Defining Health Promotion - Assignment Example

Health Promotion By: Institution: Course: Instructor: Date of Submission: Question One The first Heath Promotion Conference held in 1986 in Ottawa highlighted three main strategies of health promotion and these are as follows: Advocate: health entail a resource for both development and social means, and therefore the dimension affecting these factors ought to experience changes since this will be the means of encouraging health (World Health Organization & International Conference on Health Promotion 2016, p. 5). Enable: it is important to attain equity in health in a situation where individuals attain empowerment to ensure that the determinants affecting health are controlled because this will help them in optimum life quality. This can only occur if individuals have the capacity to control everything that determining their health (Mcmurray & Clendon 2014, p. 13). Mediate: health sector cannot be the means of achieving health promotion. Collaboration of numerous government sectors such as economic and social ones among others as well as independent organizations such as industries and media must take part in enhancing health promotion. The programs and strategies of health promotion ought to be adapted to the individuals’ local needs as well as the capacity of the individual regions and countries to account for the differing economic, social, and economic systems (Roden & Jarvis 2014, p. 15). Health promotion themes The themes presented during the Ottawa Conference on Health promotion are as follows: Building public policy which is healthy Health promotion ensures that health is put first on the policy makers’ agenda in the numerous sectors at the various levels. The policy of health promotion ensures the combination of various approaches and these include fiscal measures, legislation, organizational change, and taxation. Creation of supportive environment Our present society is both complex as well as interrelated and therefore, it is important not to bring about a separation of health from other set goals. The link between the individuals as well as the environment forms the foundation for socio-ecological approach towards health. The organization of work by the society ought to assist in the creation of a healthy society. Strengthening action of the community The efficacy of health promotion is experienced when the community has a concrete as well as effective action when it comes to priority setting, planning and implementing strategies, and making decisions to attain better health (Roden & Jarvis 2014, p. 17). Development of personal skills Health promotion offer support to social and personal development through offering health education and information and develop life skills. It is important to ensure that individuals are offered with the opportunity to learn at the course of their life and this will ensure that they are prepared for all life’s stages as well as ensure that they acquire coping strategies against the various chronic diseases as well as injuries (World Health Organization & International Conference on Health Promotion 2016, p. 15). Reorientation of health services Promotion of health is a shared responsibility among the community groups, individuals, health service institutions, health professionals, as well as government. It is important for the health service to clasp an extended mandate which is normally sensitive as well as ensure that the cultural needs are respected (Mcmurray & Clendon 2014, p. 19). Question Two: Health Promotion Health literacy entails the personal attributes as well as social resources required for individuals as well as communities to access, appraise, comprehend, as well as utilize services and information to come up with decisions regarding health (French & Hernandez 2013, p. 34). Areas known to work in health literacy Health promotion play an essential role in ensuring an achievement of improved outcomes of health via facilitating better comprehension of opportunities and options available as well as ensure that individuals are empowered when it comes to making choices in relation to supporting better outcomes of health. Improvement of health literacy has been shown to bring about a lot of benefits. A model proposed by Nutbeam (2008) show that an improvement of health literacy become a health intervention/education outcome (Kopera-Frye 2016, p. 16). The change in behavior occurs following an improvement in health literacy. This health literacy model offer support to the competence development for various health actions whose application is diverse. Apart from that, health promotion offer support to the empowerment of people in the decision making regarding the healthcare. Health literacy has also played an important role in ensuring better management of various health problems. It has also helped individuals to come up with decision regarding their health. Health literacy experts have also played a great role in ensuring that the information is accessible and this has been essential in ensuring an improvement of health outcomes. This has been through the use of various means including the internet. Areas of Difficulties in Health Literacy Globally, health literacy has been observed to be low. In UK for instance, 43% of the adults do not comprehend the health information because of it is written in a complex manner. The number is low in America where only 12% of the population has sufficient health literacy level and this has led to the federal government invests approximately $73 billion in the promotion of health literacy. Individuals with inadequate amount of health literature have low level of health irrespective of the type of disease that they may be experiencing (French & Hernandez 2013, p. 37). The vulnerable population especially the minority, the elderly, as well as the individuals with low levels of education tend to have low levels of health literacy compared to the rest of the population. The difficulties for individuals experiencing low skills of health literacy include the incapability to assume positive management of self, higher cost of medicine owing to treatment errors and more medications, more regular hospitalization, longer stays in hospitals, making various trips to their providers of healthcare, as well as lack of enough skills to ensure that the needed services are obtained (Alper 2016, p. 13). In some cases, qualitative deficiencies as well as other problems can result into serious consequences. Some patients lack