Practical Health Promotion

John Hubley, June Copeman, James Woodall

• Publisher: Polity
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781509541751
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Health Care Delivery

The third edition of this popular introductory textbook has been revised to provide a totally up-to-date and hands-on guide to the practical aspects of health promotion. Focusing on the range of skills needed to become an effective practitioner, it takes readers step-by-step through the different settings in which health promotion takes place and the various tools they might employ, including chapters on health promotion through the lifespan, one-to-one communication, working with groups, advocacy, social media, workplace settings and planning and management. As well as incorporating the most recent government policies and initiatives in public health, there is new and expanded material on issues such as community initiatives and alliances, social media, health literacy, understanding health behaviours, stress in the workplace and much more. Throughout the text there are activities to develop students' understanding and encourage reflective practice. Each chapter opens with a list of the central issues and learning objectives which are reinforced with real-life case studies. The key terms highlighted are clearly explained and checklists dispersed throughout the book, enabling practical application. The new edition of Practical Health Promotion will continue to be the ideal and indispensable guide for students at all levels. It will inspire anyone involved with health care to find practical ways of promoting change.

PART I
Health-Promotion Needs Assessment

CHAPTER 1
Health Promotion and Public Health

Contents

1. What is health promotion?
2. Putting health promotion into practice – regrouping the five dimensions of the Ottawa Charter
3. Health promotion as a multi-disciplinary activity
4. The rationale for health promotion
5. Historical overview of health promotion
6. Criticisms of health education and the emergence of health promotion
7. Inequalities in health
8. The New Public Health
9. Debates in health promotion
10. The relevance of medical and social models of health and disease
11. Individual and structural approaches
12. Levels of health-promotion practice
13. Core values of health promotion
14. Coercion, persuasion or health-empowerment approaches
15. Ethics of health promotion
16. Principles of health-promotion practice
17. Health-promotion planning process
18. Needs/situation analysis
19. Defining the health-promotion strategy
20. Implementation/evaluation, reflection and learning
21. Some concluding remarks on health promotion
22. Further reading

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Key issues within this chapter:

• Health promotion is a key element of public-health practice.
• Health promotion involves a combination of health education, service improvement and advocacy.
• Many health workers, professional groups, community-based workers and volunteers have a role in health promotion.
• Health promotion is an evolving discipline with many ongoing debates concerning principles and practice, including the balance between health education and legislation, the role of individualistic and structuralist approaches, the levels at which to operate, the nature of the core values/ethical principles, and the balance between coercive, persuasive and health-empowerment approaches.
• A systematic approach to planning health promotion needs to take into account assessment of needs and influences on health, and involves decisions on target groups, methods, settings and timing of activities.

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By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

• understand the history of prevention, public health and the evolution of health promotion
• define health promotion and its component parts – health education, service improvement and advocacy
• have considered the debates in health promotion, including approaches and core values/ethical principles, and assessed your own personal approach
• apply principles of health promotion to planning a health-promotion intervention.

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What is health promotion?

The starting point for any discussion of health promotion is the Ottawa Charter, which in 1986 set out the concept of health promotion (WHO, 1986). Alongside the five key areas of action, summarized in box 1.1, the Ottawa Charter also reaffirmed the importance of community participation and introduced the goal of empowerment – a concept of which we will say more later in this book.

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Box 1.1 Extracts from the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion

Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. To reach a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, an individual or group must be able to identify and to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment. Health is, therefore, seen as a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities. Therefore, health promotion is not just the responsibility of the health sector, but goes beyond healthy lifestyles to wellbeing.

HEALTH-PROMOTION ACTION MEANS:

Building Healthy Public Policy – Health promotion goes beyond health care. It puts health on the agenda of policy-makers in all sectors and at all levels. It directs policy-makers to be aware of the health consequences of their decisions and accept their responsibilities for health. Health-promotion policy combines diverse but complementary approaches including legislation, fiscal measures, taxation and organizational change. It is coordinated action that leads to health, income and social policies that foster greater equity. Joint action contributes to ensuring safer and healthier goods and services, healthier public services, and cleaner, more enjoyable environments. Health-promotion policy requires the identification of obstacles to the adoption of healthy public policies in non-health sectors, and ways of removing them. The aim must be to make the healthier choice the easier choice.

Creating Supportive Environments – Health promotion generates living and working conditions that are safe, stimulating, satisfying and enjoyable. Systematic assessment of the health impact of a rapidly changing environment – particularly in areas of technology, work, energy production and urbanization – is essential and must be followed by action to ensure positive benefit to the health of the public. The protection of the natural and built environments and the conservation of natural resources must be addressed in any health-promotion strategy.

Strengthening Community Action – At the heart of this process is the empowerment of communities, their ownership and control of their own endeavours and destinies. Community development draws on existing human and material resources in the community to enhance self-help and social support, and to develop flexible systems for strengthening public participation and direction of he...