FUNDAMENTALS OF HEALTH PROMOTION 2020 SEM1

Rationale

The term health promotion is used in a number of different ways, often without any clarification of meaning. In the 1980s when the term was becoming widely adopted, Tannahill described it as a meaningless concept because it was used so differently. Over a decade later, Seedhouse (1997) describes the field of health promotion as muddled, poorly articulated and devoid of a clear philosophy. These different understandings reflect the origins of health promotion and range from slick salesmanship of health (Williams, 1984) to an approach and philosophy of care which reflects awareness of the multiplicity of factors which affect health and which encourages everyone to value independence and individual choice (Wilson Barnett, 1993). This course unit is intended to introduce historical perspectives of health promotion, and clarify on its philosophy and value base. This is so as to demonstrate how the concepts of health promotion and health education have moved long strides from the past when it was referred to as a muddled and poorly articulated field to a field that is specialised with a clearly defined philosophy with various approaches, methods and strategies that have been used to design and implement health promotion activities world over. This course unit will provide the learners with the theoretical fundamentals of health promotion, which will act as a foundation for the other course units. It will clarify the difference and relationship between health promotion and health education. Teaching will be mainly through lectures, reading assigned texts and tutorials