Health Promotion Essay Example for Free

Health Promotion Essay This essay will begin by discussing the different definitions of health that have been put forward, and will also discuss the necessity of health promoters to be able to understand why there are differing definitions of health and the importance of the difference in our understanding of what health means to the individual. There have been many definitions of health, which include phrases such as ‘absence of disease’, and ‘ability to cope’. The World Health Organisation (WHO) (1946) gave its definition of health as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. However, it is very difficult to define health due to its complexity and broadness. Health and well-being can be described as the absence of physical illness, disease and mental distress. This is a negative definition of health and well-being, as it is impossible for a person to free from illness or disease. Health and well-being can also be described as the achievement and maintenance of physical fitness and mental stability. This is a positive definition of health and well-being or health and well-being as being a result of a combination of physical, social, intellectual and emotional factors. Stimson and Webb (1975) carried out research which suggested that people have their own private comments on their own ill health, compared to what they chose to tell their doctors. The research indicated that people did not always believe or accept the medical explanation given for their illness. The study suggests people hold their own views and hold their own explanations for ill health. (Doyal. L. at el. (1991) A Theory of Human Need. London. Macmillan) Health promoters have to collect a significant amount of information before they can put out a campaign on a particular disease. They have to look at health models and their approaches and even statistical information from CENSUS reports, death certificates, survey’s, and even General Practitioner (GP) records and so on. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defined health promotion as ‘enabling people to gain control over their lives’ (WHO 1986). There are four approaches to take in to consideration before putting together a health promotion campaign, and they are: The medical approach: this focuses on activity which aims to reduce morbidity and premature morbidity. Activity is targeted towards whole populations of high-risk groups. This kind of health promotion seeks to increase medical interventions which will prevent ill health and premature death. The medical approach is conceptualised around the absence of disease. It does not seek to promote positive health, for example ‘Smoking advertisement’, smoking adverts only advertise damage the body will develop through regular inhalation of tobacco. This kind of promotion can be criticised for ignoring the social and environmental dimensions of health. In addition, the medical approach encourages dependency on medical knowledge and removes health decisions from people concerned. The medical approach also relies on having an infrastructure capable of delivering screening or an immunisation programme. This includes trained personnel, equipment, laboratory facilities, and information systems which determine who is eligible for the procedure and record uptake rates. And in the case of immunisation, a vaccine which is effective and safe. The educational approach: the purpose of this approach is to provide knowledge and information, and to develop the necessary skills so that people can make their own informed choice regarding their health behaviour. The educational approach should be distinguished from a behaviour change approach, and that it does not set out to persuade or motivate change in a particular direction. However, this will be the service user’s voluntary choice, and it may not be the one the health promoter would prefer. The educational approach is based on a set of assumptions about the relationship between knowledge and behaviour: that by increasing knowledge, there will be a change in attitudes which may lead to a change in behaviour towards a healthier lifestyle. To provide educational information to clients regarding health and well-being, provisions would have to be put in place, through the following resources: leaflets, booklets, visual displays or one-to-one advice with their own GP. By providing these sources this may provide opportunities for people to share and explore their own attitudes towards health education. Empowerment: This approach helps people to identify their own concerns and gain the skills and confidence and for the person to act upon them. Social change: this approach recognises the importance of social-economic environment’s in determining health. Its focus is at the policy or environmental level, and the aim is to bring about changes in the physical, social and economic environment which will have the effect of promoting health. This approach will also look at social class, the promoter will take in to consideration people’s gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, working, unemployed and so on. Basically the social approach will look at theories that are linked to social class and determine whether or not, that poverty and low social class are the reasons for high mortality rates linked to a specific disease. This is when the promoter will now go away and put together his/her campaign. The Acheson Report (1998) shows that there is an existence of health inequalities and their association to social class, in this report there is data, even though there is a down fall in mortality, the superior classes take in to account more rapid mortality deterioration. Also The Black Report (1980) shows that there are higher levels of poverty in the lower class and higher death rates due to ill health, the higher social class live in a more advanced area which is much more suitable for living conditions, but in contrast to that, people who live in a higher class seem to live in the centre of a city which is much more prone to pollution. LO2 Whether we come from poverty, working class or a higher class background, there are many health influences all around us, for example the environment we live in can influence our health; for instance, living with a partner who is controlling can impact on the stability of mental health, living in a city centre can influence poor health due to pollution (inhalation of fumes from motor vehicles and fuel plants). Although living in a higher class society can have a positive effect on better healthcare, there are still factors of negative influences on health and well-being. Smoking, eating the wrong types of food, lack of exercise, no socialisation, alcohol, misuse of drugs, all these things can have an enormous negative effect on our health and well-being. However eating the correct foods (5 ADAY) and consuming the correct portion size as well as combining at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day can have a great deal of positive’s upon our lifestyle. For instance exercise is good for the brain as well as the body. According to NHS Choices (2013) ‘by eating five portions of fruit or vegetables and just 30 minutes of activity a day, will increase the secretion of Serotonin within our brains’. Serotonin is a hormone found in the brain, it influences our mood, sexual function, appetite, sleep, memory and learning, temperature regulation, and some social behaviour. So we could say the more Serotonin we produce the healthier the brain becomes, which results in a happier you. LO3 For the third and final part of this essay I am going to talk about the political side of health promotion within the UK and take a look across the globe at other parts of the world. Health Promotion is everywhere we look, especially in the media. We see it every day in the news whether it be on the television or in the newspapers. Health Promoters plan and develop ways to help people to change their eating and exercise habits to improve their way of life. There are lots of Health Promoters today that campaign against unhealthy living. Health Promoters give you guidance to a healthier lifestyle whether it is help with eating habits, smoking, alcohol intake, oral health, physical activity and mental health. Each and every one of us will indulge ourselves in to a habit and put ourselves at risk of chronic diseases at some point in our lives. According to Dr Robert Beaglehole (2011) â€Å"The real tragedy is that more hasn’t been done to avoid this epidemic, as overweight and obesity, and their related chronic diseases, are largely preventable†. Approximately 80% of heart disease, stroke, type 2 Diabetes, and 40% of cancer could be avoided through healthy diet, regular physical activity and avoidance of tobacco use. † This is why Health Promotional campaigns are important, as it gives us a better outlook on life and can also expand our lives too (Huffington Post) 2011. Health promotion is an important element of the governments health agenda. On forming a new government, the new labour set public health policies in line with its health agenda. Out of this rose a new white paper Saving Lives: Our Healthier Nation, which sets ambitious targets for life expectancy to be increased, and inequalities in health to be reduced. The Labour Government plan to achieve this through its public health policy in a third way (Connelly 1999). ‘Labours policies are aimed at strengthening communities, and encouraging individuals to seize opportunities and take responsibility for their action’. The Government hopes to improve the health of individuals by reducing health inequalities through health promotion. By doing so the Government will look at a range of different sources of information before they decide the need of a health promotion campaign. The Government have their own facilities to obtain information such as up to date statistical evidence via the website www. direct. gov/statistics . They can also obtain information from Registry Offices, such as marriage certificates, death certificates and birth certificates. By doing so, the Government will acquire accurate results to continue lobbying the new health promotion campaign needed to address the UK to improve quality of life. Before the campaign can be given the go ahead to become a final document, the Government have to look for ethical errors. For instance is the health promotion campaign fair to all people who are involved, meaning, does the campaign aim its information at all service users or is it aimed at a particular generation, gender, culture and so on. For a health care promotion to be respected it has to be aimed at everyone regardless of the persons background. By involving all service users, promoters can eliminate discrimination and visually display that equality and diversity are no longer an issue within our society especially in the health care sector.

