Dynamic Relationship among Health Promotion, Health Literacy, Community Development - Coursework Example

This paper makes a critical review of the dynamic relationship among health promotion, health literacy, community development and community empowerment. To do so, it is important to establish right at the outset the connection among these entities. Obviously, the two key terminologies in this paper are health and community. And, more directly said, the connection between these two is ascertained by the proposition that health is a social matter that occurs in the context of community (Kirk et al. 2009, pp. 4; see also McMurry 2006, pp. 10). It is because health is a product of naturally reciprocal interaction or interfacing between individuals and their environment. Multi-dimensional in nature, health depends on human ability to understand and manage the interfacing between human activities and the physical and biological environment (McMurray 2006, pp. 7). Health literacy, the goal of health promotion Health literacy is the enlisted goal of health promotion. Understood as a personal asset, health literacy is focused on the development of skills and capacities that would enable people to exert control over their health and the factors that shape their health (Nutbeam 2008). It serves as cornerstone of many other life skills as it enables people to find and/or obtain, process and understand information and make decisions relative to, among others, health, health services and health care (see Keleher & Hagger 2007, pp. 24). When people have adequate level of health literacy – or, when the population has sufficient knowledge and skills and when the community members are confident to guide or supervise their own health – they are able to stay health, recuperate from illness and live with disease or disability (McMurry 2006, pp. 19). Not surprisingly, health literacy has been recognized as priority by different national and international health bodies in consideration of its importance in improving the quality of health care to address health disparity (Olney 2007, pp. 31). As said in the preceding, bringing about health literacy is the intended effect of health promotion. WHO (2005) defines health promotion as the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its determinants. Its intended result is improvement of health. In effect, health promotion is a core function of public health; it also contributes to the work of managing communicable and non-communicable diseases and threats to health. Health promotion is essentially instructive – a process which is very well served by sophisticated understanding of the process of health communication in (both clinical and) community settings and which may take the more personal forms of communication and community-based educational outreach (Nutbeam 2008). It raises consciousness, arouses concern and stimulates action by the people to get involved and be committed to individual and community health. The locus of health promotion The most appropriate center of gravity for, and the primary locus of, health promotion is the community (see Olney et al. 2007, pp. 31). In its basest element, the word “community” refers to that which is common. It may mean either the physical or geographical place that is shared with others (hence, a town or a county in sparsely populated areas), or an interdependent group of people depending on and interacting with one another (e.g., schools, workplace, or neighborhood in more populous areas). Essentially, communities are organic entities that throb with actions and interactions of people, the spaces they inhabit and the resources that they use (see McMurry 2006, pp. 10). In fact, health promotion is facilitated by such factors as broadly based community involvement and leadership, observance of mutuality and respect, adherence to open and honest dialogue, holding of creative and comprehensive planning and communication, resort to extensive partnering networks, and the genuine honoring of local knowledge, traditions and culture (Kirk et al. 2009, pp. 2) – all of which are elements of effective community living. Health promotion empowers community Empowerment is a construct that implies individual change, and community empowerment is about change in the social setting. Community empowerment is effected by – for the purpose of this paper – the process of enabling people to improve the level of their control over their health. Per se, the potential of health promotion is broad. Underpinned by the values of equity and empowerment, health promotion is said to result to social change (Green 2008). Health promotion is pedagogical. It provides information about how people can improve their health, or how to access health resources. In most instances, the absence of such information defeats the purpose of community empowerment. For instance, health illiterate individuals are prevented from adequate personal health and from ensuring their family’s access to good nutrition, being spared from illness and exercising their own developmental possibilities (McMurray 2006, pp. 19). Conversely, communities are empowered when people are made to prepare for events or circumstances with both information and community support systems. Having received better information about health related matters, people are able to make resolve to visit doctors, make decisions about recommended treatment, reduce their anxiety arising from their health conditions, and become committed to healthy behavior and lifestyle, and assist their family members (Olney 2007, pp. 31). Insofar as to a certain extent they mean complementary