I agree that this description is limited in defining the true breadth of
practice within health promotion. However, is not the perspective of all
working within health promotion.
The Public Health Agency of Canada defines health promotion as:
" Health Promotion is a strategy for improving the health of the population
by providing individuals, groups and communities with the tools to make
informed decisions about their well-being. Moving beyond the traditional
treatment of illness and injury, health promotion efforts are centred
primarily on the social, physical, economical and political factors that
affect health....."
I believe this gives a more complete definition of health promotion.
However, in defense of Mr. Raphael -- do all health promotion workers work
within this context? I would assume that many in "health promotion" are
focused on behaviour change and lifestyles markers that he states are the
"death knell of HP in Canada" -- could be valid!?!.
However, this is reality within many disciplines -- there are differing
factions/perspectives. Even within the social determinants perspective
there are differing beliefs on action/direction. I believe there are many
working within health promotion that utilize a social determinants/social
inclusion perspectives in practice. The definition above from Public Health
Agency of Canada definitely speaks to the importance of the social
determinants of health (in my mind).
Cheers,
~Jarrod Gunn-McQuillan
Northwestern Health Unit
260 Front Street
Box 539
Emo, ON
P0W 1E0
Tel. (807) 482-3704
Fax (807) 482-1678
-----Original Message-----
From: Health Promotion on the Internet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Alison Stirling
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 11:47 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [Fwd: comment from Dennis Raphael re goals "these are
atrocious..."]
Shortly after I posted a copy of the Health Goals for Canada, and the
definition of health promotion used on that website, to this listserv, I
received the following email message from Dennis Raphael, moderator of the
SDOH listserv. He is not a subscriber to the CLICK4HP list and could not
post his 'challenge' to the list directly. To encourage more dialogue I am
forwarding it to the list.
---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: these are atrocious...
From: "Dennis Raphael" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, December 12, 2005 10:19 am
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Health promotion is described as including "strengthening the skills of
individuals to encourage healthy behaviours and it also includes building
the healthy social and physical environments to support these behaviours."
This is surely the death knell of HP in Canada. I doubt you will hear a
peep out of your click4hp subscribers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's take him up on this challenge - what are your thoughts about the
description of health promotion as being behaviour-change focused? How
does this limited description of health promotion affect our field of
practice, or work on goals for health?
To be fair, my inclusion of the health promotion description was
out-of-context and not complete. It can be found on
http://www.healthycanadians.ca/KeyTerms.html
and is prefaced by:
Key Terms and Concepts
While there is no consensus on essential public health functions, the
following describes the activities that are normally associated with
public health practices across the country....
* Health surveillance...
* Health promotion – Public health practitioners work with individuals,
agencies and communities to understand and improve the health of the
population. Health promotion includes strengthening the skills of
individuals.... [as per below]
Surely there are broader concepts of health promotion in public health! I
can think of the one from Health Promotion Ontario (www.hpoph.org) :
"Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control
over and improve their health. This process is based on the understanding
that social conditions and personal actions both determine health. Hence,
health promotion activities move beyond disease prevention and health
education to address social change, institutional change and community
change in addition to changes in personal behaviours."
Keep the discussion flowing. Your comments, ideas and more are very welcome.
Alison Stirling
co-facilitator, CLICK4HP listserv
email: <[log in to unmask]> <[log in to unmask]>
and Health Promotion Information Specialist
Health Promotion Affiliate, Canadian Health Network
email: <[log in to unmask]>
Send the following text: unsubscribe click4hp to: [log in to unmask] if you
wish to unsubscribe. Go to http://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/click4hp.html
to view CLICK4HP archives or manage your subscription (you will have to
create a password).
Send the following text: unsubscribe click4hp to: [log in to unmask] if you wish to unsubscribe. Go to http://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/click4hp.html to view CLICK4HP archives or manage your subscription (you will have to create a password).
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