Public Health And Health Promotion

Public tumefyness And Health PromotionIn this look for paper I discussed the contribution of Public dealing in communicating wellness and delivering wellnessy messages to the in the man eye(predicate) or community. It is more or less(prenominal) the same piece of working with separate ministries but Ministry of Health (MOH) atomic upshot 18 more foc usaged on educating and promoting wellnessy lifestyle. there are five strategic SMART objectives that as a PR withdraw to be focused and improved on-strategic Objective Establish settle Health in any Policies (HiAP)Strategic Objective Develop Effective, Quality And Innovative Health Promotion political programs to reduce Obesity, sore-eyed Diet, Physical Inactivity And Tobacco UseStrategic Objective Enhance Inter-Sectoral Collaboration And unionStrategic Objective Develop Health Promotion Sk autistics CompetenciesStrategic Objective Strengthen Health Promotion meaning Infrastructure and resourcesThe ch exclusivelyenges and constraints of Health Promotion heart and soul (HPC) are to be discussed further more in this research paper. As a conclusion of this paper, I excessively embroils the benefits and expected takes for the strategies.Role of Public Relation in Health Communication in Brunei DarussalamINTRODUCTIONBrunei Darussalam is a moderate Islamic country with multi ethnic racial where understanding variation counsel and cultural values may affix the productivity of an organisation and alike create harmonization among the three important races in Brunei Malay, Chinese and Indian (Brunei Tourism web position, 2010). Diversity management is unique in Brunei Darussalam by means of radiateal approaches to national trans transaction. Understanding cultural diversity and multiculturalism is very burning(prenominal) to articulate a sensitive and multi aspect approach to excellent humans relations, especially in chop-chop bumping country like Brunei Darussalam. There is impoerishmen t for professional aid to understand the dominant ghostly such(prenominal) as Islam, and minority of Christianity and Hinduism as they want to invest to the country. In fact cultural diversity seen as universal concept, as every country has a polar religious and tribal groups. globalization has given late meaning that should be sufficed according to various ethnic groups with different worship and backg tours.Public Relation is ab step forward maintaining a good relationship between an organization and public through communications in order to pursue its goals and objectives. The use of goods and services of public relations asshole influence the main structure of an organization have practiced. The main debt instrument for public relations is to gain publicity from the public using media releases such as newspaper, magazines and sometimes appears as spokesperson for that company or organization. The another(prenominal) responsibility for public relations is to find solutio ns for supplementary puzzles as well as a decision makers and constitution formation. There are theoretical approaches in public relations. Theories applied in different slipway be micturate different theories, different assumptions callable to different backgrounds such as culture and influence. According to Grunig and Hunt (1984) the best scheme of public relation is the four model which explain the development of public relations. The first model is advertize agency. This is the easiest way to spread propaganda in other to get public assistance for their events or products. It is a bingle way flow of info. Second model is Public assureation which runs by the g everyplacenment to inform the public on behalf of the organization about its development. Third model is the two ways unsymmetrical which by all means the power in organization and non to public. Forth model is two ways symmetric where the organizations events or products get feedback from the public. Neverthele ss Grunig and White(1984) agreed that public relation is best described in asymmetric ways rather than symmetric ways.Somecritics of symmetrical worldview- both practitioners and theorists- claimed that the approach is unrealistic or idealistic. They argue that organizations admit public relations plenty as advocates to advance their interests and not as do-gooders who give in to outsiders with an schedule different from that of the organization. In short organizations would not hire a public relations person which not practices asymmetrically. (Grunig and White 199246)LEtang(1996) also argues that symmetry in public relations is inconsistent. He arguedThere isa problem in the attempt which some make to maintain the idea of symmetry alongside the procedure of public relations as advocate. Surely symmetry and advocacy are in opposition. The only way round this tension is to argue that public relations curb that all world views are held, i.e that the playing field of force is le vel. Whether this sort of pandering to the liberal conscience and justifiable is a matter for debate a debate which has further to bow out place within public relations. (LEtang 199696-97)The theories then divided into two billets elaboratenessal guess and Critical Theory. Rhetorical theory is a convincing dialogue about public relations role. It is suggested as dialogue relationship which allows deliberation of written text or language use and their ethics. According to Heath, Rhetoric is symmetrical because each idea placed in the marketplace or public polity area stands on its own merit. (Heath 200149)Critical theory is the power which influences communication. It is about affable critiques, political and corporate structures as well as institutional. The theory tries to search for social changes- postmodernism which allows political, cultural, social and economic views. According to Holtzh ausen, she revisits the concept of the public relation practitioner as keeper of the corporate conscience. She argues that the responsibility for keeping organization abreast of postmodern thinking importantly resides in public relations de bureaument. She stated thatPostmodern theories urge public relations practitioners to acknowledgeable the political nature of their activities and to be aware of the power relations inherent in ordinary practice. Public relations is about to change