Health Promotion and Development: Health4Life Critique - Case Study Example

Health4Life Critique COI for the Department of Health (2009) Change4Life: Eat well, Move more, live longer. Carmarthen: Crown Publishers. Introduction Change4Life is a campaign pioneered by the UK government and it advocates for healthy living as a way of controlling over-weight and obesity. The initiative operates in UK, Wales and Ireland. The target group for this project is primarily children through their parents. The initiative urges parents to bring up their children in healthy ways by ensuring that they eat well and also get involved in more active plays and games. Times have changed and "modern life" has exposed people to less active kind of life. There are so many opportunities to watch TV sets or play computer games. There is also so much convenience in accessing fast foods leading to less movement and poor eating habits. (Health4Life, 2015) Purpose of the initiative From the executive summary, it is clearly stated that this initiative aims at prevention and change of behaviours as well as circumstances that lead to weight gain rather than being a weight-loss programme for the already obese. This initiative targets young children and mothers who are at the brink of delivering. According to the initiative, obesity in England is rising at an alarming rate. One-third of children in the UK and two-third of adults in the UK are already over-weight or obese. If the trend goes on, by the year 2050 only one of ten adult’s population will be a healthy weight. In order to control this, the initiative through the government has set out £372 million for a series of measures which include funding for pregnancy as well as early years of children, promoting healthy eating at home and also in schools, development of healthy towns and building more safe places for children to play. Healthy Weight, Health Lives also made an announcement of £75 million to facilitate a three year social-based marketing campaign According to Cheng, Kotler and Lee (2011, p. 19) social-marketing campaign work best for issues related to public health Once the health problem has been identified, the social marketing starts as a means of achieving the strategic goals of the campaign. Theory This campaign uses the theory of relativity to answer the question why the society is become overweight and obese. According to the campaign, majority of the people are over-weight or obese because of less activity and health eating. The initiative believes that people can change to more activity and eating healthier, they are to reduce the risks of obesity and over-weight. The campaign believes changing adults who are already over-weight and obese might be hard. Instead, the campaign focuses on investing in the future by targeting the young children through pregnant mothers. Aims of the campaign The initiative aims to change people’s behaviour. Since there are no globally accepted models for behaviours change with regard to obesity, the initiative has reviewed existing literature on behaviours change on diet and activity to extract assumptions that will be used for the marketing campaigns. Through the campaign, the initiative will have a close monitoring process in order to understand these assumptions that will work and those that will not work .According to Haberer (2012, p. 17) behaviour change campaigns entails influencing the knowledge and beliefs about particular behaviours, affecting support of behaviours by encouraging attitude change and persuasion with an ultimate goal of decreasing practices affecting an individuals social well-being. Principles of health promotion This initiative primarily aims at promoting physical activity and active community. But generally it aims at realising three principles; building healthy public policy, strengthening community action and developing personal skills. Working together with the government, the initiative aims at setting policies that will help pregnant mothers acquire skills that will enable them bring up their children in an health way. The initiative will as well be strengthening the community action through its social marketing campaign. As it aims to achieve individual behaviour change, the same will be reflected in the whole community as a whole. According Linsley, Kane and Owen (2011, p. 186) to health promotion principles give a framework for campaign strategies to set goals and objectives. UK Policies on Obesity Health problems related to obesity and overweight cost the UK government eeeee5 billion annually. The UK government has set out to encourage its citizens to eat and drink more healthily and be more active. The government has been able to do this through the efforts of Change4Life programme. In addition to that, there are other policies and measures that the government has put in place. The manufacturers of food products and beverages are required to follow the consistent front of pack labelling system. This ensures that people know what is contained in the food they buy. The government has also been encouraging business and organizations through Public Health Responsibility health to make it easier for their staff and employees make well informed healthier choices (Ellison, 2013) Wider determinant of health Majority of the individuals, young and adults in the UK that are obese or over-weight are mainly as a result of lifestyle factors. The initiative puts emphasis on individual behavioural change as a way of fighting obesity and being over-weight. Other factors that can be associated to this are general socio-economic factors. The economic activities have led to fast food services being available for all. The social life has also been limited to people seating down and chatting over the internet. People no longer go out for walks and other social activities. According to Ditmier (2006, p. 128) childhood socio-economic factors play a key role in causing obesity. Appropriate people and resources involved The initiative is in partnership with the corporate, the government and other NGOs that lobby for the same programmes. The resources offered from this initiative is funding for pregnant mothers and early life. The initiative ensures that women are trained and equipped with all the necessary skills. The initiative has also been involved in social marketing campaigns. Conclusion The Heallth4Life initiative is aimed at reducing cases of obesity among the adults as well as the children. To do that, the programme has targeted children and newborns through their mothers. This allows them to change the future right now. Long-term strategies have been in put in place to facilitate the change and the impact. The initiative aims at getting children to eat more healthily and be more active. The Health4Life initiative is a long-term programme whose goals may not be realized as of yet. The initiative targets newborns that estimation show by the year 2020, they will be able to see the impact of the campaign. Reference list: Top of Form Top of Form Ditmier, L. F. (2006). New developments in obesity research New York, Nova Science Publishers. Ellison, J. (2013) Obesity and healthy eating Retrieved April 9, 2015, from Government of UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/reducing-obesity-and-improving-diet#actions Haberer, J. (2012). Sustainable development research [S.l.], Europaischer Hochschulver Health, COI for the Department of Health (2009) Change4Life: Eat well, Move more, live longer. Carmarthen: Crown Publishers. Health4Life. (2015, April 9). About Change4Life Retrieved April 9th April, 2015, from National Health Services: http://www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/Pages/what-is-change-for-life.aspx Linsley, P., Kane, R., & Owen, S. (2011). Public health and the nursing role: contemporary principles and practice. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Sudbury, Mass, Jones and Bartlett Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More