The Ottawa Charter

The Ottawa Charter

1. Action areas

   • Developing personal skills
     • Personal and social development occurs through the provision of information for health and the enhancement of life skills
     • This increases options in the control over your own health e.g planning, problem solving, goal setting etc
     • These skills lead to:
       • The ability to seek information
       • Individual enpowerment
       • Autonomy
     • Develops a greater capacity to respond to changes and adjustments that occur in health.
   • Creating supportive environments
     • Focuses on the places where people live, work and play.
     • The ability to make decisions within these settings
       • Example: Healthy school canteens
       • Alcohol free zones within the community
   • Strengthening Community action
     • Focus is on the empowerment of communities to identify and implement actions to address their health concerns.
     • Communities need to work together to set health priorities, make decisions, plan strategies and implement them leading to greater ownership and control over health promotion services
       • Example: Schools, workplaces and local government (NSW government, live life well campaign).
   • Reorienting health services
     • Focuses on the well being of the whole person - promotion health, preventing ill health and supporting well being.
     • Reorienting-adjusting the direction/focus of a service to create a fresh approach.
     • Example: Health professionals working with and supporting schools in health promotion initiatives such as jump rope for heart.
   • Building public health policy
     • Relates to decisions made at all levels of government and by organisations that work towards health improvement.
     • Goes beyond the health sector - includes legislation, policies, taxes and organisational change in areas such as education, welfare, recreation etc.
     • Co-ordinated action helps to make healthier choices in our working and living environments
     • Example: Food packaging labels, legislation on smoking in public places, school policy in relation to sun safety.

2. Prerequisites for health

   • Basic necessities for health
     • Peace
     • Shelter
     • Education
     • Food
     • Income
     • Stable ecosystem
     • Sustainable resources
     • Equity
     • Social justice
   • Health is a positive concept emphasising social and personal resources aswell as physical capabilities

3. Health promotion

   • Process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health
   • Allowing them to reach a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing/
   • Health is a positive concept emphasising social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities.
   • Therefore, health promotion is not just the responsibility of the health sector, but goes beyond healthy lifestyles to well-being.