Concepts of Health Promotion in Australia

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Introduction

Health promotion can be defined as, the methods that enable people to have an increased control over and also to better their health. To be able to reach a point of total physical, mental and also social wellbeing, a person or a group has to have ability of identifying and realizing aspirations, that can satisfy its needs, and be able to change or to deal with the environment. Health is, thus, taken as resource for daily life, and not the objective of living. Health should be taken as a positive concept that emphasize social together with personal resources. Thus, health promotion should not be taken as a sole task of the Australian health sector, it should involve all the people and it goes beyond a healthy life-styles.

History

The history of Australia health promotion can be traced back to 1986 at the international conference that was held in Ottawa Canada, since then the Ottawa health promotion has had various influences on policies of Australia. In 1980s the government started to implement the World Health Organization policies which required that the authorities work with professional organization together with companies, school and hospitals. Through, a number of meetings and consultations, the government set up mechanisms for learning new concepts of health promotion. Health promotion in Australia has a positive contribution to the health sector, as it has seen in many studies. Health promotion helps people to live a better life style and be more conscience about their health issues. It is clear that health can not be covered alone by the health sector but it needs to encompass other sectors. In Australia health promotion has helped in reducing a number of diseases and improving the general well being of the people.

World Health Organization five key areas

The World Health Organization (WHO) identified 5 key areas in health promotion, which are important in attaining better health promotion. These areas are one; to develop public polices which are healthy. Two; the need to make sure that environments support health. three; recognizing how important personal skills are in accordance to health. Four; there should be community action. Five; reorienting health services challenges. In focusing on these five key issues the WHO recognized that personal changes can not be used follow to impact health, there must be an integration of other components. The five key areas support a public healthy policy; they also support social systems, and offer motivation and knowledge, health behaviours which are positive. The WHO extended health policy

To include political and also social processes which are required in attaining health changes. We shall examine each of the key area.

Building healthy public policy

Health promotion is more than health care; health promotion puts health sector on agenda of making policy in all concerned sectors and should be on all levels. It directs the other sectors to be conscious of consequences of health when there make their decisions and also they, should be able to accept their own responsibility for health. The health teams in the community should; help the community in developing a better community policy based on availability of alcohol. Should give support to the formation store committee in the local areas and also developing of a healthy food policy. Lastly, community teams should observe if the law prohibiting the sell of tobacco produce to the youth below 18 years is being adhered to or not, if not then they should report to the police or to the council.

Creation of Supportive environments

The societies that we live in are complex and also interrelated, it is not possible to separate health from other goals. The main guiding code for the nations, regions and the whole world is the requirement to encourage reciprocal protection, which means taking care of one another. The community and the natural environment should take care of each other. Thus, the community health team should, give support to activities which enable communities to maintain the links they have. The teams should also organise for advanced occupational health and also safety standards that should be observed in the work place and also in the public facilities. In addition they should give support to local profits generating activities for instance, market gardens.

To strengthen community action

For health promotion to be successful, it has to work with solid and efficient community action that will set priorities, make decisions, plan strategies and the implement them in order to attain better health. The core activity of this process is community empowerment, by being able to control the endeavours they have, their destinies and ownership. The work of community health teams will be, providing statistics that support the community agreements to alcohol reform with the liquor commission. The team also will have to work together with centres for women in budget planning, purchasing and cooking meals for children in school and also older people. The community team has to give support to the development community action plan and also funding submission intended for dust suppression scheme.

Develop personal skills

Health promotion is known to support personal and also social development by providing information and educating the community on health and promoting life skills. Thus, by providing education, it increases the opportunities available to the people to be able to employ more control of their own health, their own environments, and also be able to make choices that are conducive to their health issues. People are also encouraged to learn in their life time in order to prepare themselves for all life stages and be able to manage chronic diseases and injuries. The community health teams should, give support to health team members who want to attend appropriate professional development performances, and other public health knowledge training. The community teams can also encourage self-care which is responsible for example, they can teach mothers together with carers to be able to use scales and health charts so that they can monitor the growth of their babies. Lastly, the community teams can conduct store trips to educate people on healthy foods, thus, making the people to be able to come up with healthier food decisions.

