Health promotion

This chapter builds on Chapters 1 and 7 and describes health promotion as a combination of health education and policies which seek to make health attainable and accessible for all. We describe the four models of health promotion and how they work in practice. The international community signed the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion in 1986, in which the World Health Organization describes health promotion as the new public health; the way in which the world can work to achieve ‘health for all’ people across the world. The Ottawa Charter clarified the aims, scope and broad principles of health promotion. This chapter discusses the core characteristics of health promotion: the politics and ethics of health promotion, building healthy public policy, partnership working, strengthening community action and creating healthy settings. It takes the reader through the practical steps of implementing and evaluating a health promotion strategy with individuals, groups or communities. The chapter ends by considering the relationship between health promotion and public health.