptability/Flexibility — Job requires being open to change (positive or negative) and to considerable variety in the workplace.
• Independence — Job requires developing one's own ways of doing things, guiding oneself with little or no supervision, and depending on oneself to get things done.

Work Values

• Relationships — Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment. Corresponding needs are Co-workers, Moral Values and Social Service.
• Achievement — Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.
• Independence — Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions. Corresponding needs are Creativity, Responsibility and Autonomy.