The Ottawa Charter: The Social Model Of Health Education

Health promotion is a means of improving and controlling the health of individual’s communities and even populations using a varied range of approaches. For the past 30 years there have been 3 key models used to support health promotion; The Biomedical model which focuses on health education and is used to educate individuals and communities so that they can make the right decisions which could improve their lives, the social model which tries to reduce social inequalities and looks into the determinants of health and lastly the ecological model of health which considers the relationship between health and the environments in which people live (Speller, 2007).
As early as the mid-19th century saw a social hygiene period with sewage in the streets and people living in very tight crammed areas bacteria began to grow rapidly and many people became ill and died, the 1848 public health act was then proposed and in this act offered health advice on germs and contagions. In 1862 the ladies sanitary reform association was formed and this saw a
group of ladies go round visiting homes and offering advice and educating the public about health, this is sometimes known as the start of health visiting. Britain soon became very health conscious as there were many scientific advancements in the late 19th century and this was the reason for all the social hygiene propaganda.it was not until 1927 when the central council for health education established (Goulding, 2014).
During the 1930s and 1940s the public health advertisements were often inaccurate as the ministry of information had civil servants making these publications and they had little or no knowledge on public health but no educated person was willing to do the job as it was seen to be a lower class of the medical profession. Through the 1960s the publications became of a better quality and the information was backed up with market research and in 1962 the institute of health promotion and education was established this allowed medical professionals to gather and share experiences and new ideas on how to tackle problems with public health. In 1964 the Cohen report, emphasized on the education of health over a wider range of subjects and doing this through the use of mass media (Goulding, 2014).
The national health service had been set up in 1947 there was a general assumption that since there were accessible health care, public health would inevitably improve but by the 1970s it had shown that public health needed more than medical science, this emergence for a new health promotion strategy brought about the La Londe report which was centered around the health field concept this explains how environment, human biology, health care organizations and lifestyle all have an effect on public health and unhealthy practices such as certain lifestyle choices can have a negative effect on an individual’s life and the individual has to accept blame for this (Hubley, 2008).
During the 1960s and 1970s more graphic publications were used as a shock tactic to persuade the public into being healthy, health education started around this time although the only topics that were taught were those in which the health professionals saw important and so it was very subjective (Goulding, 2014).
The Ottawa charter was the first international conference on health promotion and its aim was to” achieve health for all by the year 2000 and beyond” the Ottawa charter planned on doing this by incorporating 5 key action areas, build a healthy public policy, reorient health services, create supportive environments, develop personal skills and strengthen community action which is done by the health education strategy these 5 action areas were centered around 3 health promotion strategies, enable mediate and advocate (Lloyd, 2010). The Ottawa charter enabled the public to take control of their life’s and wellbeing (WHO,
2015).
Today in the 21st century health promotion offers the term of ‘new health education’ which provides alternative methods of health education which still correspond with the Ottawa charter. The 21st century has adopted a wider range of topics that get covered through health promotion, whilst still focusing on the main issues which the population are dealing with, these are currently alcohol, smoking and road traffic accidents. Publications have become more shocking and health education classes are often held at schools to teach children about sexually transmitted diseases, drugs and alcohol (WHO, 2015).
Health education is a strategy for health promotion and by educating the public and increasing their knowledge on a relevant topic showing them the benefits and health risks of their decisions can influence the person’s way of thinking and enable them to make the right decisions ultimately improving public health. The group decided to promote domestic abuse awareness as this is an issue which can effect everybody, physically and mentally; by raising awareness and educating the public on helplines and support as well as warning signs of abuse this could improve a person’s overall wellbeing (WHO, 2015).