Reorient health services

It is important that health sector changes it role and move towards health promotion way, the health sector should go further than its duty of providing curative and clinical services. Health services should embrace an extended mandate that is sensitive and also respects the cultural needs of the communities. This mandate has to be able to support he requirements of communities and individuals to achieve a healthier life. The health sector should also open links among health cares facilitators and the broader social, economic, political and also physical environmental constitutes. To reorient health service requires a bigger and a strong attention given to health research together with changes that has to occur in professional training and education. This should lead to changes in attitude and also organisation in health services, which make a new focus on the whole requirements of an individual as a complete person. The community health teams should, base their work plans on employment together with career development plan. The teams should give service in areas which is more balanced among health promotion and treatment services. The community team should also include a short intervention practices in the daily work practices

Cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular disease has continued to contribute highly on Australia health burden, the disease cause death, reduce wellbeing of a person and results in poor quality of life, which causes serious challenges to an individual, victim’s families, and community as whole. Currently, there is convincing evidence showing that this disease is highly preventable, a number of socio-environmental can be modified to prevent this disease it is also important that individual behaviour change. According to statistics it is estimated that in 2004/5 around 3.5 million people reported to suffer from cardiovascular conditions, the most common type of cardiovascular conditions is hypertension which account for 2.1 million cases in Australia. The estimates further show that the disease affects male and female on same account. The rate is going down because of reduction on smoking population, it is estimated that the rate has can down by 3% since health promotion program.

Cancer

Cancer is a main concern in Australia and it is one of the main causes of death in Australia. Cancer affects the body cells by cells growing abnormal due to infections; there are over 100 different types of cancer. In 2003 in Australia cancer contributed 19% of total disease burden in the country. Deaths related to smoking disease killed more than 19,019 people in Australia; the financial cost is enormous which is estimate to be more than $700 million. According to Australian institute of health and welfare many people who die are those aged over 65 years and above. The main tobacco related disease is lung cancer; it is estimate that around 13,000 men and 6000 women die due to lung cancer. It is estimated that smoking behaviour changes that have been occurring in the community has reduced the rate of death. This is as a result of health promotion services.

Road injuries

Road traffic injuries are main health concern in Australia, in the whole world it is estimated that 1.2 million people die every year and more than 50 million get injuries. In Australia road injuries mostly affect people from the low income and the middle income, the young male are among vulnerable groups, which also includes pedestrians, motorcyclists, cyclists and other public road users. Without a good action plan the problem of road injuries will continue to increase. Costs from the road injuries are enormous, it is estimated that it costs $ 5billion to the Australian government and this amounts are increasing.

Road injuries are preventable and their consequences can be reduced. People working in health sector are in a good position to support new measures in the transport system which has a potential of bringing environment protection and healthy equity there are a number of ways of achieving this. It has been noted that reducing health risk factors such as alcoholism lead to better social health behaviour which reduces accidents on the roads. Healthier transport systems need to be stated and also emphasized to bring down road injuries. For the last 20 years there has been an increase in healthier transport issues brought by the health promotion practices. It is estimated that from 1990 to 1997 around 31% of driver and pedestrian deaths that occurred in Australia were related to alcohol, national the rates of alcohol related traffic deaths and injuries reduced as from 1990 to1996 due to changes in consumption of alcohol which was as a result of health promotion that supports responsible alcohol drinking.

Conclusion

Health promotion is an important aspect in the health sector; it has noted that health aspect goes beyond mere health issues. Health promotion provides ways of integrating health issues together with social, economical and political issues. It is clear that social and political issues affect health of the people. In Australia lung cancer, road injuries and cardiovascular diseases claim a number of deaths. Health promotions practises such as better smoking practices, and improved healthier eating practices goes along way in reducing these diseases. For health promotion to be successful the community should be involved in the policy frame work. Health promotions remain relevant in the health sector and need to be strengthened.

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