The New Public Health Approach

One of the things you might need to do in your HSC exam is to identify how the new public health approach is applied in health promotion campaigns. You know the characteristics of the new public health are:
- empower individuals
- encourage community participation
- recognise the social determinants of health






EXAMPLE
The website for beyondblue, a national mental health initiative focusing on depression, describes many of its strategies. These strategies can be used as examples of the new public health approach eg

-beyondblue provides an online self-assessment tool for depression. This is an example of EMPOWERING INDIVIDUALS (because it provides individuals with the chance to find out about their own feelings before taking the big step of visiting a doctor, it overcomes the barrier of privacy and it gives individuals greater control over their own health decisions)

-beyondblue runs community meetings to raise awareness about depression. This is an example of COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION (because it provides opportunities for community members to be involved in health promotion action at a local level)

-beyondblue maintains a list of doctors who are interested, trained and willing to see patients who may be suffering from depression or other mental illnesses. This is an example of RECOGNISING THE DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
(because it is a mechanism for improving access to health services by informing people about where the most appropriate doctors are). Access to health services is a determinant of health.

PRACTICE TASK
Select one of the health promotion initiatives from your list. (You don't really need a list, just visit a few websites for Health Promotion Campaigns).
Read the materials to identify some of the strategies included in the campaign.
Find examples of strategies that use these three characteristics of the NPH Approach.