HBS107 Lecture 5: Health Promotion Lecture and Textbook Notes
HBS107 Week Five
HEALTH PROMOTION
Health promotion is an approach to improving the health and wellbeing of individuals and
populations that emerged in the 1980s and has grown in strength internationally since then. It is
connected with the broader domain of Public Health and covers a wide range of social and
environmental interventions that are designed to prevent the root causes of ill health, rather than
just focusing on treatment and cure.
The World Health Organisation's definition is 'health promotion is the process of enabling people to
increase control over their health and its determinants, and thereby improve their health' (WHO
2005, p.1)
CORE CONCEPTS:
1. Health promotion frameworks
2. Health promotion in practice
HEALTH PROMOTION FRAMEWORKS:
How does Health Promotion act on the determinants of health?
Health promotion is directed towards action on the determinants or causes of illness/poor health,
but it involves the population as a whole in the context of their everyday life, rather than focusing on
individuals at risk for specific diseases. Look at the 'Rainbow' model of health from week 1 again.
This model illustrates the layers of influence of different determinants of health on people's lives,
moving from the individual level out to the level of populations. Health promotion is concerned with
the yellow, green and purple layers because the health system (which we covered in week 3),
doesn't have the resources to improve the health of vast numbers of people by working with them
one by one.
What are the principles of Health Promotion practice?
For the past 30 years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has coordinated a number of
conferences around the world which have been the driving force for the development of Health
Promotion internationally. The first of these conferences was in Ottawa, Canada in 1986, and it
produced the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, a framework that has guided health promotion
practice globally.
You'll see that the Ottawa Charter identifies five key action areas that are the bedrock of health
promotion practice: building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, reorienting
health services, developing personal skills and strengthening community action - and that
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underpinning these actions are the strategies of enabling, mediating and advocating. Read this:
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/servicesandsupport/ottawa-charter-for-health-
promotion?viewAsPdf=true
Subsequent Health Promotion Charters have added further recommendations for priority action. For
example:
Ottawa Charter (1986):
Jakarta Charter (1997):
• Build healthy public policy
• Create supportive environments
• Reorient health services
• Develop personal skills
• Strengthen community action
• Promote social responsibility for health
• Increase investments for health
promotion/development
• Expand partnerships for health
• Increase community capacity and empower individuals
• Secure infrastructure for health promotion
BUILD HEALTHY PUBLIC POLICY:
Health promotion goes beyond health care and includes legislation, fiscal measures, taxation and
organisational change. It is coordinated action that leads to health, income and social policies that
foster greater equity.
CREATE SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENTS:
The conservation of natural resources throughout the world should be emphasised as a global
responsibility. Health promotion generates living and working conditions that are safe, stimulating,
satisfying and enjoyable.
STRENGTHEN COMMUNITY ACTION:
Health promotion works through community action in setting priorities, making decisions, planning
strategies and implementing them so that communities take ownership and control of their own
endeavours and destinies.
DEVELOP PERSONAL SKILLS:
Health promotion supports personal and social development through education for health and
enhancing life skills so that people can exercise more control over their own health and their
environments.
REORIENT HEALTH SERVICES:
The role of the health sector must move increasingly in a health promotion direction, beyond its
responsibility for providing clinical and curative services.
ENABLE:
To 'enable' in the context of health promotion means working with communities and individuals to
take control over their health and environment through education and empowerment.
Examples of this:
https://www.bicyclenetwork.com.au/rides-and-events/ride2school/events/mind-body-pedal/
ADVOCATE:
Advocacy for health is about efforts by individuals or groups to gain political commitment and social
acceptance in order to change laws, regulations, policy and organisational practices that impact on
the ability of individuals, communities, and populations to be healthy. Advocacy is about creating
the essential conditions for health (Keleher 2016).
More here: http://www.who.int/occupational_health/topics/workplace/en/index2.html
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Health promotion is an approach to improving the health and wellbeing of individuals and populations that emerged in the 1980s and has grown in strength internationally since then. It is connected with the broader domain of public health and covers a wide range of social and environmental interventions that are designed to prevent the root causes of ill health, rather than just focusing on treatment and cure. The world health organisation"s definition is "health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its determinants, and thereby improve their health" (who. Core concepts: health promotion frameworks, health promotion in practice. Health promotion is directed towards action on the determinants or causes of illness/poor health, but it involves the population as a whole in the context of their everyday life, rather than focusing on individuals at risk for specific diseases. Look at the "rainbow" model of health from week 1 again.
