Ottawa Charter's Impact on Health Promotion in Casey Community, 2024

This essay analyzes the application of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion within the context of a health promotion program targeting the Casey community, focusing on alcohol and substance abuse. The essay begins by introducing the Ottawa Charter and its six action areas: creating a supportive environment, developing personal skills, strengthening community action, reorienting health services, building healthy public policy, and the future. It then examines how these action areas are implemented in the Casey community program, emphasizing the roles of nurses in promoting health literacy, health education, and health promotion. The essay highlights the program's strategies, including the development of personal skills through education and communication, strengthening community action by engaging various stakeholders, and building healthy public policy through initiatives like the Casey Alcohol Accord. Furthermore, the essay stresses the importance of reorienting health services and the nurse's role in advocating for the community's needs. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of community-oriented decision-making and the role of healthcare promotion in changing public attitudes, promoting self-care, and empowering individuals to manage their health, ultimately improving healthcare services.

1
NURBN2009 Assessment
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course
Instructor
Date

2
Ottawa Charter is a health promotional mechanism that stipulates six fundamental
courses of action that aid in motivating members of the community to undertake personal
responsibilities in promoting their health and wellbeing. The strategy was introduced in 1989
(WHO, 1989). Healthcare providers are expected to foster leadership, which plays a significant
role in the formulation of health policies across all sectors of health (Carter, 2014). Nurses also
engage in individual development programs to promote equality in the delivery of healthcare
services. Healthcare providers are embedded with various responsibilities that aim at reducing
poor health outcomes among patients. Such operations include medication and advocating
activities. Nurses are required to be competent and possess the required skills in influencing
health-related policy and empowering the public to take part in the promotion of their welfare.
Through adherence to the Ottawa Charter, nurses play a significant responsibility in supporting
and educating the Casey community on matters relating to alcohol and drug abuse.
Creation of a Supportive Environment

3
According to the Ottawa Charter, a supportive environment entails close interaction with
the surrounding environment. The surrounding environment should be made sustainable to
support the political, spiritual, physical, social, and economic health requirements (WHO 1991;
WHO 2016). Health promotion calls upon the participation of all stakeholders in the community.
The initiative to educate members of the society on matters pertaining to alcohol and drug abuse
has actively engaged this aspect in their practice. Members of the community who have been
incorporated into the program include but not limited to local authorities, voluntary
organizations, governmental organizations, private organizations, and other social and economic
factors.
Development of Personal Skills
The development of personal skills as a specification entails the provision of information,
education for health, and capacity of life. Several courses of action exist in promoting health
promotion strategies for enhancing self-empowerment among society (McPhail-Bell et al. 2013;
Patrick et al., 2019). The strategy of empowering the Casey community on matters relating to
alcohol and drug abuse has effectively articulated these methodologies in its practice. Effective
communication has been enhanced and promoted within the strategy. The nursing practitioners
in the program transmit information with faith, thus promoting an understanding among the
public. This renders the entire program effective s it changes the thoughts of the participants on
the need to undertake personal development in promoting wellbeing. This change in individual
thoughts has a profound impact on shifting the behaviors of individual persons in the
community. In so doing, the prevention of mal-habits and addictive behaviors is enhanced. The
applicability and effectiveness of this model have also been illustrated by Larouche and Potvin

4
(2013). The practitioners in the program utilize resources such as posters, pamphlets, and slogans
to make participants aware of the harmful effects of alcohol consumption and substance abuse.
Nurses have a fundamental responsibility to develop their cultural competence when promoting
education in the community setting. This is because the community is made up of people from
diverse cultural backgrounds. Casey community is made up of 31% of individuals from nations
where English is not a natively spoken language (ABS, 2016). Therefore, cultural competence is
required to promote understanding within the community.
The nursing practitioners involved in the program are also actively promoting self-
empowerment model. This mode entails self-reflection in relation to the members of society.
The practitioners educate members of the public on aspects such as how, when, when, and where
they can find help. This primary goal of this approach is to empower the public to acknowledge
the fact that health is a personal responsibility that must be undertaken. Lee (2015) recommends
the implementation of telephone counseling programs to enhance the effectiveness of the
program.
Strengthening Community Action
Strengthening community action is a vital aspect, as stipulated on Ottawa Chatter (1986).
This mode of action entails the advancement of resources and capabilities of the public to
undertake collaborative action to increase their control over the social determinants of health
(Thompson, Watson, & Tilford, 2018; Li, 2017). The collective approach disseminates
knowledge to the group and promotes health promotion in the community. According to
McManus (2013), a constructivist and student-centered approach is required in order to take the
determinants of health into consideration. The nurses involved in the program of reducing the

5
consumption of alcohol and substance abuse in the Casey community are anticipating this
provision by educating the community on the planning, implementation and decision-making
strategies to guide in achieving desired objectives. The nurses acknowledge the key role of the
parents in driving the wellbeing of children. The relevant health providers in the programs
provide counseling services to the public through the utilization of video clips on the harm of
alcohol. The practitioners also advise the parents to discuss matters relating to alcohol and
substance abuse with their children. The nursing staff can seal the gap between teachers, parents,
and students by providing education on the harm and reduction of alcohol consumption and
substance abuse.
Reorient Health Services
Professional education, training, and intensive research are important while anticipating
reorienting health services. The three strategies play a significant role in transforming individual
attitudes and the entire organization and instead shift to focus on the needs of the person as a
whole (World Health Organization, 2019). The program entailing reduction of alcohol
consumption and substance abuse in the Casey community has incorporated this aspect by
involving all relevant stakeholders into the initiative. A collaborative approach among
governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, community groups, and healthcare
professionals is essential is driving the achievement of common goals in society. Raphael (2014)
calls upon the need to reorient health services through health research and changes in training
and development. Nurses have played a significant role in promoting the re-orientation of
healthcare services by bonding the police, parents, youths, and healthcare organizations together.
Build a Healthy Public Policy

