What actions are needed to address
Australia’s health priorities?
HSC - Core 1
Chapter 4
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To address Australia’s health priorities,
actions that focus on both treatment and
prevention must be balanced
strategically.
This means that sufficient resources must
be allocated to treat the injuries, illnesses
and health problems of the population,
but significant funding must also be
directed towards health promotion
initiatives and the prevention of injuries
and ill health.
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A strategic approach to health
promotion is ideal. This can involve
developing broad action plans and
specific initiatives based on the five
‘action areas’ of the Ottawa Charter
for Health Promotion, established in
1986.
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The five action areas are:
> developing personal skills
> reorienting health services
> creating supportive environments
> building healthy public policy.
> strengthening community action
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It is useful to critically analyse how these action
areas can provide a framework for
addressing Australia’s health priorities. These
priorities include:
> groups experiencing health inequities
> high levels of preventable chronic disease,
injury and mental health problems
> a growing and ageing population.
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In addition to reinforcing the Ottawa Charter
action areas, the Jakarta Declaration of 1997
proposed an additional focus on building and
expanding partnerships for health. Three
years later, the Mexico Ministerial Statement
of 2000 highlighted the importance of
addressing the social determinants of health,
particularly to improve the lives of
economically and socially disadvantaged
populations.
Levels of responsibility for health
promotion
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The principles of social justice underpin the
approaches to promoting health, the
responsibility for health promotion is shared.
Governments at federal, state and local levels
have a significant role to play, as do nongovernment agencies, the corporate sector,
community groups and individuals.
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Australian Government
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The Australian Government has a
significant leadership responsibility for
developing health promotion policy and for
funding it.
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Example - health promotion leadership funding
of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
(AIHW) to collect health-related data.
Example - the development of dietary
guidelines and physical activity
recommendations
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State and local governments
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NSW Government campaigns such as the Healthy
Canteen Strategy and Walk It: Active Local Parks
also reflect these guidelines and
recommendations.
The Walk It: Active Local Parks initiative
demonstrated the role that government can play at
a local level. The project was a joint undertaking
between Parramatta City Council, NSW Health,
the Western Sydney Area Health Service and
Active Australia to encourage people to use local
parks for walking and other forms of physical
activity.
As part of the program, audits and subsequent
building works were completed to ensure that local
parks and other facilities were in a condition that
encouraged physical activity. Creating
supportive environments for physical activity is a
key function of local governments.
This initiative is a prime example of crosssectional action that builds partnerships to
promote health in meaningful and costeffective ways. It also demonstrates how
organisations like NSW Health and the Area
Health Services, whose primary roles are
usually treatment based approaches to
health, have been able to adopt an approach
based on health promotion as well. This is a
clear example of reorienting health services.
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Non-government and corporate strategies
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Cancer Council and the Heart Foundation
have very clear and specific health promotion
responsibilities, and the corporate sector is
increasingly recognising its responsibilities in
supporting the health and wellbeing of its
employees—as well as the productivity
benefits of this approach
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Individuals
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Individuals have a level of responsibility for
their own health, which includes making
themselves aware of potentially harmful
health impacts of certain lifestyle
behaviours, and modifying their behaviours
accordingly.
Including seeking appropriate help as early
as possible when health problems arise.
The role that schools play in helping to
make children and young people aware of
healthy behaviours and strategies is critical
for developing this individual responsibility.
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However, taking a social justice approach to
this issue identifies the difficulties that some
individuals may need to overcome to make
healthy decisions or adopt healthy lifestyle
behaviours
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For example:
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Having a low level of education, particularly poor literacy
skills, can make it difficult to be fully aware of health
implications or early signs of health problems.
Having a low income may make it more difficult—even
impossible—to make healthy choices that cost more
money.
Growing up in a socio-cultural environment that instills
poor health habits early, such as unhealthy eating
patterns, negative attitudes to physical activity or a
culture of risk taking, can make it harder for young
people to break that cycle.
Living in rural or remote areas can limit access to
hospitals and specialist health services.
The benefits of partnerships
in health promotion
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One significant advance in the evolution of
health promotion has been in strategic
partnerships. When health-promoting
organisations establish a strategic
partnership with another organisation, it can
help them to meet their goal of improving
health outcomes.
The overall outcome from the partnership is
usually greater than what each organisation
could have achieved alone.
In an ideal health promotion partnership,
there will be benefits to all parties involved.
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Key benefits include:
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sharing responsibility for health promotion and tapping
into the expertise and resources that each partner brings
to the initiative
reinforcing the view that all individuals, the community
and governments have a responsibility to promote health
getting ‘buy-in’, which means that partner organisations
or individuals are not ‘told what to do’ or asked to simply
donate their support, but rather they are actively involved
in the process are committed to it;
pooling resources, which means that financial
contributions, time commitments, expertise and physical
resources can be shared
ensuring cost-effectiveness, as each member is typically
able to provide knowledge, skills, services and/or
resources at a reduced or no cost.
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An example of successful health
promotion partnerships in action can be
seen in the alliances between healthbased organisations and the schools
sector.
These partnerships help promote the
health needs of students in relation to
specific issues such as injury, asthma,
overweight and obesity, skin cancer and
mental health.
How health promotion based on the
Ottawa Charter promotes social justice
Basing health promotion strategies on the
Ottawa Charter provides two benefits.
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1.
2.
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it increases the likelihood of positive health
outcomes being achieved;
it promotes social justice.
The five action areas of the Ottawa Charter
can serve as a framework upon which
health promotion can be built
The Ottawa Charter in
action
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Closing the Gap
Fresh Tastes @ School
Exam Style Questions
1.
Discuss the level of responsibility
individuals need to accept for their own
health. (5 marks)
2.
Examine the significance of social justice
principles to health promotion. (6 marks)
3.
Critically analyse the importance of the
five action areas of the Ottawa Charter to a
selected health promotion initiative. (9 marks)