Academic Essay on Health Promotion Program

Running head:HEALTH PROMOTION
Academic Essay on Health Promotion Program
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
Obesity is one of the leading health issues all across the world. In Australia, around
67 per cent of the adults suffer from obesity, while one-fourth of the children suffer from the
same (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2020). Several programs have been in place
to combat this problem, and they have had variable success. The Ottawa Charter is an
international agreement that can be used to evaluate Health Promotion Programs. It was
initiated in Ottawa, Canada, in 1984 by the World Health Organization (WHO)
(Healthpromotion.org.au., 2020). Health promotion plans are meant to encourage a specific
set of people to make better health-related decisions and improve their lifestyle. The program
that has been chosen for evaluation is Barwon Health Integrated Health Promotion Plan
2013-2017 aimed at lowering the rates of obesity in women aged between 18 and 50 who
have the responsibility of taking care of young children between ages 0 to 4 (G21.com.au.,
2020). This program took place in many areas amongst Groverdale in Victoria, Australia.
This essay aims to evaluate this program following the six action areas of the Ottawa Charter
for Health Promotion.
Discussion
The major aim of the conference in Ottawa was to come up with the charter to meet
the increasing healthcare demands of the world population. This charter has also been used to
distribute information about health promotion plans with ease (Healthpromotion.org.au.,
2020). After that, it has been increasingly used as a guideline to assess the reliability of
healthcare programs across the word. In this case, the Barwon Health IHP Plan that was
implemented between 2013 and 2017 has been evaluated as follows.

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Build Healthy Public Policy
Healthcare programs work beyond the ground level and it must be on the aim of the
policymakers to conduct the Health promotion (Healthpromotion.org.au., 2020). For
example, Barwon IHP Plan, entailed better policies for the common public to remain healthy.
Increased access to the community resources for the well-being of the women in Geelong was
ensured. An increased amount of community resources were shifted in helping women with
young children combat their obesity. The Department of Health, Victoria also recommended
the Healthy Lifestyle Program for women (HeLP-her) to ensure better health in this transition
period of a women’s life. This was a subpart of the Burwon Health IHP program and detailed
the interventions and steps specifically for women aged 18-50 with a young child. The
priority setting was based on Local Government Area Municipal Public Health & Wellbeing
Plans and Barwon Health and Bellarine Community Health Integrated Health Promotion
Plans (Barwonhealth.org.au., 2020). This gave the target population access to the necessary
resources and equity, deeming this program to be in line with the action area (Who.int.,
2020). The role of the nurses here is to bring awareness to why the resources are needed for
that target population and influence the policymakers to take the necessary steps.
Create Supportive Environments
Health cannot be separated from other goals of the society and hence the creation of
supportive environments is essential in a health promotion plan (Healthpromotion.org.au.,
2020). For example, Burwon Health IHP was an education-based non-prescriptive program
which was completely based on a supportive and helpful environment. The program is
designed to be low cost and easy to deliver. The program was delivered at places with
supportive environments such as social groups, kindergarten, clubs or local primary schools
were these group of women tend to be present. This created a very supportive environment
for the women and ensured that they feel like they can ask for help and work together to

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make themselves healthier. This promoted a healthy lifestyle in women who were overweight
to have better physical well-being. This program was delivered by trained professionals and
nurses (Barwonhealth.org.au., 2020). The women had continuous support whenever they
needed it via the use of websites, mail and mobile phones. The major role of the nurses in this
area was the education and support of women. This is crucial in terms of health literacy and
health education, as the mothers learned the importance of healthy food and regular exercise.
They will work in collaboration with the nurses and able to reach them via emails or other
electronic communication. Nurses have a huge role in improving patient literacy, as
explained in this context (Ahrq.gov., 2020).
Strengthen Community Action
This aspect entails that the program is successful only when there is stable
communication in terms of setting priorities, making plans and implementing them together
as a whole (Healthpromotion.org.au., 2020). In the Burwon Health IHP, this included two
concepts, namely – social capital, followed by social action and influence. Social capital
consists of encouraging women to participate in more social and physical activities. Social
activities may include support groups or peer groups working towards a common goal. In this
case, the common goal is decreasing Obesity (G21.com.au., 2020). Peer-support groups are
one of the essential interventions identified that help women deal with their extra weight and
communicate their backgrounds as this gives a feeling of empowerment (Anderson et al.,
2015). The physical activities include exercising, running and other activities. This fulfils one
of the major goals of the program to increase physical activity to decrease obesity. Social
action and influence entail that the women collaborate and take actions targeted towards the
social determinants of health. Social determinants may include many aspects, such as stress,
marriage or financial problems and others (Brahmbhatt, 2017). In this case, it can be
understood that the major stress determinants for women are their child. This may be due to

