Health is the basic value for the modern human society as far as health assures people’s living and personal development. Therefore, the modern activists and social organizations like International Union for Health Promotion and Education take their time to promote health, healthy way of life, and the ways in which people can improve their health worldwide. It is not surprising that in health promotion great emphasis should be put on personal experiences of patients, the main ways of health promotion and empowerment, and the differences between the individual and community health empowerment. Therefore, this paper considers all these aspects of health promotion in order to find out the rate of effectiveness of empowerment measures taken by various organizations.
First of all, as far as the topic of health promotion is concerned, it is necessary to state that personal experiences of people regarding their illnesses and explanations of the latter is of crucial importance (Laverack, 2004). As defined by International Union for Health Promotion and Education, health promotion is “the process of enabling people to exert control over the determinants of health and thereby improve their health” (International Union for Health Promotion and Education, p. 2) Drawing from this, personal orientation of health promotion is crucial because its main aim is to reach every single person with the information on how to monitor and improve, if necessary, his or her health conditions.
Needless to say, the ways of people’s empowerment in relation to health promotion are numerous (Naidoo & Wills, 2002), but the International Union for Health Promotion and Education defines two of them as the most effective one, stating that “empowerment of people and community groups… has the potential to contribute to the reduction of these inequalities [poverty, homelessness, joblessness, poor sanitation, and various social breakdowns, including the family unit, are significant contributory factors to poor health]” (International Union for Health Promotion and Education, p. 22). Such attitudes towards health promotion allow the European community of today hope for the development of health awareness of its citizens, especially when the individual and community health empowerment are applied in combination.
The major difference between the two types of empowerment mentioned is their scope. The individual empowerment aims at reaching every individual in order to make him or her first think of and than take actions in the direction towards the healthy life. What is the most important that empowerment not only provokes people to take these positive health-improving actions but also enables them to carry them out (Wallerstein, 2002). And here the main similarity between the two approaches lies: “Effective health promotion strengthens the skills and capabilities of individuals to take action, and the capacity of groups or communities to act collectively to exert control over the determinants of health” (International Union for Health Promotion and Education, p. 2). Therefore, if well informed and instructed how to use the information, people can take care of their health and ensure the development of the healthy European community in the future.
To conclude, nowadays the European community does much to promote health, healthy way of life, and the ways in which people can improve their health worldwide. It is not surprising that in health promotion great emphasis is put on personal experiences of patients, the main ways of health promotion and empowerment, and the differences between the individual and community health empowerment. It is evident that the combination of all health promotions approaches if carried out properly enables people to take care of their health and ensure the development of the healthy European community in the future.
Reference List
- International Union for Health Promotion and Education 2000, The Evidence of Health Promotion Effectiveness, Part I, pp. 1 – 36.
- International Union for Health Promotion and Education 2000, The Evidence of Health Promotion Effectiveness, Part II, pp. 37 – 180.
- Laverack, G 2004, Health promotion practice: power and empowerment. Sage Publications.
- Naidoo, J & Wills, J 2002, Health Promotion. Elsevier Science Health Science div. Chapter 8 Partnership for health (pp. 157-180), Chapter 10 Working with communities and community development (pp. 199-217), Chapter 15 Health promotion in neighborhoods (pp. 295-307).
- Wallerstein, N 2002, Empowerment to reduce health disparities, Scandinavian Journal of Public Health (suppl 59) pp.72-78.