UNPACKING HEALTH PROMOTION – A CRITICAL REFLECTION: HEALTHY TOWNS INTRODUCTION: Health promotion is a practice that is underpinned by values and principles, which can be placed along a continuum, varying from a traditional view that values a reductionist, patriarchal approach, to a more modern approach that values holism and health as a resource for living. The Healthy Towns Program is a program implemented by the Public Health Network across the Central Queensland, Wide Bay and Sunshine Coast locale. The following is a critical reflection of the health promotion values and principles when applied to the Healthy Towns Program, including examples of six of the values that are evident in the presentation by Nicole Cool …show more content…
A key principle of the Healthy Towns program is to connect locals in a way that contributes to their town’s health and happiness (reference), which implies a somewhat modern health promotion approach, looking at assets, not simply at what this community is lacking or what diseases or risky behaviours are taking place within. The men’s shed in Maroochydore is specifically mentioned in the presentation, which is an organization that focusses on ways to create these connections and supportive environments to enhance health. Nicole makes mention of another program in NSW, the Healthy Towns Challenge, which has this more traditional emphasis on behaviour change, and the biomedical way of looking at health (reference), focussing on weight loss, and that they wish to be recognised distinctly apart from this approach. Baum & Fisher have researched and concluded that a more traditional health promotion approach that emphasises behaviour change is not always adequate for addressing social inequities of health, and that these ‘unhealthy’ behaviours are usually more prevalent among those socially and/or economically disadvantaged (reference