Analysis of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention Strategies

This essay provides an overview of health promotion and illness prevention strategies, with a focus on the Australian aboriginal population. It introduces the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, highlighting its action areas such as building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, strengthening community actions, developing personal skills, and reorienting health services. The essay emphasizes the importance of community involvement and cultural recognition in health promotion programs for aboriginal communities. It also discusses the role of nurses in delivering healthcare and promoting health education, particularly in addressing issues like obesity and diabetes through cooking courses. Furthermore, the essay explores the four domains of health literacy—cultural, community, scientific, and fundamental—and their significance in improving the health of Australian aboriginals, concluding that health promotion, education, and literacy are essential for enhancing their overall well-being. Desklib offers similar essays and study resources for students.

Running head: HEALTH PROMOTION AND ILLNESS PREVENTION
Health Promotion and Illness Prevention
Name of the Student:
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1HEALTH PROMOTION AND ILLNESS PREVENTION
Health promotion and the disease prevention are a set of programs that emphasize on
keeping the people healthy. The health promotion programs targeted towards the empowering
and engaging with the communities and individuals that choose healthy behaviour. It also
includes the certain changes so that the risk associated with the development of the chronic
diseases is reduced (Street, Gold & Manning, 2013). The World Health Organization has defined
the health promotion as a process that enables the people to gain control to improve the health of
the people. Health promotion is different from the disease prevention and disease prevention is
aimed towards the specific efforts that will reduce the severity and the development of the
morbidities and chronic diseases (World Health Organization, 2018). Wellness can be considered
as something which is related to both the disease prevention and health promotion. Wellness is
also described as the active decisions and the attitudes of the individual which contributes to the
health outcomes and behaviours (Hoeger et al., 2018). This study emphasizes on the introduction
of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. The study also involves the usage of the same
charter for the purpose of empowering the Australian aboriginals through the health promotion,
health education and health literacy from a nurse’s perspective.
Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (Euro.who.int, 2018)- the action areas identified
by the Ottawa Charter are as follows:
 The building of healthy public policy- The health promotion policy includes the
diverse and complementary approaches that include the organizational change,
taxation, fiscal measures and legislation. The health promotion policy highlights
the adoption of the healthy public policies to the identification of the obstacles
within he non-health sectors and the development of the several types of ways to
remove them (Betterhealth.vic.gov.au, 2018).

2HEALTH PROMOTION AND ILLNESS PREVENTION
 Creation of the supportive environments- this includes the protection of the built
and the natural environments and also involves the conservation of the natural
resources that are addressed through the health promotion strategies.
 Strengthening the community actions- development of the communities depend
on the existing material and the human resources so that the social support and the
self-help can be enhanced. It also includes the development of the flexible
systems for the purpose of consolidating the public participation in the direction
of health matters. Thus, this needs a continuous access to the learning
opportunities and information related to health and as well as it requires the
funding support (Betterhealth.vic.gov.au, 2018).
 Develop the personal skills- enabling the people so that the can learn throughout
their lives and so that the people can prepare themselves for coming up with the
injuries and the chronic illness is vital and essential. This can be facilitated in the
community settings, work, home, and school.
 Reorient the health services- the role of the health sector is to move continuously
to the direction of the health promotion and it also goes beyond providing the
curative and clinical services. Health services reorientation requires the stringer
attention towards the health research and the various changes involving the
training and professional education.
 Moving into the future- the development of the important strategies for the health
promotion includes the caring, holism and ecology. An important part is that both
the men and the women must become equal partners in each phase of evaluation,

3HEALTH PROMOTION AND ILLNESS PREVENTION
implementation and planning of the health promotion activities
(Betterhealth.vic.gov.au, 2018).
Health promotion of the Australian aboriginal- There is a definite need to acknowledge
and recognise the diversity of the Australian Aboriginal communities and the individual cultures
of the community instead of assuming the same. Communities must be involved at every phase
and stage of the health promotion programme. Communities must be involved from the
beginning and in order to achieve the health promotion, the individuals, organizations and the
local communities must be engaged at the initial stages. When developing a sustainable health
development and the community health community, the communities must be given full control
over the future programmes and also their own health (McDonald, Bailie & Morris, 2014). The
various factors which require the timely recognition of the assets of the community and
strengthening them, valuing them and building upon them. The planners of the health promotion
must have the main aim of health ownership, community autonomy and programme self-
sustainability. Programme sustainability plays a major role in the aboriginal ownership and also
in improving the long-term health of the aboriginals. Spirituality has a strong connection at the
social level and has great influence on the health of the individual. This gets amplified or
increased at the population level and can have major bad effects with respect to the stress,
exercise and nutrition. The health promotion programmes directly recognise the importance of
community consolidation, community spirituality and social connectedness that act as key
determinants of health. The connection of the Australian aboriginal with their land and space and
place is considered as the basis of collective well-being, social cohesion and health (Demaio,
Drysdale & de Courten, 2012).

