The ottawa charter for health promotion

Action Areas of the Ottawa Charter

STRENGTHEN COMMUNITY ACTION

... MOVING INTO THE FUTURE

DEVELOP PERSONAL SKILLS

community development draws on existing human and material resources to enhance self-help and social support, and to develop flexible systems for strengthening public participation in, and direction of, health matters. This requires full and continuous access to information and learning opportunities for health, as well as funding support.

enabling people to learn (throughout life) to prepare themselves for all of its stages and to cope with chronic illness and injuries is essential. This has to be facilitated in school, home, work and community settings.

caring, holism and ecology are essential issues in developing strategies for health promotion. A guiding principle should be that women and men should become equal partners in each phase of planning, implementation and evaluation of health promotion activities.

BUILD HEALTHY PUBLIC POLICY

REORIENT HEALTH SERVICE

CREATE SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENTS

Health promotion policy combines diverse but complementary approaches, including legislation, fiscal measures, taxation and organisation change. Health promotion policy requires the identification of obstacles to the adoption of healthy public policies in non-health sectors and the development of ways to remove them.

the protection of the natural and built environments, and the conservation of natural resources must be addressed in any health promotion strategy.

the role of the health sector must move increasingly in a health promotion direction, beyond its responsibility for providing clinical and curative services. Reorienting health services also requires stronger attention to health research, as well as changes in professional education and training.

WHO's Health Promotion Logo

This logo was created for the First International Conference on Health Promotion, held in Ottawa, Canada, in 1986. At that conference, the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion was launched. Since then, WHO has kept this symbol as the Health Promotion logo, as it stands for the approach to health promotion outlined in the Ottawa Charter.

Task!

Complete 6.2 Case Study Review

Health Promotion

The three strategies for health promotion as outlined in the Ottawa Charter are advocate, enable and mediate.

enable

advocate

Advocacy for health refers to actions that seek to gain support from governments and societies in general to make the changes necessary to improve the determinants of health for everyone. These actions can include media campaigns (including social media), public speaking, conducting and publishing of research and public opinion, and lobbying governments, in which individuals or groups try to change the opinions of those responsible for making public policies and laws.

Health promotion aims to reduce differences in health status between population groups by ensuring equal opportunities and resources are available to enable all people to achieve optimal health.

This includes ensuring access to education, employment, adequate housing, nutritious food and health care by empowering people, not by merely providing handouts.

People cannot achieve optimal health unless they are able to take control of those things that determine their health.

This must apply equally to women and men, indigenous and non-indigenous people, those in low and high socioeconomic groups, and those living in rural and remote areas as well as major cities.

mediate

The changes required to promote health include changes to funding, legislation and policies, and to the physical and social environment. Such changes will inevitably cause conflict between different individuals, groups, businesses and political parties.

Mediating relates to helping these groups resolve such conflict and produce outcomes that promote health.

Reducing speed limits is an example of a policy change that is not always supported by all members of the community. Working with groups that oppose such changes to ensure that lives are saved on the roads is an important role of social groups and health professionals.

Health promotion, as defined by the World Health Organization, is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. Health promotion therefore focuses on prevention rather than cure and uses the causes of disease as the starting point rather than diseases themselves.

Ottawa Charter in action

Task!

The Ottawa Charter identifies that there are certain prerequisites or basic conditions and resources that must be available if any gains in health are to occur. They are:

Sustainable resources

Shelter

food

Many resources are required for health, such as food, water and a source of income.

These resources can include fish, oil supplies and timber for building.

If these resources are not sustainable, future generations will not be able to benefit from them.

Peace

education

Nutrition is essential for the adequate functioning of the body.

Limited or no access to a variety of food containing all necessary nutrients does not allow individuals to improve their health.

Shelter is required for both protection from the elements and safety.

Those without shelter are at the mercy of their environment and often spend energy finding shelter, which does not allow significant improvements to health to be made.

Countries and communities that are experiencing peace are able to utilise their resources for promoting health.

Conflict on the other hand, often diverts resources away from health to other areas, such as defence.

Education is an influencing factor for other determinants such as employment and literacy. A lack of education does not provide individuals and community with the necessary resources to take control of their health.

Income

Stable ecosystem

social justice and equity

Income influences a range of factors such as housing, education, food intake and access to health care. Limited income prevents many individuals from accessing these resources.

This refers to the balance between the landscape and species (both plants and animals) that live in an environment.

There will be fluctuations in the balance, but changes should not be too pronounced.

The ecosystem provides many resources for health, including food, air and water.

This refers to all people being valued and receiving fair treatment.

It goes beyond enforcing laws and ensures that all people can share in the benefits of a society.

Create a table of the priority areas of the Ottawa Charter evident in the strategies discussed in this section.

Eg.

One of the responses to the social model of health came at the World Health Organization’s first International Conference on Health Promotion held in 1986 in Ottawa, Canada.

At this meeting, the delegates had the task of coming up with some guidelines that would help organisations and key stakeholders incorporate health promotion ideas into their strategies, policies and campaigns. Until then, there was no framework to guide them in the development of health promotion strategies. The resulting framework was known as the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, often referred to as the Ottawa Charter.

The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion is a useful tool for governments and health promotion organisations to use when planning effective strategies. However, it is not necessary for all five priority areas of the Ottawa Charter to be addressed in every strategy. Some effective strategies focus on only one or two areas. Trying to 236address all five priority areas may spread resources too thinly, meaning the strategy may not achieve its goals.

OTTAWA WHAT?!

A charter is the grant of authority or rights.

The Ottawa Charter allows organisations to effectively implement strategies that focus on the social model of health and health promotion.

The social model on its own does not really guide program implementation.

... what is meant by a charter?

... why was it necessary to develop a charter for health promotion?

... why were the principles of the social model regarded as not enough?

The

for health promotion

OTTAWA CHARTER