Health promotion based on the five action areas of the Ottawa Charter

The five action areas of the Ottawa charter are:

1 Developing Personal Skills

2 Reorienting Health Services

3 Strengthen Community Action

4 Creating Supportive Environments

5 Building Healthy Public Policy

What is Health Promotion?

Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behaviour towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions.

As a core function of public health, health promotion supports governments, communities and individuals to cope with and address health challenges. This is accomplished by building healthy public policies, creating supportive environments, and strengthening community action and personal skills.

Levels of Responsibility for health promotion

Using th eknockout challenge write 1-2 sentence of its relevance with an example to support. Then create summary sentence explaining how it works in partnership to improve health outcomes 

Knockout Task  

Examples of Responsibility

Government

The federal government has a responsibility to provide both coordination and leadership. Officials need to encourage cities and states to work in conjunction with each other to create a strong foundation for health promotion.

On a federal level, the government must work with international agencies, like the World Health Organisation, to ensure that the general public, along with other important health related agencies, have the information and systems they need to produce the best health outcome possible.

Local and state governments should be responsible for providing and supporting preventive health services and promotion by:

– Highlighting health spending

– Establishing public policy of good health

– Setting public health goals

To meet these goals government agencies must work in conjunction with each other and with various other non-government agencies. They should also regularly communicate with the community and public, regarding the progress and implementation of various health programs, promotions and resources.

Individuals

Each person must accept responsibility, and be held accountable, for their own health. Individuals need to seek out health information and advice so that they can make informed decisions about their wellbeing.

They can contribute to overall health of the community by seeking support from family and friends or offering to assist others. Participate in community events, created to promote and protect local health, can also help to raise awareness and improve attitudes to leading a healthy lifestyle.

The benefits of partnerships in health promotion, eg government sector, non- government agencies and the local community

The key to effective healthcare is an amalgamation of various factors. The most effective health solutions are developed by combining health promotion ingenuities with multi-strategy approaches to deal with targeted issues. Forming partnerships between various sectors and agencies can also diversify and improve healthcare programs.

Intersectoral collaboration

Intersectoral collaboration refers to the combined actions of agencies in and outside of the health sector. This type of cooperation can involve non-government agencies, government agencies or an amalgamation of both. Successful intersectoral collaboration requires the input of individuals and communities. Australians who are provided with a chance to contribute to decision making and asset with the design of healthcare initiatives are more likely to accept changes and participate in programs. The NSW Government supports public involvement in the health planning process as health promotion strategies and policies which have been built on foundation of collaboration with the affected community affected will achieve greater involvement and success when introduced.

Community Participation

Social capital is a resource which is created when an individual or community participates in promotional activities generating a collective sense of achievement. When neighbours come together, health professionals back community projects and the government improves the quality of environments and public spaces, social capital is created. Recent research has demonstrated that a high social capital can positively affect public health initiatives.

The majority of Australia’s health promotion campaigns provide people with perfect examples of how people, governments and cities can work together to generate a better health outcome for the population. These partnerships help better the population’s health rates and the effectiveness has been positively impacted by the Ottawa Charter’s five action areas.

When these action areas are included in a health promotion strategy design, they naturally result in a joint intersectoral approach capable of addressing a wide range of health factors and injustices on multiple levels.

How health promotion based on the Ottawa Charter promotes social justice

Social Justice

Social justice refers to a set of values relating to supporting equality by providing support to people who face disadvantage or discrimination in society.

Some basic principles of social justice include:

– Supportive environments

– Participation

– Rights

– Equity

– Access

– Diversity

The Ottawa Charter considers these principles when devising health promotion campaigns to support and protect people or groups who experience disadvantage. Social justice principles are enforced by “action areas” which uphold the same values.

Let’s see what this actually looks like in action:

Developing Personal Skills – Improving this area increases an individual’s ability to access health information and services, enabling them to make an informed health decision. It also provides equity by ensuring that that every student in Australia, from K -10, will have mandatory PDHPE lessons to teach health behaviours.

