OLEO1615/OLET1616: Healthcare, Wellbeing, and Community Health

This report addresses the increasing health costs and risk factors associated with obesity within communities. It highlights the prevalence of obesity and its impact on health behaviors, emphasizing the need for lifestyle changes to promote wellbeing. The report discusses the importance of health promotion initiatives, outlining key pillars and action areas such as health policy, creating supportive environments, strengthening community actions, and reorienting health services. It emphasizes the role of stakeholders like local governments and healthcare sectors in enacting these changes, including policies on healthy eating and physical exercise programs. The report also references statistical data on obesity rates and associated chronic diseases, advocating for proper screening and intervention strategies to reduce obesity and healthcare costs. The report provides a detailed plan for enacting change, with the help of health promotion.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
Name of the student;
Name of the university:
Author’s note :

1HEALTHCARE
Reflective practice:
Describe the changes that promote health and wellbeing:
The increasing health costs and risk factors that are associated with obesity are well
documented. The high prevalence of obesity is well documented in the community setting
where the population adopted a sedentary lifestyle (1). One in four Australian adults were
obese in 2009 and one-third of the population was overweight. Hence, in the community
setting changing the lifestyle and health behaviour, especially eating habits would promote
the wellbeing and health of the community (3). In the community, different individuals with
different socioeconomic status, race, age, and culture are living. Consequently, the eating
habits and health behaviours are shaped by these factors which affected the wellbeing.
Therefore, changing eating habits and lifestyle behaviour will promote wellbeing and health
in the community.
This change is important in the community setting since in 2017 -2018 Australian
Bureau of Statistics' National Health Survey showed that two-third Australians of the
communities were overweight where the majority of the individuals belongs to 32 years to
60years (4). Childhood obesity was also observed in the community, an estimated 26% of
children aged 5 to 17years were overweight (4). A significant number of individuals in the
community are suffering from at least one chronic disease associated with obesity such as
cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease and diabetes which result in an
increase in health care cost (2). Changing lifestyle by adopting healthy eating habits and
physical exercise would reduce the prevalence of obesity in the community setting and health
care cost.

2HEALTHCARE
Plan of enacting this change with the help of health promotion:
Health promotion is defined as an initiative which enables the population to increase
the control over their own health. It covers a wide range of social as well as environmental
interventions in order to reduce the prevalence of disease and promote the wellbeing of the
population. The health promotion follows three key pillars such as enable, mediate and
advocate. By following these three pillars, it incorporates five key actions areas such as
health policy, creates a supportive environment, strengthens community action for health, and
develops personal skills and re-orient health services (1).
Taking an insight into the situation in order to promote the wellbeing and enacted the
changes, health policies are required to develop regarding healthy eating. The relevant
stakeholders would be local government, health care sectors and policymakers who would
participate in making policies (2). The policies regarding the taxes of junk food are required
to amend so that community eliminates the habit of eating junk food. In order to create a safe
environment, with the assistance of local government, the health care facilities along with
additional health literacy are required to provide so that each individual gain a detailed
understanding of the obesity (4). The community is required to provide the vegetables and
low carbohydrate food and physical exercise programs in order to support the wellbeing. To
strengthen community actions, it is required to encourage other members of the community to
join health literacy classes (3) In order to reorient health care services, it is required to
develop advocacy against the proper screening of obesity associated disease. It will enact the
change and reduce the obesity rate in the community.

3HEALTHCARE
Reference:
1. Dias JD, Mekaro MS, Lu C, Otsuka JL, Fonseca LM, Zem-Mascarenhas SH. Serious
game development as a strategy for health promotion and tackling childhood obesity.
Revista latino-americana de enfermagem. 2016;24.
2. • National Health and Medical Research Council. Australian Dietary Guidelines.
Canberra: National Health and Medical Research Council, 2013.
https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/n55_australian_dietary_gui
delines.pd
3. Subica AM, Grills CT, Douglas JA, Villanueva S. Communities of color creating
healthy environments to combat childhood obesity. American journal of public health.
2016 Jan;106(1):79-86.
4. O’Hara L, Taylor J, Barnes M. The extent to which the public health ‘war on
obesity’reflects the ethical values and principles of critical health promotion: a
multimedia critical discourse analysis. Health Promotion Journal of Australia. 2016
Jan 23;26(3):246-54.
5. Messiah SE, Lebron C, Moise R, Mathew MS, Sardinas K, Chang C, Palenzuela J,
Walsh J, Shelnutt KP, Spector R, Altare F. Healthy caregivers-healthy children (HC2)
phase 2: Integrating culturally sensitive childhood obesity prevention strategies into
childcare center policies. Contemporary clinical trials. 2017 Feb 1;53:60-7.