Supportive Environments
Supportive Environments Module
THE WORKPLACE AS A PRIORITY SETTING FOR HEALTH PROMOTION
MEANING, THE POTENTIAL HEALTH GAIN, AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HEALTH PROMOTION INTERVENTIONS '' THE PHYSICAL EXERCISE OPTION
INTRODUCTION
The World Health Organization in 1986 defined health promotion as the process of enabling people to take greater control of their health in order to improve it. It seeks to influence public policy, mobilize community action and involvement, and create equity of access to services and facilities by making them available in places where people live, work and play.
The societies that we live and work in are complex and interrelated. Health cannot be separated from other goals. The inextricable links between people and their environment constitutes the basis for a socio-ecological approach to health. The overall guiding principle for the world, nations, regions and communities alike, is the need to encourage reciprocal maintenance - to take care of each other, our communities and our natural environment.
This essay considers our environment as settings within which health promotion activities take place and encouraged. The essay specifically considers the workplace as a priority setting for health promotion, and outlines the potential gains and the effectiveness of health promotion interventions in the workplace.
MEANING OF THE WORKPLACE AS A PRIORITY SETTING FOR HEALTH PROMOTION
The origin of Settings Approach to health promotion dates as far back as 1980 with the World Health Organization’s strategy named “Health for All”. However, it was not until 1986 that the approach was made more explicit in the Ottawa Charter for health promotion. Both documents made huge efforts towards establishing holistic and multifaceted approach to healthy settings. The 1986 Ottawa Charter for health promotion has “supportive environments for health” as one of the priority areas.
Subsequent to this, the third International Conference on Health...
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