Dear Glen

I liked you variation on the   'metaphor'

It is interesting to read the different interpretations of  what
constitutes 'health promotion'.
The 'Health promotion model'  in Australia has also, for many years,
incorporated your 'population health  model' . Environmental ( in
the broadest sense) changes are recognised as an essential component
of health promotion in this country.

Regards
Peter Howat
> Date:          Wed, 16 Jun 1999 15:06:28 -0400
> Reply-to:      Health Promotion on the Internet <[log in to unmask]>
> From:          Glen Brown <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject:       Re: up-stream- downstream
> To:            [log in to unmask]

> Allow me a variation on the metaphor:
>
> A manufacturing plant is dumping toxic chemicals into a stream. A bit
> further downstream live several different small communities. For various
> reasons, the people in those communities drink from the stream. When they
> do, they instantly get dizzy from the chemicals and fall into the stream. A
> bit further down the stream is a hospital.
>
> In the Medical Model, we focus our energies at the end of the stream,
> pulling people out of the stream, hospitalizing them until they're able to
> stand upright, and send them back to their communities.
>
> In the Health Promotion Model, we work with each of the communities to
> reduce their need to drink out of the stream. With some communities, that
> might require a well. With others, education about the dangers of stream
> drinking. With others, bottled water.
>
> In the Population Health Model, we figure out how to stop the dumping of
> toxic chemicals into the stream in the first place.
>
> Oh, yeah, and then there's government policy: close the hospital, cut back
> on health promotion, reduce environmental protections and call it health
> reform.
>
> Glen Brown
>
Peter Howat
Assoc Professor and Head
Dept Health Promotion
School of Public Health
Curtin University