Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Social Justice Principles (SJP) (participation, equity, access and rights) are an
essential foundation for Health Promotion (HP) strategies and are strongly linked in
the Ottawa Charter.
Developing Personal Skills (DPS) individuals use knowledge and skills to make
informed decisions and positively influence those around them. SJP linked to DPS
are EQUITY and ACCESS; ACCESS to the education and information necessary to
develop the skills and EQUITY to ensure access is not limited by economic status,
gender, race etc (NSW compulsory education until 17 yrs).
2016
The five action areas of the Ottawa Charter (OC) heavily influence a range of health
promotion initiatives in Australia. The Healthy Schools Canteen (HSC) initiative and
the National Tobacco Strategy (NTS) have been shaped by this framework to
effectively target the cancer and Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) national health
priority issues (NHPIs).
Developing personal skills focuses on the promotion of health literacy which will
enable individuals to make informed health decisions. This area guides the HSC by
encouraging schools to use a simple traffic light system of grading the nutritional
value of food items. For example a sausage roll would be allocated a red sticker to
inform any student, regardless of their age or background, about its high fat/poor
food quality and to only eat it on rare occasions. The knowledge provided through
this system, acts as a protective factor for young people against CVD and cancer
which are leading causes of death in Australia. It is clear that this heavily influences
and ensures the success and value of the health promotion initiative.
Creating supportive environments ensures that the places where people, live, work
and play are conducive to making positive health decisions. This successfully
influences the NTS initiative which creates smoke-free environments for people in
employment, education and recreation. Smoking is no longer permitted near public
and private eating areas and playgrounds. This ensures people are not exposed to
excessive second-hand smoke and makes it difficult for addicted people to engage
in the risk behaviour. This action area has also influenced the HSC initiative. The
entire notion of adopting a healthy canteen transforms the only food choice for
many young people from a high fat one to a healthy, low fat one. This makes the
school environment more supportive of strong overall health outcomes for
Australias youth and reduces the risk of chronic diseases linked to poor diet. It is
clear that creating supportive environments successfully influences health
promotion in Australia.
Groupsatrisk:ATSI,lowSES,peoplefromruralandremoteareas,
smokers,peoplewhoareobese,olderpeople
Developing personal skills can only occur if education is assured for all individuals.
Staying on at school until at least Year 10 will undoubtedly positively effect a
persons ability to make informed health decisions. So for equity to be achieved,
access to education is imperative. An example of this would be PDHPE lessons, in
which information and issues around smoking are discussed.
It is crucial for an individual to develop their personal skills if they are going to
overcome any negative influence their environment may have on them. Developing
personal skills supports the notion of supportive environments by empowering
individuals through the teaching of knowledge and skills, which they can pass on to
others in their environment. If a parent is educated about healthy food habits, they
will provide nutritious foods for their children, which will reduce the chance of them
developing a diet-related illness such as diabetes.