Health Promotion Program for Smoking Cessation in Aboriginal Canadians

Running head: HEALTH PROMOTION
Health promotion
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

Introduction:
After completing the community diagnosis of Aboriginal Canadians, prevalence of
smoking has been identified as the main community diagnosis for the group. Their tendency to
engage in high rate of smoking has emerged because of presence of disparities in the area of
unemployment, literacy and housing conditions. They have used smoking as a coping style to
deal with life stressors and chronic health problem. This paper aims to develop a health
promotion program to reduce rate of smoking in Aboriginal Canadians and make them aware
regarding the harmful health consequences of smoking. The main goal of the health program is
to prevent misuse of tobacco and implement effective tobacco cessation campaigns to promote
health of the aboriginal community in Canada. To develop a plan for appropriately implementing
the health promotion plan in the target community, the health promotion approach of community
social action and community development will be applied. Effective implementation of these
approaches in the assessment, planning and evaluation phase of the health promotion program
will be discussed and the role of the nurse in achieving the objectives of health promotion
program will be reviewed.
Outline of the health promotion program:
Rationale for the identified needs: The community assessment for Canadian aboriginal showed
that the community comes under deficit criteria in wellness because of indulgence in cigarette
smoking and its impact on overall health outcome of the group. The community diagnosis has
revealed that indigenous people have used smoking as a strategy to cope with life stressors like
unemployment and deteriorating health outcome due to poor housing and high rate of infectious
disease, hypertension, child mortality, malnutrition and disease due to smoking (NCCAH, 2013).
The statistics by the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit (2018) gives an insight into
overrepresentation of indigenous communities in tobacco related morbidity and mortality. The

survey revealed that smoking prevalence was particularly high in younger indigenous people
aged 12 years and above compared to the general population. As smoking habits has emerged
because of poverty, poor income and presence of several stressors in life, prioritizing smoking
cessation is important to promote overall health and reduce risk of other disease and ailments.
The review of aboriginal health status in Canada also gives the insight that diseases and deaths
from cigarette smoking is particularly high in aboriginals. Unemployed youths were found to be
active smokers compared to employed adults (NCCAH, 2013). Hence, this explains the rational
for the identified need of ceasing smoking habits in Canadian aboriginals.
Goal and objectives of the program: The main goal of the health promotion program is to
prevent misuse of tobacco and implement effective tobacco cessation campaigns to promote
health of the aboriginal community in Canada. The key objectives of the health promotion
program are as follows:
 To reduce the rate of smoking in target population
 To use educational approach to make people aware about the ill-effects of smoking
 To support people to adapt alternative method of coping so that constructive methods
instead of smoking is used as a strategy to deal with life stressors.
Health promotion approaches to influence change within the community:
The implementation of any health promotion plan depends on the use of particular health
promotion approach and incorporating those concepts in all the stages of health promotion
(assessing, planning, implementation, and evaluation phases). According to health promotion
approaches defined by () in table 18.1, health promotion approach in community can be of
types. This includes community social action, community development, social planning,
service extension and community organization. In the context of Aboriginal Canadians and

identified health needs of the group, community development and community social action
has been selected to advocate for the change process. The key rationale behind this is that the
target population group is involved in smoking because of experiences of disparities and lack
of advocacy in the community to promote health and equaity for this group. Hence, social
action and community development approach is very relevant to resolve the health issues of
the Canadian aboriginals. The table below shows the comparison between the two health
promotion approaches in terms of strength and limitations and application in different phase
of the health promotion program.
Community development Community social action
Core concepts The community development
approach emphasize on
strengthening a community
and promoting community
building through mutual
support and self-help. Self
help and mutual support can
be extended through involves
building personal skill of
target population by giving
information regarding the
importance of reducing
smoking rate and adapting
other positive measures in
place of the unhealthy habit
Community social action that
focuses on those
organizations that directly
influences the characteristics
or behavior of the society.
For example, in the context
of smoking, organizations
that are involved in
advertising, media and
television can promote
smoking behavior as well as
restrict or control smoking
behavior in youths ().