"Do, or do not. There is no try" - Yoda, 0BBY
Health promotion is a combination of science, medicine, practical skills and beliefs aimed at maintaining and improving the health of all people. In this topic we formulate an argument about why health promotion is most effective if it includes key stakeholders working together in partnership and is based on the five areas of the Ottawa Charter.
Responsibility for promoting health does not lie only with the health sector. Responsibility for promoting health applies at many levels, including:
• individuals and families
• groups in the community and industry, such as schools, workplaces and the media
• all levels of government — local, state and Commonwealth
• non-government organisations, both Australian and international.
Governments have recognised that health promotion is most successful if individuals, groups, governments and other organisations take a shared responsibility and joint action to improve health outcomes for Australians.
NSW Health released the NSW Health and Equity Statement: In all Fairness. It identified six focus areas that can help to gauge the existing strategies, policies and programs to reduce health inequities, as well as provide a framework for future planning.
In 2014, NSW State Health released the NSW State Health Plan: Towards 2021. The plan outlined three directions to improve health outcomes for people in NSW:
• keeping people healthy,
• providing world-class clinical care, and
• delivering truly integrated care.
These were to be delivered through four key strategies: • supporting and developing the workforce, • supporting and harnessing research and innovation, • enabling e-health, and • designing and building future-focused infrastructure.
The prospect of success is also increased if individuals, communities, governments and non-government agencies work together in partnership towards achieving a common health goal. If an integrated health promotion program is implemented, this creates optimal conditions for achieving the program’s aims.
There are many benefits of health promotion that involve individuals, communities and governments working together in partnerships. The chance of effective health promotion relies heavily on how it is planned, delivered and evaluated. Individuals and communities need to be included in the planning of all health promotion programs to ensure that their interests and needs are being addressed. It must be enabling and done by, with and for people not just imposed on them. This, therefore, encourages participation.
Participation contributes to better health outcomes by empowering individuals and communities to take action to improve their health, and ensuring health services meet individual and community needs. Consider the example of a high school deciding to make wearing a school hat compulsory during break times. Clearly the one designed by students would be more popular as it would be in a style that students would be more inclined to like.
There is increasing recognition of the value of individuals participating in decisions about their health and health services. A person’s sense of well-being is directly related to the quality of their relationships and the amount of control they feel they have over their situation. There are a range of strategies for empowering people and communities to identify problems and work together in developing solutions to things that affect their health. These may include consultative community meetings, surveys and the analysis of local health data. When implementing an integrated health promotion program, it is important to create optimal conditions for success. Capacity building involves the development of sustainable skills, organisational structures, resources and commitment to health improvement, to prolong and multiply health gains many times over. This means that skills can be applied to improve other health issues in the future. The strategy will be deemed effective if the health of the individual or population is improved. Any improvement can be sustained only if the person’s knowledge and skills are improved so they can maintain their new Health priorities in Australia healthier behaviour. This, in turn, leads to the collection of healthier individuals becoming a community of healthier people.
Government and non-government organisations (NGOs) must work with the community to identify priorities and build the capacity of the individuals within the community. They must ind out what is already happening and ind out what people know and what they think is important. They also need to share information with other agencies to assist with research and information collection. This prevents fragmented, ad hoc health promotion initiatives. It also ensures that health promotion is evidence-based or subject to evaluation. The full potential of an approach is only realised when providers are connected and integrated