or resistance to change, these political acts are manifest in the everyday use of organizational language and symbolism and are influenced by the organizations cultural and social environment. This redefines the terminus ad quem spanning role. Instead of claiming objectivity, practitioners are forced to choose which side they are on. (Holtzhausen 2000110)Public relations required estimable practitioners. Certain accomplishments that needed in these areas are strong analytical skills and communication skills in other to thingmabob the attention of public. Great interpersonal s kills, self confidence, self and priority management skills, knowledgeable in fiscal industry and update with current issues forget complete the criteria to be a Public relation practitioners. lawfulness and commitment to ethical practice, equity and diversity willing also help to gain public attention and expectations on the benefits from the products or events that we are promoting. In communicating health messages to the public is very hard because, we need to do survey about the community at first rather than approaching them directly. Most health check officers do not have the skills or knowledge on how to approach the community creatively. This is when Public relations practitioners came forward to help them communicating with the public from explaining medical matter great in details and overly wordy transformed into simple and creative which is easy to understand by the public.WHAT IS public wellness AND HEALTH PROMOTION?Public Health is a science of protecting and imp roving the health of communities through education, forward motion of healthy lifestyles and research for illness and injury prevention (www.whatispublichealth.org). Public health or societal health refers to the link between health and the way a society structured which includes the basic infrastructure required or health- shelter, peace, food and income and the degree of integration or division within society( Naidoo J. Willis J, 2000,p.7). Not only that, in public health it also includes Environmental Health referring to the visible environment in which people live.Health packaging was defined in the Ottawa charter (WHO 1986) as being centrally concernedwith empowering people to take greater control over their health and thus includesa range of strategies to strengthen communities, develop back downive environments and inform and educate about health issues.Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (WHO 1986) can be defined into 5 action areas, namely Building healthy public pol icies Creating supportive environments Strengthening community action ontogenesis personal skills Reorienting health services towards prevention1.2 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC HEALTH, HEALTH PROMOTION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS.Public Health and Health progressional material professions embody and tolerate conflicting ideas of why and how health should and could be approved. The meaning of public health and health forwarding are contested and open to misunderstandings such as the explaining the methods for reducing health and promoting well being and fundamentally in the motivation for such interventions. Whereas Public Relations is a person who represent the agency as a spokesperson or a escape on how to communicate health messages to the public or design audience by implementing tactics and strategies as well as evaluating the success of the program.RESEARCH2.1 HEALTH PROMOTION CENTRE (HPC).Health Promotion Centre (HPC) is a centre that serves the needs of public by providing h ealth instruction, camps and other recreational developmental activities for the public. HPC also supports and encourages the growth and development of healthy lifestyles among the community through their health messages, gallery, workshop, youth camps and health screening.The roles of HPC-Educational role Impart Knowledge and increase sentience of public on various aspects of healthChange gene facilitate behaviour change amongst clients/target groups through the empowerment (knowledge and skills) and advocacy.Instill value inculcate the practice of healthy lifestyle in the population and also caring attitude towards health among children and youth.Attraction send a place to visit for a family outing and for tourists.Its main objective is to develop and focus on national health promotion programmes in the country and to ensure that health promotion and inveterate disease prevention activities are carried out dustatically and impellingly. The vision is to realize Ministry of H ealth (MOH) vision 2035 Together Towards a Healthy Nation. The mission statement is Empowering People towards Healthy Living through Effective Health Promotion. (Personal consultation with Senior Medical Officer, 2010)2.2 ROLES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MEDIA AT HPCThe role of Public Relations practitioner in this centre is to communicate health messages or practicing health communication. Health communication is a notion of awareness raising and education about risk and protective factors linked to chronic conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The use of mass and multimedia and other technological innovations to disseminate useful health information to the public, increase awareness of specific aspects of individual and collective health as well as importance of health in development (WHO, 1996). Health promoters need communication skills and strategies to inform, educate, enable, mediate, advocate, persuade, negotiate and facilitate. In order to have this health p romoters need a range of functional communication skills in their professional toolkit (Murphy B, 2006). Functional communication skill sets tend to be anchored now, while strategic communication is more future focused. It also a surgical procedure of hitting right target with the right level of information that suits and resonates with the market as well as engaging the participants in a process so that it is shared activity rather than one-way manduction information. In order to strengthen the links within and beyond the health sector, health promoters must develop and practise ways to strategically communicate our ideas in a language that the intended audience can understand and embrace for typeface