Digital Access Divide :: essays papers

Digital Access Divide Technology is a vital part of education and the workforce. The digital divide is putting some students at risk for lacking vital vocational and educational skills. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration states that currently about half of Americans are online (ClickZ, 2002). According to a report from the New York Times (2003), United States President, George W. Bush seemed to be satisfied with this number. He tried to eliminate the technology access programs that were initiated in the Clinton Administration for the purpose of bridging the digital divide. His cuts eliminated over 50 million dollars. Fortunately, as a result of several passionate coalitions, Congress has given $50 million back to the funds (Feeder, 2003). However, there is still a digital divide, and it is putting students at risk. According to the educational testing service, which is the world’s largest private educational measurement organization and a leader in educational resear ch (Landgraf, Statistics Section, para. 5); â€Å" ‘49 percent of Caucasian children use the Internet at home, compared to only 29 percent of African-American children, and 33 percent of Hispanic children’, ‘children from high-income families are more than twice as likely to have home Internet access (66%) than children from low-income households (29%)’ and ‘despite strong growth in school access from 2000 to 2002 for low-income children (20 to 32 percent), their current school use still significantly lags behind high-income children (47 percent)’ (Landgraf, Statistics Section, para. 5). The fact that so many children are not accessing technology is not just a present problem for them, it is creating future problems by putting them at risk for lacking vital educational and vocational skills. Consequences of the Divide: Importance of computer technology in Higher Education Digital information technologies such as the use of computers and the internet are an integral part of higher education. Jane Doe’s story located at the beginning of this report serves as an example of this. Jane’s problem is not biology; the problem is her ignorance in digital information and instructional technologies. This is not her fault; the area she came from has been affected by the digital divide. In college, students need to have computer literacy and digital technology knowledge. If a student, such as Jane, comes from an ill-equipped school district or low income home, where they can not afford a computer or are ignorant about digital technologies, these students are at an incredible disadvantage.

