Free critical thinking on approaches to health promotion

Health promotion takes various approaches. In practice, health promotion involves increasing the control that individuals, communities, and populations have on healthcare. Such increase is attainable through addressing various factors that determine health. Health promotion activities aim at improving health outcomes within individuals, communities, and populations. In a bid to attain this objective, governments, stakeholders, and other interested parties have developed benchmarks for promoting health. Ottawa Chatter and Jakarta Declaration are amongst the benchmarks for promoting health. In the Ottawa Charter and Jakarta Declaration, various health promotion principles or aspects have been addressed. The following analysis aims at identifying the relevance of an article in respect to the health promotion principles or aspects developed in the Ottawa Charter.

Analysis of the Article: Stop smoking interventions by Jennifer Percival

Jennifer (2009) discusses on how to promote health through creating interventions that would assist in stopping the increasing rate of smoking. According to Jennifer (2009), whereas there are approximately 73% of UK smokers that would wish to stop smoking, 79% of smokers have tried and failed. Consequently, Jennifer (2009) tries to develop specific interventions that will assist smokers to quit smoking. In discussing the health promotion approaches and principles, the Ottawa Charter focused on pre-requisites for health, intervention methods, and five key action areas. On the other perspective, the Jakarta Declaration established five main priorities for achieving health promotion with respect to the 21st century.
While identifying the specific interventions towards quitting smoking, Jennifer (2009) employed the benchmark principles within the Ottawa Charter. In respect to the pre-requisites of enhancing health promotion as highlighted within the Ottawa Charter, Jennifer (2009) has provided an understanding on the need to have specific resources that could assist in eliminating smoking. According to Jennifer (2009), it seems that many smokers do not have the knowledge or adequate resources in terms of income and other sustainable resources to enable them quit smoking. It is in this regard that Jennifer (2009) proposes that education is very fundamental in achieving the objective of quitting smoking. For instance, Jennifer (2009) confirms that it is important for smokers to have adequate knowledge on the merits and demerits of smoking.
In addition, Jennifer (2009) proposes the need to have prescriptions and other drugs within pharmacies for all the individuals that would wish to stop smoking. In this respects, Jennifer’s (2009) interventions on stopping smoking has taken into considerations the first aspects of the Ottawa Charter, which revolve around the pre-requisites to promoting health. Nevertheless, Jennifer (2009) has only tacked fewer pre-requisites in respect to promoting the health of smokers. It is evident that many smokers are unable to quit due to lack of stable ecosystems. An ecosystem in this case would include all the aspects surrounding the smoker. If the environment favors smoking then it would be difficult for such a smoker to quit smoking whereas if there are suppressants in an environment (community, population, or nation) to smoking then the number of smokers would decrease significantly.
The second aspect of the Ottawa Charter involves the three basic strategies for promoting health. The strategies include advocating, enabling, and mediating. Advocacy for health, creating an enabling environment for all stakeholders to engage in health promotion, and coordination between various stakeholders are important strategies that Jennifer (2009) has tried to address. Jennifer (2009) believes that there is a need to create awareness to all the smokers and non-smokers on the benefit of not smoking. Such awareness is likely to go a long way into enhancing the health promotion. For instance, Jennifer (2009) argues that there is a need for smokers and non-smokers to obtain clear advice on effective ways to stop smoking besides the merits and demerits of the act.
In regards to enabling and mediations, Jennifer (2009) confirms that community practitioners as well as other stakeholders can be involved substantially in providing the required information towards the practice. Jennifer (2009) adds in her interventions that local NHS is fundamental in not only providing information and knowledge on smoking but also provide the necessary help that can effectively assist an individual to stop smoking. Evidently, Jennifer (2009) has taken into considerations the principles of enabling and mediation in developing effective interventions that would enhance elimination of smoking. Nonetheless, the author has not given a detailed overview of the enabling aspect on the basis of making sure that all stakeholders are given equal priorities and resources in fighting the activity. All in all, the interventions adequately included the Ottawa Charter principle or aspects.
On the third aspect or principle, Ottawa Charter focuses on the five key actions towards promoting health. The key actions involve developing healthy policies toward health, providing favorable environments, strengthening the actions from communities, personal skills, and re-orienting available health services. Jennifer (2009) has tried to incorporate all these actions in her interventions. For instance, Jennifer (2009) confirms that there is the need to provide community practitioners with the required resources and information towards the activity. In addition, Jennifer (2009) points out that in respect to the 3As, there is a need to build on the confidence of smokers that have indicated signs of quitting smoking. Such actions will be enhancing the personal skills of an individual smoker.
On a different perspective, the Jakarta Declaration focuses on five main principles or aspects. The aspects include enhancing social responsibility, increasing investment, consolidation of partnerships, increasing community capacity besides empowering of individuals, and securing required infrastructure. Throughout her interventions, Jennifer (2009) has tried to focus on each of these aspects. For instance, Jennifer (2009) is not only concerned with using an individual’s confidence to empower them to quit smoking but also concentrates on calling for the strengthening of the community practitioners. Moreover, Jennifer (2009) also proposes that there is a need for adequate medication towards individuals that have indicated the willingness to quit smoking. It is therefore clear that Jennifer (2009) focused on the Jakarta Declaration in developing the interventions that would assist smokers to stop smoking.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Evidently, the above analysis confirms that Ottawa Charter and Jakarta Declaration are fundamental benchmark principles and aspects that can be used in promoting health. The author of the interventions to assist smokers quit smoking has tried to incorporate the principles or aspects. However, there is still much to be done in respect to interventions regarding quitting smoking on the basis of Ottawa Charter and Jakarta Declaration. It is recommended therefore for the article to include the following:
– There was a need to describe how to enhance a stable ecosystem that would discourage individuals from smoking.
– There was a need to identify the impact of social justice and equity within the interventions in respect to assisting smokers quit the act.
– There was a need to discuss an increase in investments towards health development with respect to smoking behavior.
– Since organizations or firms that produce cigarettes are also economically significant, the interventions ought to have discussed how to deal with such organizations and their significance especially in the event that smoking is eliminated.
– Lastly, it is recommended that the interventions should have discussed different ideologies and views of the related social responsibility with respect to the firms responsible for manufacturing of cigarettes.

Reference

Jennifer, P. (2009). “ Stop smoking interventions.” Community Practitioner, 82(8); 38.