Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. To reach a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, an individual or group must be able to identify and to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment. Health is therefore, seen as a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. This module provides opportunities to examine the impact of multiple factors that contribute to the health of populations, known collectively as the social determinants of health, and to develop knowledge and skills in program planning for health promotion. Students will examine the values and principles that guide contemporary health promotion and its capacity to influence the determinants of health. They will develop skills in needs assessment, priority setting, designating targets for change, using evidence and theory to make intervention choices and establishing systems for program management. The roles played by partnerships, capacity building and participation will be explored, and the steps toward improving program sustainability examined. The areas of health promotion action that will also be examined will encompass, creating supportive environments, health education strategies, health communication techniques at the group and population level, and advocacy. The application of these to health challenges in diverse cultural and economic contexts will be explored

5. Learning Outcomes

Upon the completion of this module, students should be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

§  Demonstrate an Understanding o of principles of prevention and health promotion.

§  Distinguish between primary, secondary and tertiary preventive services.

• Identify and assess the quality of resources for self and patient education on behavioral modification strategies.
• Identify and develop strategies that address patient, physician, and systems-level barriers to delivery of preventive care.
• Define health promotion from differing perspectives and explain the principles that underpin contemporary health promotion;
• Describe and discuss a range of frameworks for promoting health and how they are used in health promotion programs;
• Critically reflect on the link between the social determinants of health and social equity, health inequities and the ethical project of health promotion;
• Describe the steps in comprehensive program planning as a basis for action to address health determinants;
• Identify the information sources that can be used to identify health needs, assess determinants and select targets for change;
• Demonstrate an understanding of priority setting and specification of goals, objectives and strategies based on a logic model;
• Demonstrate the use of evidence and theory in all stages of planning, including evaluation.
• Critically reflect on the uses of health education, community organisation, communication and social marketing strategies to achieve individual, social, and policy changes.

Skills and Competences

§  Design and implement a health promotion intervention to address community health problems

Attitudes

§  Help individuals and communities improve their health, by increasing their knowledge or influencing their attitudes.