Analysis of Computerisation at Pizza Hut Essay

In the economics of industrial society, the purpose of the computerization of the workplace is to replace labor with machines, thereby reducing the unit cost of production while increasing both productivity and efficiency. Instead of hiring twenty workers to accomplish one task, an employer can simply buy one machine to do the same task faster and more efficiently; less resources are invested while much more output is generated. In general theory, the introduction of technology into the workplace spurs economic growth and prosperity, resulting in the creation of more and better jobs, higher wages and an increased standard of living. However, when looking at specific data and analysis, it becomes apparent that each level of worker is distinctly affected by the computerization of the workplace. Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is one of the flagship brands of Yum! Restaurant Int. which also has subsidiary businesses and famous brands like KFC, Taco Bell, A&W and Long John Silver’s under one brand umbrella. It is the world’s largest pizza chain more than 13,000 restaurants across 97 countries. Pizza Hut increases his operations in last five years. In India, Pizza Hut has 143 restaurants across 34 cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Banglore, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune and Hyderabad. Great taste and quality, variety of pizzas and trademark dining experience have made it possible for the company to for double-digit growth and scale up its presence to its current size. With a 27 per cent market share of the eating-out market and over 70,000 footfalls per day across the country Pizza Hut started its business from India in 1996, and opened its first restaurant in Bangalore. Pizza Hut maintained significant growth and acquires a maximum share of pizza market and sustained growth rate of above 40 per cent per annum. Pizza Hut operates through 95 outlets across 24 cities in India which gave employment nearly 5000 people by the end of 2009. When entering the delivery-segment of the pizza industry, Pizza Hut opted to use a computerized Customer Answering Service that would field all the calls from a particular area and then electronically send orders to the closest delivery-only units. Thus customers would only have to call one number and not have to talk to individual delivery unit managers. Pizza Hut believed that this system would reduce the costs needed for maintaining separate workers who would answer the phone at each unit. However, this system had several problems in its initial installation such as orders being mixed up and other inefficiencies. As a result, Pizza Hut’s reputation was damaged as consumers lost patience and faith in the company; this allowed Domino’s, Pizza Hut’s main competitor to increase its market share.

Construction of Love and Gender in Charlotte Brontes...

Construction of Love and Gender in Jane Eyre Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte focuses primarily on love, specifically romantic love and it is the way in which Charlotte Bronte challenges 19th century socio-cultural views on gender and romance, as well as other discourses within the novel such as class and status that makes Jane Eyre successful. The main discourse within Jane Eyre that impacts most greatly upon its feature, romantic love, is the societal classes of the time. This upper and lower class structure becomes evidently the basis of the novel Jane Eyre. Jane Eyres relationship with Mr. Rochester, her employee and master, is deemed inappropriate by high society as it crosses class boundaries. Even without†¦show more content†¦Jane is described as plain and when asked by Mr. Rochester whether she thinks him handsome, she replies no (149). This defied widely accepted social standards and could mean the demise of both family honour and wealth. The construction of gender within Jane Eyre is heavily impacted upon by the socio-cultural attitudes of the time. These social and cultural viewpoints are what formed the female gender, by forming the expected code of conduct and behaviour of women in the mid-1800s. Within society women were almost always represented as lower than men and were commonly expected to be sub-servient and non-opinionated. Prime examples of this sort of behaviour is Mrs. Fairfax and to some extent in Jane, while the exact opposite to societal expectation is seen in Bertha Rochester. Whos unruly, psychotic behaviour deemed her to become an unacceptable person within 19th century society. Society at the time of Jane Eyre offered very little in the way of employment for women. The few jobs or tasks they could perform were often menial and mundane. The only alternative to work was to marry, and quite often for money or the purpose of child bearing than love. Thoughts of goals and desires of success were suppressed within women and they were to adhere to convention. Jane Eyre has several characters within its text that comply with these strict, societalShow MoreRelatedThe Exposure of Feminist Critique in 19th Century Literature: a Look at Charlotte Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Jane Eyre1749 Words   |  7 Pagesphysical, and even made humorous or satirical. Charlotte Brontà «, a 19th century Victorian feminist wrote her novel Jane Eyre as a means of exposing the confining environments, shameful lack of education, and pitiful dependence upon male relatives for survival (Brackett, 2000). Charlotte Brontà « used literature as a means of feminist cultural resistance by identifying the underlying factors of how the Victorian ideologies, gender and social construction of that time was limiting, and brings to lightRead MoreEssay on Doubles in Jane Eyre2194 Words   |  9 Pagesexamining the doubling between and within the characters in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre I consider the various representations of the female gender and how Jane’s doubles, Bertha Mason, Helen Burns, and Mrs. Reed contribute to the construction of Jane’s gender. Jane Eyre’s quest for love can be seen as a measure of establishing her identity as a woman in a society in which women are expected to be submissive. In order to retain her autonomy Jane must explore her true inner-self. Karl Miller maintainsRead MoreWomen During The Nineteenth Century1562 Words   |  7 PagesWomen both in Europe and America during the nineteenth century were living in a society that was characterised by gender inequality (Wwnorton.com, 2015). In the early periods of the century, women were expected to remain passive and subservient to the male counterparts. They were denied many of the legal, social, or even political rights, which in the modern world we consider as a right (Wwnorton.com, 2015). Thus, generally speaking women who belonged to the middle and upper classes remained home;Read MoreVictorian Novel9605 Words   |  39 Pagesstability and rising standards of living. Artists of ‘Pre- Raphaelite Brotherhood’ claimed to write only true about nature, concentrate only on the true ideas. These three years saw the rise of such works: of Bronte sisters’ Poems, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. The Following twenty years could be seen as the high period of ‘Victorian novel’. Despite being a mixture of boom and slump, the years of 1850-1870 were recognized by the economic