if not similar things, it may be said that community empowerment is another name for health literacy (see Porr, Drummond & Richter 2006). Health literacy is about skills and capacities, which effect control over human health. Control and self-determination are forms of power, and increasing power is a key function of empowerment (Kirk et al. 2009, pp. 3). Thus, empowering people in communities comes as a result of building up their capacity through health promotion (see WHO 2005). The signs of empowered community include the members who enjoy broad participation in health policies. As such, they also have avenue to choose priorities for health services and initiatives and to develop appropriate conditions for living and working. For, only by participating in decisions that affect their daily life, members of community feel that they have some control over the affairs of their social life. And they feel a sense of commonality with others, which results to building up of bonds of trust and which, in turn, helps the community to develop structures and processes to ultimately enhance the community health (see McMurry 2006, pp. 17). Over-all, community empowerment has as its fundamental element the community members’ commitment to work together. Health promotion does not simply disseminate information; it encourages social action. And community members begin to mobilize themselves for collective action only when they are armed with critical level of health literacy (see McMurray 2006, pp. 20). Developed community, health literate And, as health literacy is a form of community empowerment, these two have as their inevitable consequence community development. In the context of community health, community development appears as a continuous striving to develop the capacities of people to be inclusive, to care and to share. McMurray (2006) writes that the quality of community is in fact enhanced by each of the levels of health literacy. The functional level of health literacy – which is characterized by the individuals’ receiving of sufficient factual information on health risks and health services that are available in their community – makes individuals free to participate in illness prevention and health protection activities such as screening and immunization programs. The communicative or interactive health literacy level – or that which involves understanding how organizations work, knowing how to access services that people need, and communicating with others in the context of – for instance – self-help or other support groups – actually develops personal skills to the extent that community members are able to develop their capacity to influence social norms and to help others develop their personal capacity for better health. The critical health literacy, or that where people use cognitive skills to improve individual resilience to social and economic adversity, paves the way for community leadership and structures to support social action and to facilitate community development. And, the level of civic literacy has the community members actively participate in community life to find collective solutions to problems relative to health (pp. 20). In conclusion, it has been said that the relationship among health promotion, health literacy, community empowerment and community development is dynamic and organic. By this, the paper has shown that this relationship is hinged on each of the four entities – which actually appear as if they were individually consisting of different aspects of a greater singular entity. Health promotion intends to improve health literacy. In the actual process of health promotion, and as people become more literate, the community and its members become empowered. And, an empowered community that has members who are health literates definitely has the elements that characterize a developed community. References: Green, J. 2008. Health education: the case for rehabilitation. Critical Public Health, [Online], 18 (4). Abstract from Informa Health database. Available at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a905680853&db=all [Accessed 28 February 2010]. Keleher, H. & Hagger, V. 2007. Health literacy in primary health care. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 13 (2), pp. 24-30. Kirk, R. et al. 2009. Focusing on community assets for health promotion: the role of NGO’s and civil society in local empowerment. In 7th Global Conference on Health Promotion, Nairobi, Kenya 26-30 October 2009. McMurray, A. 2006. Community health and wellness: a socio-ecological approach, 6th ed. New South Wales: Elsevier. Nutbeam, D. 2008. The evolving concept of health literacy. Social Science and Medicine, [Online] 67 (12). Abstract from ScienceDirect database. Available at: doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.09.050 [Accessed 2 March 2010]. Olney, C.A. et al. 2007. MedlinePlus and the challenge of low health literacy: findings from the Colonias project. J Med Library Association, 95 (1), pp. 31-39. Porr, C., Drummond, J. & Richter, S. 2006. Health literacy as an empowerment tool for low-income mothers. Family and Community Health, [Online], 29 (4). Abstract from The Journal of Health Promotion and Maintenance database. Available at: http://journals.lww.com/familyandcommunityhealth/Abstract/2006/10000/Health_Literacy_as_an_Empowerment_Tool_for.11.aspx [Accessed 27 February 2010]. World Health Organization (WHO). 2005. The Bangkok charter for health promotion in a globalized world. Available at: http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/6gchp/hpr_050829_%20BCHP.pdf [Accessed 27 February 2010]. Read More