6
Creating informed choices to guide individuals in promoting their personal health is vital
among nursing professionals (Fry, & Zask, 2017). Health promotion entails the process of
empowering the public to achieve social, physical, and cognitive wellbeing by making individual
choices (possessing control over personal health priorities). Therefore, health promotion plays a
significant role in enabling individuals to acknowledge their rights, requirements, and aspirations
that would satisfy their needs and adaption to the changing environmental conditions (McBride,
MacMillan, George, & Steiner, 2019). The Casey Alcohol Accord (2017-2021) is a typical
example of the health policy that was recently initiated to minimize alcohol consumption and
substance abuse in the community. The policy is also set to maintain responsible alcohol
services, including the packaging of liquor and the reduction of health inequity in the city.
Nurses promote awareness, including the representation of the community in the
policymaking process. They understand the challenges that are being faced by the community
and develop the most effective recommendations for the achievement of desired outcomes. On
the same note, they go further to advocate the policy in in the community so that the public are
conversant with the requirements.
The Future
Moving into the future, nursing staff must be aware of their role in articulating the
provisions on Ottawa Charter into practice. Health promotion strategies are essential in creating
priorities in curbing the challenges faced by the community. The empowerment of the
community serves a significant role in promoting healthcare since their ownership is paramount
(World Health Organization, 2014). Healthcare promotion also serves a vital role in changing the
attitudes of the public on promoting their wellbeing. The initiative enables them to develop self-

7
centered care abilities and which enables them to cope with the different stages of illness and
sustain their ongoing injuries. Therefore, healthcare promotion programs such as education must
be implemented in schools, community settings, and nursing homes, voluntary entities, and
professional bodies.
Conclusion
In conclusion, health promotion entails the creation of community-oriented decision
making on health and wellbeing. Following the underlying initiative, the program aimed at
reducing the adversities associated with the consumption of alcohol and the abuse of drugs.
Healthcare promotion incorporates comprehensive care, which plays a significant role in
defining the effectiveness of the program. Several stakeholders must be incorporated into the
program. These stakeholders include governmental organizations, non-governmental
organizations, social groups in the community, families, and schools. Collaboration between the
mentioned stakeholders is paramount in order to elevate the problem on a long term basis.
Nursing practitioners are also required to contact an intensive study and understand the
community as an entity such that the policies formulated are in line with the process of
alleviating the underlying problems. Therefore, the six actions on the Ottawa Charter are
essential in curbing the challenges in the healthcare system. Most importantly, these actions must
be implemented in a manner that corresponds to the desires of the community. Therefore,
community-based healthcare through the articulation of the provisions on the Ottawa Charter is
the most appropriate strategy in enhancing effective healthcare services to the patients.

8
References
Carter, S. M. (2014). Health promotion: an ethical analysis. Health Promotion Journal of
Australia, 25(1), 19-24.
Fry, D., & Zask, A. (2017). Applying the Ottawa Charter to inform health promotion programme
design. Health promotion international, 32(5), 901-912.
Health Promotion - Programs and Strategies | VicHealth. (2019). Retrieved from
https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/about/health-promotion
Larouche, A., & Potvin, L. (2013). Stimulating innovative research in health promotion. Global
health promotion, 20(2), 64-69.
Lee, M. S. (2015). The principles and values of health promotion: building upon the Ottawa
charter and related WHO documents. Korean Journal of Health Education and
Promotion, 32(4), 1-11.
Li, V. (2017). Health promotion in Australia: An empirical study into the approaches adopted
and evidence used by practitioners in their practice (Master's thesis, University of
Sydney).
McBride, K. A., MacMillan, F., George, E. S., & Steiner, G. Z. (2019). Health promotion and
social determinants of health. Social Determinants of Health, 131-152.
McManus, A. (2013). Health promotion innovation in primary health care. The Australasian
medical journal, 6(1), 15.

9
McPhail-Bell, K., Fredericks, B., & Brough, M. (2013). Beyond the accolades: a postcolonial
critique of the foundations of the Ottawa Charter. Global health promotion, 20(2), 22-29.
Patrick, R., Armstrong, F., Hancock, T., Capon, A., & Smith, J. A. (2019). Climate change and
health promotion in Australia: Navigating political, policy, advocacy and research
challenges. Health promotion journal of Australia: official journal of Australian
Association of Health Promotion Professionals, 30(3), 295.
Raphael, D. (2014). Challenges to promoting health in the modern welfare state: the case of the
Nordic nations. Scandinavian journal of public health, 42(1), 7-17.
Thompson, S. R., Watson, M. C., & Tilford, S. (2018). The Ottawa Charter 30 years on: still an
important standard for health promotion. International Journal of Health Promotion and
Education, 56(2), 73-84.
World Health Organization (2019). The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. Retrieved from
https://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/previous/ottawa/en/