HEALTH PROMOTION ORGANISATION

Health Promotion Organisation



Health Promotion Organisation

Introduction

The concept of health promotion initially emerged and continues to gain strength as an approach to improving health status and health condition of people. Health promotion is a key component of the complex relationship between actions, knowledge, attitudes, behaviour, and health outcomes from the individual to the societal level. Health promotion is increasingly applicable and relevant to practice within health care and health research specialty around the world.

This paper aims at exploring the fundamental concepts of health, health promotion, and multiple health models that define the effectiveness of the approach taken towards the health promotion. The health promotion organization that has been selected for this paper is an International Committee of Red Cross.

Business Description

International Committee of Red Cross (commonly known as Red Cross) was established in 1863 as a non-profit social organization. Red Cross works under the head of The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which is the world's largest humanitarian network (ICRC, 2011). Main objective of the Red Cross is to protect life and health, assuage human suffering, and endorse human dignity. Red Cross supported the development of international humanitarian law (IHL) to make the basis for guiding its vision and mission (Suen, 2002). Red Cross has global operations, and present in nearly every country. It is actively participating in health promotion campaign across the globe. The ICRC has initiated numerous health promotion campaigns, mainly in third world countries.

Health Promotion

The concept of health promotion is based on the interpretation of social and cultural health, and disease. The health promotion is the process of enabling people to gain greater control over their health. According to World Health Organization (WHO), health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (WHO, 2009). This definition shows a confined perspective about health and its constituent elements. It defines the health based on a variety of factors that directly affect the individual's psychological, physical, social, and emotional condition (Ewles & Simnett, 2003).

Approaches to Health Promotion

There are five approaches that are commonly used for enhancing health promotion. These approaches include:

1.Medical approach

2.Behaviour change approach

3.Educational approach

4.Empowerment approach

5.Social change approach

The Medical Approach

Medical approach focuses on freeing the people from diseases. In this approach, patient is dependent on medical professional or experts for the treatment (Crosby, 2009). Major emphasis, in this concern, is placed on patient's ability to effectively follow the medical procedures. Under this approach, activities include medical intervention to avert illness and health disorders.

The Behavioural Change Approach

The behavioural change approach places concern on the patient willingness for recovery of their health. This approach places concern on behaviour and attitude change that subsequently change the lifestyle of people (Crosby, 2009). Remarkable implication of this approach is that it aims at building a healthy lifestyle. In this approach, role of health experts is very crucial, as they determine the behaviours that are good or bad for health. Main aim of this approach is to encourage individuals to ...