Health promotion and action to improve health
Action areas and principles
Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health. The Ottawa Charter names five action areas: building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, strengthening community action, developing personal skills, and reorienting health services. Effective action combines these areas and uses the principles of enable, mediate and advocate. Settings-based approaches (schools, workplaces, communities) and upstream action on determinants are central. Participation and cultural safety are essential, particularly with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Traps
Do not equate health promotion with health education or a one-off awareness campaign. A poster campaign may develop personal skills, but without policy and environmental support it is downstream and limited. Questions may reward victim-blaming language or ignore community consultation. Another trap is treating consultation as tokenistic: genuine participation shares power and responds to community priorities.
Worked example
A school wants to improve healthy eating. A curriculum-only approach addresses personal skills. A stronger plan also changes the canteen policy and pricing (healthy public policy), creates a supportive food environment, involves students and families in planning (community action), and links to local health services (reorienting services).
Rule of thumb: if a strategy relies only on individuals changing behaviour, ask what policy, environment and community action are missing.