The
World Health Organization (WHO) defines health promotion as:
"the process of enabling people to increase control over,
and to improve their health."
Health
promotion work is multi-dimensional. Health promoters work
in diverse settings that include schools, workplaces, and community
health services. Their clients and partners may be individuals,
communities or even society as a whole.
Because of the dynamic
nature of health promotion, practitioners need a diverse range
of theoretical and practical skills in the areas of:
health
communication
health
education
self-help/mutual
aid
organizational
change
community
development and mobilization
policy
development
advocacy
These skills are the
foundation for health promotion competencies - a skills-based
set of criteria that people working in the field of health promotion
are expected to meet in order to implement strategies
that work.
To help people increase
control over and improve their health, health promotion practitioners
need to be able to:
1. Demonstrate knowledge necessary for conducting
health promotion. For example, applying a determinants of
health framework to an analysis of chronic disease prevention.
2. Conduct a community needs/situational
assessment for a specific issue. For example, scanning and
mapping networks to plan for a community-wide forum on obesity.
3. Plan appropriate health promotion programs.
For example, planning a community garden with partners in a diverse
inner-city neighbourhood.
4. Contribute to policy development.
For example, working in coalitions to advocate for changes to
social assistance rates.
5. Facilitate community mobilization and
build community capacity around shared health priorities.
For example, creating community engagement processes which help
participants connect the dots across sectors on youth involvement.
6. Engage in partnerships and collaboration.
For example, collaborating with municipal planners and public
health units to plan community walking trails.
7. Communicate effectively with community
members and other professionals. For example, using new media
technology such as blogs, wikis and podcasts to plan and promote
a breastfeeding campaign.
8. Organize, implement and manage health
promotion interventions. For example, developing an inter-sectoral,
stay-in-school initiative for at-risk youth.
Ontario Health Promotion E-Mail Bulletin, a
weekly electronic news and resources bulletin, produced by the
Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse and The Health Communication
Unit, offers a valuable, select, summarized information exchange
among Ontario community leaders, practitioners and researchers
interested in health promotion.
OHPE
Bulletin issues are easily searchable and accessible on the Internet.
To be added to the list for this weekly bulletin, send an e-mail
request to info@ohpe.ca with
your e-mail address, or use the handy subscription form on the
OHPE Bulletin website.