using common language that understood by others (Murphy B, 2006). For example the use of Facebook and Twitter. These two social networking are the best way to commuincate and ideas with the intended audience nowadays. Facebook is a social networking site that enables users to share photos and videos. It also has a status update tab where people can post information (Facebook, 2010). Facebook is available for both personal and business use. Businesses can set up a Facebook fan rascal so Facebook users can go bad a fan and arrive the organisations updates. Facebook is efficient for businesses as it enables users to send invitations about and those who have been invited can chose to send a RSVP or decline the invitation on the spot. Whereas Twitter is a real time information network powered by people all around the world, which lets you, share and discover whats occurrent now.Twitter asks, Whats happening? and spreads the answer across the globe to jillions, immediately (Twitter, 2010).Twitter is a social networking site that uses a system similar to the short messages system or SMS, where people can share information from all over the world. The SMS has a 140-character limit, and the messages sent through are called Tweets. Other people can forward these Tweets this is called Retweets. People who follow other peoples tweets are called Followers. Twitter is not only limited to personal use. Businesses can also signboard up to this networking site to start networking with other Twitter users that might be interested in their business. HPC currently has a Twitter account .Facebook and Twitter are FREE communication tools which allow two-way fundamental interaction between interested parties and the communicator, a beneficial addition to an organisations website which is mostly one-way communication. Fans and followers are make from a pre-qualified audience who have already identified that they are interested in a concept, and consequently are more likely to react to promotions and positive communication. Facebook and Twitter also act as a platform to answer questions and launch promotions instantaneously with nil or limited material cost. Another example of effective way of communicating and sharing information with the audience is via A strong and informative website and fix e-newsletter communication are beneficial assets for any organisation, as they represent a cost-effective, fast method for one-way communication with current and potential members.The target audience is pre-qualified, having made a choice to visit the HPCs website, or sign up for the e-newsletter.Health promotion is directed towards improving the health status of individuals and population. During this modern era, it was contagious by the mass and multimedia which has positive and negative implications for health. Communication underpins virtually all health promotion action. With this in mind, a broad range of functional communication skills need to be developed and practise by those seeking to work in the health promotion field. Good communicators have the ability to consume complex concepts in a language that speaks to the intended audience. They use metaphors and analogies to make sense of the ideas. As health promotion seeks to s trengthen its links within and beyond the health sector, we must develop and practise ways to strategically communicate our ideas in a language our audience understands and embraces. Theres a needs to understand the social model of health as well as the determinants of health and their impacts on population. It also includes planning and evaluating strategies on approaching a diverse group with multicultural background with respects.Appropriate health promotion strategies are especially effective to combat the current rapid rise of chronic diseases which represents a major quarrel to global development. Chronic diseases include heart disease and stroke (cardiovascular disease), cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases which claim 35 million lives every year. Together they are the leading cause of demise worldwide and have overtaken the number of deaths due to infectious diseases. This represents 60% of all deaths globally, with 80% of deaths due to NCDs occurring in low- and middle-income countries, and about 16 million deaths involving people under 70 years of age. These diseases also undermine the economic development in more countries leading to a worsening of poverty and illnesses. The global burden of these non-communicable diseases (NCDs) continues to grow. Tackling it is one of the major challenges for development in the 21st century. Unless addressed, the mortality and disease burden from these health problems will continue to increase. WHO estimated that without action, total deaths from chronic diseases will increase by 17% between 2005 and 2015. For those with chronic disease, it can alter every aspects of their life and over time can cause further complications that can further lead to deterioration of their quality of life, enfolding in activities and even their work surgery. There will also be the increasing burden to the cost of health care as well as the psychological and socio-economic impacts to the families and carers. However proven cost-effective strategies cost to prevent and control this growing burden. The causes (risk factors) of chronic diseases are well established and well known, ie, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and tobacco use. These risk factors, which are the same for males and females are largely modifiable. If uncontrolled, they will lead to ordinary risk factors such as raised wrinkle pressure, raised tide rip sugar levels, abnormal blood lipids, overweight and obesity. The major modifiable risk factors, in conjunction with the non-modifiable risk factors of age and heredity, explain the mass of new events of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases and some important cancers. The relationship between the major modifiable risk factors and the main chronic diseases is similar in all regions of the world. There are also other risk factors for chronic diseases but they account for a smaller proportion of these diseases. These include harmful intoxicant use an d some infectious agents that are responsible for cervical and liver cancers.Preventing or