the knowledge on how they can take their medicine and this can result into over dosing or missed dose. The healthcare provider also experiences trust issues when speaking with individuals who has a low level of health literacy (Tobi 2016, p. 39). In a situation where the provider is a bit different from the recipient in terms of ethnic background, age, and social-economic status, the patient may feel uncomfortable in disclosing personal information on health. Majority of the patients have the tendency of hiding their inability to comprehend they are provided with to read mainly because of they may feel embarrassed or may feel they do not want to challenge the providers of the healthcare (Kopera-Frye 2016, p. 17). Question Three Community health need assessment can be defined as follows: A process describing the health state of the local community A process enabling the identification of the main risk factors as well as factors causing ill health A process enabling the identification of the course of action that would aim at addressing health problems. The following are the steps involved in the community health need assessment Identification and the Engagement of the Stakeholders Building a trust relationship at an early stage of community health need assessment process helps in ensuring that the stakeholders are becoming engaged. This help in the creation of a strong sense of process ownership by all. The developers of community health need assessment may make a consideration of approaching individuals who are involved in family and patient advisory council. Define the Community Among the CHNA’s component is defining as it determines the assessment scope as well as the intervention. While scope is sometimes determined by the predefined service area of the hospital, ensuring that the patients as well as community members into the conversation can ensure that the community definition is inclusive (Dillon & Dillon 2016, p. 60). Collection and analysis of data Aggregating primary as well as secondary data, both quantitative and qualitative will assist in prioritizing the needs of the community. Community stakeholders as well as patients can offer perspectives to ensure the complementation of the quantitative findings via interviews, town or community meetings, focus groups, and surveys. It is important to ask the stakeholders of the community to ensure the sharing of the information that they can access. Health care system as well as hospitals may lack the awareness on the manner of data collection (Crouch & Meurier 2015, p. 30). Select and Prioritize the Issues of the Community The qualitative and the quantitative information collected as well as analyzed in step three are utilized for ensuring the prioritization of the health needs of the community. While the qualitative information can ensure the illumination of the scope as well as the severity of the health issues, the community stakeholders as well as the system of the healthcare can offer explanation to these issues’ urgency (Healthy Communities Institue & Catholic Health Association of the United States 2015, p. 20). Document and Communicate Sharing the draft of community health need assessment prior to their finalization ensures that the stakeholders have an opportunity to comment as well as offer additional feedback regarding the mode of the information presentation, its format, and the communication forms that can help in reaching the other sub-groups in the community. Plan the strategies of improvement It is essential to ensure that patients, community stakeholders, as well as family involved in the process of improvement planning as they possess valuable feedback regarding the acceptability as well as feasibility of interventions as well as strategies within their communities (Crouch & Meurier 2015, p. 35). Implementation of the improvement plans Engaging community and patient stakeholders in ensuring the customization of the interventions recognized in stage six is essential in ensuring the creation of the sense of ownership as well as shared responsibility. It is also essential in fostering of dialogue among the community organizations, populations, and hospitals that they serve (Healthy Communities Institue & Catholic Health Association of the United States 2015, p. 23). Progress evaluation Community members, families, as well as patients can be involved in defining the outcomes to be measured as well as in offering feedback on the progress of the implementation to allow for the adjustment. After ensuring the reviewing of the outcomes, the next step will involve reflecting as well as strategizing with the members of the community as well as patients to make a consideration on the aspects that work well and at the same time what aspect requires improvement as well as how to ensure the scaling up of the programs. Making the community as well as patient engagements a core component of the process of community health need assessment is beneficial to both the communities as well as the hospitals (Dillon & Dillon 2016, p. 67). Bibliographies World Health Organization, & International Conference on Health Promotion. (2016). Ottawa charter for health promotion. [Geneva], [World Health Organization]. Mcmurray, A., & Clendon, J. (2014). Community health and wellness: primary health care in practice. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=953689. Roden, J., & Jarvis, L. (2014). Evaluation of the health promotion activities of paediatric nurses: Is the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion a useful framework? Contemporary Nurse. 41, 271-284. French, M., & Hernandez, L. M. (2013). Organizational change to improve health literacy: workshop summary. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=867921. Kopera-Frye, K., DR. (2016). Health Literacy Among Older Adults. New York: Springer Publishing Company. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=4625095. Alper, J. (2016). Integrating health literacy, cultural competence, and language access services: workshop summary. Tobi, P. (2016). Health Needs Assessment. Dillon, P. M., & Dillon, P. M. (2016). Nursing health assessment: the foundation of clinical practice. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1101286. Crouch, A. T., & Meurier, C. (2015). Health assessment. https://nls.ldls.org.uk/welcome.html?ark:/81055/vdc_100026534309.0x000001. Healthy Communities Institue, & Catholic Health Association of the United States. (2015). Assessing & addressing community health needs. Read More