The Importance of Health Promotion

The concept of health promotion builds on a social and cultural understanding of health and illness. Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over their health through advocacy and intersectoral action.

health education can be understood as a component of helath promotion. Health promotion and education both aim at improving access to health related information and services to give people more control over their health and well being. The concept reffered to here deals not only with dissemination of simple health facts, but also other information and skills, information on how to prevent diseases/illnesses (workshops, seminars on different health related issues) is important. The nworkshops on illness such as ; breast cancer, protaste cancere, diabetes, hiv aids and cervical cancer are equally important in helping to prevent these diseases within the community.

We as the community should work together with local Primary Care Trust in order to carry out dissemination of information. Adult learning also plays an important role in health promotion. Within the community we lack adult health advocate or simple health educator. What is more, there is a lack of interest amongst community members to learn about the health issues. at the same time there is no incentive within the community to carry outhealth projects. It is up to us as community orgonisation take such initiative.

Community participation and leaner involvement are shared principles of health education. Both health educators and adult educators within the community should be aware of the importance of health promotion. We ought to build on such initiative, train health educators, forge partnership with local health authorities. This will help community organisation to educate its members. better educated people have better access to information about ilnesses. making information and services available and improving health literacy are therefore crucial to any attempt to combat major diseases.

Access to relevant, up to date information is critical for informed decisions and choices. Health literacy also takes the form of advocacy. That is where we step in. It is no longer just health professional teaching the laity, rather patients and lay people can equally teach the professionals and decisions makers about their health needs. That is exactly what is missing within the community. it is time that we took such initiative, built relationship with health professionals.