delaying illness and death from chronic diseases is possible. At least 80% of all cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes and over 40% of cancers could be avoided through healthy diet, regular physical activity and avoidance of tobacco use. Although death is inevitable, it does not need to be slow, painful or premature. Most chronic diseases cause the sufferers to become progressively ill and debilitated, especially if their illness is not managed correctly. Chronic disease prevention and control helps people to live weeklong and healthier lives. In addition, due to public health successes, populations are aging and increasingly, people are breathing with one or more chronic conditions for decades, thus worsening the burden of chronic diseases. This places new, long-term demands on health care systems. Not only are chronic conditions projected to be the leading cause of disability throug hout the world by the year 2020 but if not successfully prevented and managed, they will become the most expensive problems face by our health care systems.In Brunei Darussalam, the situation of chronic diseases is by-line the global trend. The Ministry of Health reported in 2009 that cancer is the top leading cause of death with 24.6 deaths per 100,000 population whereas heart disease and diabetes mellitus comes second and third accounting for 23.9 and 18.4 deaths per 100,000 population respectively. In addition, this info is further support by the preliminary findings of the Ministry of Healths Integrated Health Screening and Health Promotion Programme for Civil Servantswhich was launched in 2007. Early findings showed that 64.3% of the subjects screened were either overweight or obese 55.2% has high blood cholesterol 14.7% has hypertensio 14.2% has high blood sugar.The above data shows an increase in the proportion of subjects with are overweight or obese when compared to the d ata obtained by the National Nutritional Status Survey 1997 which showed only 44.5% of the subjects then were either overweight or obese. Therefore, arrest strategies in Brunei Darussalam need to focus on comprehensive, integrated,multi-level, multi-intervention approaches aimed at reducing the negative impact and consequences of chronic non-communicable diseases. Simultaneously, the management of NCDs requires well-coordinated and integrated services at primary, secondary and tertiary levels which focus on curative, preventive, promotive and rehabilitative aspects holistically.Therefore,there are five strategic SMART objectives that as a PR need to be focused and improved on-Strategic Objective 1 Establish Strengthen Health in All Policies (HiAP)Strategic Objective 2 Develop Effective, Quality And Innovative Health Promotion Programmes to reduce Obesity, ingrowing Diet, Physical Inactivity And Tobacco UseStrategic Objective 3 Enhance Inter-Sectoral Collaboration And Partnership Strategic Objective 4 Develop Health Promotion Skills CompetenciesStrategic Objective 5 Strengthen Health Promotion Centre Infrastructure and resources2.3 CHALLENGES CONSTRAINTS OF THE HEALTH PROMOTION CENTRE (SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS) unrivalled of the biggest challenges faced by HPC is the lack of awareness amongst the general and target public as well as lack of media promotions on spreading health messages which includes misunderstanding about the concept of health promotion, competing priority areas, manpower, budget, unconducive environment, behaviour and others. This has proven to be the main hindrance for the centre in reaching their target audience.SWOT AnalysisStrengthsFinancial support from government (MOH)Social network such as facebook and twitter containing information about their organisation.Access to MOH supports, pecuniary and activities.WeaknessesLack of financial resources to invest in media activities and othersNeed more sponsorshipGeneral public unaware of HPCs innovationNo official websitePrivate partnersBuilding maintenanceOpportunitiesInternational presenceGovernment collaborationincrease the skill set of staff to other field such as communication-media, public relations and and so forthThreatsLack of supportLack of workforceUnconducive environmentMisunderstanding about the concept of health promotionCompeting priority areasCulture.Local evidence has shown that, there is a huge burden of NCDs especially cancer,cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, in Brunei Darussalam. Without classic action to address these diseases, they will continue to grow exponentially and lead to more people reinforcement with poor quality of life and dying prematurely. This, in turn, will have a negative social and economic impact on families, communities and the country as a whole.Being the lead organization that has been entrusted to bulge out and coordinate the actions, HPC, from the very start, has several challengesand constraints to deal with. To be ab le to manage the situation effectively and efficiently, HPC has to dispose all relevant stakeholders and partners that only a comprehensive, integrated approach has the best chance of success in the prevention and control of these NCDs.Comprehensive action requires combining population-wide approaches that seek toreduce the risks throughout the entire population with strategies that target individuals at high risk or with established disease and also addressing the social and economic determinants that would affect their health directly or indirectly. The National Health Promotion Blueprint 2011-2015 will be launched on March 2011 aims to use such an approach.Before adopting such a strategy, many factors that will affect the outcome of this approach have to be considered. Some of these factors areThe needs of the target population and individuals as well as the requirements ofthe stakeholders and partners.The resources e.g. human capital, financial, technical, physical and other in frastructure etc, and their management, that are needed for HPC to contain out their tasks effectively.The process of planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating the initiatives and programmes. However to ardently follow the strategic exemplar, HPC will encounter many challenges and constraints. Strategies need to be developed to overcome or reduce these barriers which may impede the successful