Yesterday the Toronto Star carried a column by Graham Fraser titled
"Premiers endorse lifestyle programs", describing statements issued at the
national meeting of provincial premiers, ministers of health and the federal
government, regarding long-term planning and financing for health care.
"Premiers seized on health promotion and public health strategies as things
they could agree with the federal government about, and congratulated Ottawa
for its support for programs to reduce smoking and encourage healthy
lifestyle habits.
One after another, the premiers endorsed action yesterday to combat chronic
illness through reducing tobacco use, fighting obesity and encouraging
physical activity..."
The column goes on to conclude with a quote from Federal Minister of State
Carolyn Bennett, a family doctor,
"'Everybody knows we've got to turn this around, and it is the key to
sustainability,' because a healthier population can lead to a reduction in
over-all health-care costs."
For the full column - see
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Artic
le_Type1&c=Article&cid=1095199811683&call_pageid=968332188774&col=Columnist9
69907621570
OR much shorter
http://tinyurl.com/6qxrp
Dennis Raphael responded to the column with an impassioned comment about how
determinants of health had been ignored:
"it is as if the last 30 years of health research and Health Canada and
Canadian Public Health Association statements on
broader determinants of health did not exist!"
The same statement could be made about health promotion, about the Ottawa
Charter for Health Promotion
(http://www.who.int/hpr/NPH/docs/ottawa_charter_hp.pdf), and subsequent
frameworks, statements and more produced by Health Canada
(http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hppb/phdd/promoting.html), the Canadian Public
Health Association
(http://www.cpha.ca/english/policy/pstatem/action/page1.htm) and provincial
and local organizations and health promotion research centres
(http://www.utoronto.ca/chp/CCHPR/index.htm).
The view of health promotion described in the above statements /
organizations as encompassing societal factors and conditions that
individuals, groups and communities could act upon, is a much broader
perspective than lifestyle programs.
What can be done to change the current perception that health promotion is
limited to individual actions? There are important programs that focus on
'reducing tobacco use, fighting obesity and encouraging physical activity',
which should not be denigrated nor discouraged. I would like to see more
attention given to health promotion with communities, acting on poverty,
housing, environmental issues through widely diverse strategies in a range
of settings, rooted in foundations of values, ethics and practices.
We need to be more vocal about the comprehensive nature of health promotion
and the work that is being undertaken.
Your comments, suggestions, resources and questions are very welcome!
Alison Stirling,
co-facilitator, CLICK4HP health promotion listserv
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