Dear David,
I find your argument refreshing, not least because you dare to tell some truths about health promotion that need to be said out loud in order to be demystified.  I wonder if part of the need to see health promotion as a "mature" profession has do do with many of our career histories, where being part of a distinct, if not "territorial" group served to give a sense of security during uncertain economic times in our lives.

 It takes a kind of courage, (and maturity) to act out of a place of "not knowing".  And in health promotion, where the borrowing of philosophies and strategies is still in the formative stages, we are in that place.  Personally, I love the dynamic interplay, the eclectic bringing together of diverse viewpoints, and the tentativity, in a world where too many people claim to know too much with too much certainty.

Great dialogue. Keep it coming,

Grace Ross,
Manager, Youth Health Program
Waterloo Region Community Health Department
Waterloo, Ontario

the At 10:28 AM 7/1/98 +0000, you wrote:

>In a nutshell my position is that health promotion is not making the
>progress it could because it is philosophically immature (it has no
>clear view about why health matters, why some goals are to be
>preferred over others, about who should be the primary recipients of
>health promotion if there is not enough to go around, about when to
>cease an intervention, about how much public consultation there
>should be, about the relationship between medicine and health, about
>whether health or well-being matters most .... I could go on!).
>Because of this combination of theoretical ambiguity and largely
>undirected enthusiasm for change health promoters tend to say one
>thing and end up doing what conventional employers and funding
>bodies instruct.  Only by expressing a thorough view about what
>health promotion is for can this be avoided (of course it is for
>health - but there are numerous, conflicting understandings of
>health).
>
>