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worse sleep quality, unhealthy eating and added stress of taking care of a child (Martin-
Biggers et al., 2018). The mothers must work together to overcome this. The major role of the
nurses here is to ensure community action and consistent support towards the target
population. This is a huge part of health promotion which the nurses must uphold (Adib-
Hajbaghery, 2013).
Develop Personal Skills
The development of personal skills is a huge part of any health promotion program.
This includes the promotion of healthy habits and retention of those habits long after the
program is over. This is usually achieved by educating the target individuals of the
community and developing healthy life skills among them (Healthpromotion.org.au., 2020).
This includes eating healthy and developing mental well-being which largely entails certain
factors like an increase in knowledge and enhancement of skills, change in attitude, enhanced
motivation, social skills as well as self-esteem (G21.com.au., 2020). Some healthy personal
habits include consumption of more water and fewer beverages that are highly sweetened
with sugar, increase in consumption of vegetables as well as an increase in physical activity
(Barwonhealth.org.au., 2020). These habits if incorporated into daily life, can drastically
increase the health of the target population. This aspect is highly based on health literacy and
collective impact. The main role of the nurses in terms of this action area is the same as
mentioned before. They must help the target population by promoting healthy habits among
them (Ahrq.gov., 2020). This program will be used to educate the women in social settings
such as kindergarten, clubs, preschools and other areas where they are often present in groups
(Barwonhealth.org.au., 2020). Promoting in such areas can also inspire the children to lead
healthier lives which may be a bonus (Langford et al., 2015)

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Reorient Health Services
This aspect entails that the health promotion program is oriented and progressed
following a proper way (Healthpromotion.org.au., 2020). The progression of the programs
must be aligned to the goals and the objectives. This also entails that the participants,
organizations and all who are collaborating on the program follow the same direction of
work. Reorienting health promotions is the responsibility of the governments, institutions,
community groups and professionals in collaboration. Burwon Health IHP program is aimed
towards promotion of health, rather than therapeutic services, which is the main objective of
any health promotion. The major role of the nurses in this aspect is to ensure that the target
population benefits from the program. So, regular health assessments of some women from
the community may be crucial to judge the influence of the program in terms of health
promotion and literacy (Euro.who.int., 2020). According to the Burwon Health IHP, several
methods were utilized for this assessment. These include a survey of the participants,
interviews of the key informants, including stakeholders and community members, focus
groups and other procedures. (G21.com.au., 2020).
Moving into the Future
This aspect of the Ottawa Charter entails the possibility and holism of the program
and how it ensures a better quality of life for the participants. This integrated program took
place between 2013 and 2017 and has been regarded as widely successful (G21.com.au.,
2020). This program has been recurrent in nature, and currently, the Burwon Health
Integrated Health Plan of 2019-2020 is being undertaken (Barwonhealth.org.au., 2020). This
explains that the future of this program lies in its continuity and repeats. This must be
understood that every year, new target population come into the play as more and more
women become mothers. The nurses must continue working the health promotion aspect each
time and be consistent to ensure best outcomes.

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Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be said the Burwon Health Integrated Health Plan 2013-2017
targeted towards women between ages 18 to 50 who have the responsibility to care for young
children between the ages of 0 to 4 has been successful. The focus program was the Healthy
Lifestyle Program for Women (HeLP-her) that encouraged women to lead a healthier and
active life by social, political measures and to create supportive environments. The program
strongly adhered to the Ottawa Charter Action Areas and hence can be evaluated as a
successful and well-organized program. The major role of the nurses in this program was to
educate the target population and support them when required. This ensured a highly
successful program in terms of health literacy and education while promoting overall health
in them.

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