HEALTH PROMOTION

INTRODUCTION TO HEALTH PROMOTION

Jerry John Fiave

(Public Health Promotion Specialist)
GETTING READING FOR HP

What I know about HP:

My expectations:
Ground Rules:
________________________
Lecturer’s Expectation?
-positive minded
-timeliness
-proactiveness
-initiative taking
-critiquing
***
 OBJECTIVES

By the end of this lesson, students should be able to;

 Define Health and Health Promotion (HP)
 Appreciate the difference between HP and Health
Education
 List threshold concepts in HP
 Understand the features of HP initiatives
 List and explain the action areas of the Ottawa Charter
(1986)
 Health and Health Promotion

“Health is a complete state of physical, social and

mental wellbeing of a person, and not the mere
absence of disease or infirmity”
 Health and Health Promotion

Health promotion is the process of enabling people to

increase control over the determinants of their health,
and to improve their health (Ottawa Charter, 1986)
 THE OTTAWA CHARTER
 The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion is the outcome of the first
international conference on Health Promotion by WHO in 1986.
 Though health promotion initiatives existed earlier, the Charter marks the
official birth of Health Promotion as a specialized field of study.
 Five action areas were identified as follows;
 building healthy public policy
 creating supportive environments
 strengthening community action
 developing personal skills
 re-orienting health services
 GHS – HEALTH PROMOTION DIVISION ORGANOGRAM

DIRECTOR

HEALTH PROMOTION

OFFICE OF DIRECTOR/
ADMINISTRATION

DEPUTY DIRECTOR: DEPUTY DIRECTOR: DEPUTY DIRECTOR:

HEALTH COMMUNICATION ADVOCACY AND SOCIAL RESEARCH AND HEALTHY POLICY

DEPARTMENT MOBILIZATION DEPARTMENT
DEPARTMENT

HEAD: HEAD: HEAD: HEAD: HEAD: HEAD:

 
HEALTH MATERIALS COMMUNITY HEALTHY HEALTH IN ALL
RESEARCH,
EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT EMPOWERMENT SETTINGS UNIT POLICIES UNIT
M&E UNIT
UNIT UNIT UNIT
 THRESHOLD CONCEPTS IN HEALTH
PROMOTION

 Salutogenesis
 Empowerment
 Equity
 Upstream thinking
 Community participation
 Sustainability
 Top-down and bottom-up
FEATURES OF HEALTH PROMOTION

The principles and practice of Health Promotion are marked by

the following features;
 A focus on participatory approaches;
 A focus on the determinants of health; the social,
behavioural, economic, environmental etc conditions that are
the root causes of health and illness;
 Building on existing strengths and assets, not just addressing
health problems and deficits
 Using multiple, complementary strategies
 FEATURES CONT’D

A Holistic View of Health

 Health promotion focuses on WHO concept of health; a
state of complete physical, mental and social well-being
of a person and not the mere absence of disease or
infirmity
 FEATURES CONT’D
A Focus on Participatory Approaches
 Wherever possible, health promotion practitioners address health issues by
doing things with people rather than doing things for them.
 The use of participatory approaches that enable people to take greater
control over the conditions affecting their health is perhaps the most
important feature of health promotion practice since it embodies key health
promotion values:
 empowerment
 social justice and equity
 inclusion
 respect
 FEATURES CONT’D
A Focus on the Determinants of Health

Determinants of health refer to the range of personal capabilities, social,

economic and environmental factors which affect the health status of individuals
or populations (Nutbeam, 1998). These include:
 income and social status social support networks
 education employment and working conditions
 physical environments social environments
 biology and genetic endowment healthy child development
 health services personal skills
 FEATURES CONT’D
Building on Strengths and Assets
 Wherever possible, health promotion practice builds on positive factors
promoting the health of individuals and communities. Examples of these
strengths and assets include
 community leaders,
 existing programs and services,
 events in the community that bring people together
 strong social networks, or institutions
 FEATURES CONT’D
Using Multiple, Complementary Strategies
 Health promoters use multiple strategies focused on individuals, families,
groups, communities and entire populations.
 Research indicates that health promotion programs using multiple strategies
are more effective.
 When considering the application of these strategies to address health issues,
it’s important to bear in mind that they should be viewed as complementary
rather than ‘stand-alone’ approaches to change.
 The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion encourages the use of multiple
strategies in the five action areas for health promotion practice
HEALTH PROMOTION AND HEALTH EDUCATION
How similar or different are they?
HEALTH PROMOTION OR HEALTH EDUCATION?

 Health education may be defined as planned opportunities for

people to learn about health and make changes in their
behaviour (Discuss details of health education)
 Health education is only a small aspect of health promotion.

*Health promotion and health education (unfortunately) are usually

used interchangeably.
 ASSESSMENT
DIVISION

 Mid-Sem

 End of Sem