Reorienting Health Services – Provides greater access to health services for those who are disadvantaged (ATSI). These services support equity by providing quality health services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Strengthen Community Action – Describes access at a community level to things like a Healthy School canteen, exercise groups or opportunities to participate in lobby groups which promote principles of diversity and equity in health.

Creating Supportive Environments – Improves the living conditions of individuals by increasing equity and improving access to health services and facilities. Local communities can create healthy environments by providing parks, facilities and other safe areas for individuals to enjoy and utilise.

Building Healthy Public Policy – The government is responsible for acknowledging diversity and equity and has created initiatives like medicare and PBS to ensure every individual has access to health care in Australia. The Government can also create supportive environments by promoting health campaigns, like ‘slip slop slap’, and introducing legislation, like no-smoking laws, to improve quality of life.

Define “critically analyse”. To add a degree or level of accuracy, depth, knowledge and understanding, logic, questioning, reflection and quality to

ALARM 

The Ottawa Charter in action

National Tobacco Strategy  

The Ottawa Charter in action: 

Road Safety

Towards Zero

The NSW road toll isn't simply a number. It is people. Sadly, it's closer to home than you think. It's people like you. Grandparents, mothers, fathers, children. And it's a number that's unacceptable, no matter how small it gets, until it gets to zero.

That should be the aim for all of us - government, law enforcement, business, communities, families and individuals - we should work together to do everything in our power to push the number of deaths on NSW roads towards zero.

Towards Zero Campaign 

The 2026 Road Safety Action Plan features new targets to halve deaths and reduce serious injuries by 30% on NSW roads by 2030. This will be achieved by building on the success of the Road Safety Plan 2021 and will focus on stronger local government action, engagement and education programs and using technology in the fight to end road trauma.

Building Healthy Public Policy

Legislation was created in order to allow fixed speed cameras in NSW. 50Km/h urban speed limit was part of the nationwide strategy, as even small reductions in speed save lives and decrease morbidity caused by road accidents. Road safety courses are being developed to develop safer driving habits and further testing has been added to the requirements for driver training (hazard perception test and driver qualification test). Penalties have also increased for drink driving, speeding, and road rage.

Create Supportive Environments

Road Safety has sought to make speeding socially unacceptable using the ‘Speeding – no one thinks big of you’ campaign. It has also increased awareness of the police operations targeting young drivers through the ‘P plate speeding campaign’. The installation of fixed speed cameras, particularly around school zones and traffic lights(safety cameras), including the warning signs for the cameras. Intelligent Speed Adaptation systems have been and are being tested to provide information to the driver regarding speed limits or that limit the speed of the vehicle to that of the zone. Roads have also been upgraded with higher safety standards, and cycle ways have been constructed to separate cyclists from traffic. Road crossing facilities, audio/tactile signals, and ramps for wheelchairs, prams and shopping trolleys have also been upgraded in safety for pedestrians.

Strengthening Community Action

Road Safety has strengthened community action by sponsoring the RTA SpeedBlitz Blues to raise awareness of the consequences of speeding in an attempt to change attitudes to speeding. It works with community-based organisations to provide ‘driver reviver’ stops to combat fatigue related accidents.

Developing Personal Skills

Road Safety has used the ‘speeding campaign’ to provide information about he difference 5Km/h makes to an accident. It also seeks to remove myths about being familiar with the roads meaning safer driving through the ‘country speeding campaign’. The ‘notes campaign’ targets 17-25 year-old drivers increasing awareness of speeding and mortality in the hope to encourage them to think before acting in order to modify speeding habits. The introduction of the Graduated Licensing Scheme improves the knowledge and driving ability of young drivers and school education programs on road safety aims to protect children and instill long-term safe behaviours.

Reorienting Health Services

The ‘Slow Down Roadshow’ travels around the state educating the community about the consequences of speeding. Many of the other strategies and campaigns mentioned that increase road safety awareness promote a preventative approach to road safety issues, and are examples of reorienting health services towards health promotion.

This health promotion has been successful in reducing road fatalities since 2010 and reduced hospitalisations from road related accidents.

Towards Zero Campaign 

Road Safety Powerpoint and Tasks