4HEALTH PROMOTION AND ILLNESS PREVENTION
The role of the nurse is multifaceted here due to the managing several factors related to
the aboriginal health. Nurses will play the role of providing the main healthcare delivery at the
community level. The high number of socio-cultural determinants of health play a major role in
identifying and recognising the different health issues. The nurses have the job of providing the
healthcare intervention so that the healthcare delivery takes place in a proper way (Keleher &
Parker, 2013).
Health education- obesity and diabetes have been found to impact the strongly the health
of the aboriginals and the high rate of diabetes-related death is high in comparison to the other
Australians. The dietary patterns within the Australians aboriginals are high in fat and
carbohydrate content and are also low in the vegetables and fruit. They also have very less access
to the traditional food. Thus compared to the other Australians, the aboriginals are more
disadvantaged than the others. The intervention provided to the Australians is through the
cooking courses (Lowell et al., 2015). The health-promoting cooking courses are one of the
major health education plans that will act as improving the cooking skills and nutrition
knowledge. The classes will have the provision of hospitality cooking skills in relation to the
healthy food eating on a budget. Health messages were conveyed to the aboriginals during the
informal and the formal discussion classes. The health benefits of the taking high-calorie food
and soft drinks are conveyed in the classes and also stresses on the vegetable intake, fruit intake
and at the same time decreasing the fat, sugar and salt intake. The food cooked is tasted at the
same place and is also told that they can take the cooked food to their homes (Abbott et al.,
2012).
Nurses play a major role in the information dissemination, the large number of the
aboriginal people that will participate in such classes will require the knowledge of the food item

5HEALTH PROMOTION AND ILLNESS PREVENTION
which is being served at the class. The benefits of eating the healthy food will be conveyed
actively by the nurses so that the awareness among the aboriginals can be increased.
Health literacy- the four major domains of the health literacy are the cultural, community,
scientific and fundamental. The fundamental literacy denotes the competence of the using the
mathematical terms and symbols, numerals, spoken and printed language. Fundamental literacy
significantly affects the health-related literacy because the health sphere is dominated by
English. Health instruction, diagnoses and information are generally discussed in English. Thus
health promotional plan must take into account the usage of the pictorial messages so that the
information can be communicated effectively (Webb & Williams, 2017). scientific literacy- this
knowledge includes the understanding the common technology, technical complexity, scientific
concepts and also the knowledge of fundamental health. Another aspect of the biomedical health
literacy is to understand the concept of sick and this needs to effectively teach to the Australian
aboriginals so that they can gain knowledge of the non-infectious, infectious, manageable and
curable. Community literacy- community literacy relates to the understanding of clinics and
hospital and it also includes the rights, responsibilities and patient behaviours. Cultural literacy-
this is an important part where the non-indigenous nurses will gain the cultural literacy for the
purpose of continual improvement (Lambert et al. 2014).
The health literacy is an important section and it is designed for the improvement of the
health of the Australian aboriginals. The role of the nurse will be very clear and it will emphasize
on education the aboriginals with respect to the teachings on proper health, hygiene and
healthcare access.
Thus, from the above study, it can be concluded that health promotion is a set of programmes
that are framed for the improvement of the health condition of the Australian aboriginals. The

6HEALTH PROMOTION AND ILLNESS PREVENTION
disease prevention is the strategies that help in the contentment of disease spread and disease
occurrence. This study includes the Ottawa charter for the health promotion and the priority
action provide the necessary framework. The health promotion, health education and the health
literacy are the three main sections that incorporate the effective ways of improving the health
condition of the Australian aboriginals.

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