implementation of this Action Plan. These include1. Misconception about health promotionHealth promotion is defined as the process of enabling people to increase controlover and improve their health and is also defined as any combination of educationaland environmental supports for actions and conditions of keep conducive to healthwhere these processes have been take a leakly explained in several key health promotion documents. As such health promotion is not just educational and provision of information. It is a continuing process that involves action at every level of society andn ot just a series of ad hoc educational activities. One of the challenges is to change the mindset of all stakeholders to convince them that everyone has an important role to play in promoting health from policy-makers and leaders, in Government, organized medical and health services, non-government and private organizations and communities, to individuals. This role will not only be educational in nature but also supportive and enabling for people to practice healthy lifestyles. HPCs role is to lead, support, facilitate and empower communities and individuals to practise healthy living but it cannot do it alone. All stakeholders have a shared responsibility for health. Hence for HPC to fulfill its role effectively, it must be given a clear mandate and extent of authority from the rele- vant authorities to expediently carry out its designated functions in health promotion in general and particularly in the execution of this strategy.2. Low priority towards the role of health promotio n in the management of NCDsTraditionally organized medical and health services have implemented a range of services to tackle NCDs e.g. Hospital- or clinic-based nutritional programmes, tobacco control programmes etc. However due to diverse needs and priorities, most of the resources for these interventions are directed towards attending to acute problems and urgent needs of patients with NCDs. less(prenominal) priority is given to the incorporation of preventive health care into the overall management of these patients.As pointed out earlier, a collaborative management approach, with preventivecomponents in the care of the patients with NCDs that involves the patients, their families and health care partners, is more cost-effective than the tralatitious approach and achieves better health outcomes.Therefore, one of HPCs functions here is to help facilitate the routine incorporation of preventive and promotive care into curative services especially in the management of chronic dise ases.This strategic framework includes the reorientation of the health care services for a more holistic approach in the effective prevention and management of chronic conditions. It calls for a partnership among patients and families, health care teams and community supporters. This approach will work best if each patient is informed, motivated and prepared to manage their health and able to work with the other partners. This partnership should be influenced and supported by the Ministry of Health and other health organizations, the broader community and the policy environment to ensure a sustainable positive health outcome.3. Lack of skilled manpowerThere is a lack of human capital in HPC, both in numbers and skills. This willundoubtedly impact the performance of HPC with its many roles and functions to fulfill. Besides the current health professionals to carry out the day-to-day operations of HPC, there is a dire need for more specialized personnel who have the professional and t echnical skills and expertise to enable HPC to perform its many functions including overseeing and coordinating health promotion programmes and activities in general and in particular, initiatives identified. These personnel includeI. Public Health Professionals and / or Allied Health Professionals who are proficient in Health Promotion, Programme Management, Epidemiology, Biostatistics including Research Methodology and other similar fields.Such human capital are needed to ensure a more effective and efficient planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all relevant health promotion programmes and initiatives in the country. They will also form the core group will drive the development of a supportive surveillance system and promote a research culture in HPC as part of its strategies to produce scientific evidence to support and rationalise policies, strategies and approaches relating to healthy lifestyle and particularly, NCD prevention and controlII. Sociologists and PsychologistsAs health promotion, in a large part, deals with individuals and their families and the larger communities, HPC needs personnel who are well educate in the principles of Social Science. Social determinants have a great impact on health in any society including the creation of inequities in health. This type of expertise is essential to assist HPC in advocating and shape evidence-based policies and programmes, across the whole of society, that can influence the social determinants of health and improve health equity.On the other end of the scale is the understanding and influencing of human behavior.Psychologists are needed in the formulation of programmes which directly impacts on human behavior such as healthy eating, increasing physical activity and losing weight. They are lively in motivating individuals to change for better health outcomes.III. Public Relation / Communication / Media personnelTo carry out effective health promotion, information must be effectivel y disseminated through traditional and new media. Social marketing is a recognized strategy to educate the public generally. Personnel who are trained to deal with and communicate with individuals, communities and the media, are definitely an asset to this type of work.IV. IT and technical personnelAn important part of HPCs function is the creation, production, dissemination and display of various health-related information using different formats, styles and materials, in an interesting and charitable manner that would capture the attention of the audience. HPC needs innovative, artistic and creative personnel who are skilled in IT and the use of pertinent software.4. Training and capacity building for HPC staffAt present, there are less than 50 staff members who are as