Importance of Health Promotion and Well Being

The Importance of Health Promotion and Well Being

The Importance of Health Promotion and Well Being Word Count: 2194 According to the World health organization (WHO) health can be defined as “…a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” (WHO; 1946) This definition of health is very impractical as it suggests that if a person does not poses all these qualities then they are deemed not healthy, however this notion does give us a platform to discuss what health is. The suggestion that health may be something other than the absence of illness presents a new holistic view of health, Ewles and Simnett (1985) proposed six areas of human existence in which health may be considered, social, spiritual, societal, physical, mental and emotional concepts of health. Health promotion on the other hand “is a process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its determinants, and thereby improve their health.” (WHO, Ottawa Charta 1986) This suggests that health promotion is a form of health education given to patients in able to empower them to take control over their health. Health promotion aims to give equal opportunities and resources to everyone so they can take control of the things that determine their health. …read more.

Middle

that the baby would start to gain weight and informed the mother she would check the weight again at the next home visit. Gunther (1945) said that” once the baby (and also the mother) has experienced one satisfactory feed, subsequent feeds should be better.” With regards to bottle feeding the health visitor cannot express any preference between feeding methods however, she reinforced the health benefits of breastfeeding, and the difficulties it may present if the mother decided to late breastfeed after introducing the bottle. White (1992) found that “Giving infant formula to breastfed babies in their first week of life has been found to be the most important variable predicting the cessation of breastfeeding in the first 2 weeks.” Looking at the way health professionals approach health promotion can have adverse effects on the outcomes we wish to achieve. Choosing the correct approach to health promotion for each individual and situation can help achieve the desired effect. The Empowerment approach helps people to identify their own concerns, to gain skills and extra confidence. This approach was best in this scenario, the health visitor was able to facilitate the correct way of breastfeeding to gain all the benefits and was then able to withdraw from the situation and allow the mother to take control. …read more.

Conclusion

This problem could be due to insufficient training by health professionals giving advice about infant feeding. The infant feeding survey (2005) “stated that more extensive implementation of antenatal care is required and antenatal education should include discussions on the benefits of breastfeeding, positioning and attachment for breastfeeding..” In conclusion health promotion is a critical part of a nurses role. Using a model as a way for approach health promotion offers a way of thinking about how we deliver and promote health, it gives us a loose framework of ideas to work within. The empowerment approach in this scenario worked well as it allowed the mother to take control and gain new skills and the confidence to act upon them. Community policies such as Start4Life give new mothers a chance to take control, the six life behaviours offer knowledge for new mothers in particular to bring up there child in the best way and to make autonomous decisions. Government policies have said that breastfeeding is recommend exclusively for the first 6 months of life before moving onto a more varied diet. These guidelines however are only a recommendation and parents can still make independent decisions on how they want to feed there child. …read more.

The Importance of Health Promotion and Well Being

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