Total Health Promotion

Physical health is continually affected by the mind. Positive thinking, learning to deal with anger and malice, and being a part of creative social networks can extend life and lessen our chances of becoming ill. But despite overwhelming scientific evidence that mind and body are integrally related, health promotion is split into separate specialisms: mental health promotion, exercise and nutrition, social health promotion, health education and many other categories.

Health Promotion in Canada is a comprehensive profile of the history, current status, and future of health promotion in Canada. This fourth edition maintains the critical approach of the previous three editions but provides a current and in-depth analysis of theory, practice, policy, and research in Canada in relation to recent innovative approaches in health promotion. Thoroughly updated with 15 new chapters and all-new learning objectives, the edited collection contains contributions by prominent Canadian academics, researchers, and practitioners as well as an afterword by Ronald Labonté. The authors cover a broad range of topics including inequities in health, Indigenous communities and immigrants, mental health, violence against women, global ecological change, and globalization. The book also provides critical reflections on practice and concrete Canadian examples that bring theory to life.

This open access textbook represents a vital contribution to global health education, offering insights into health promotion as part of patient care for bachelor’s and master’s students in health care (nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiotherapists, social care workers etc.) as well as health care professionals, and providing an overview of the field of health science and health promotion for PhD students and researchers. Written by leading experts from seven countries in Europe, America, Africa and Asia, it first discusses the theory of health promotion and vital concepts. It then presents updated evidence-based health promotion approaches in different populations (people with chronic diseases, cancer, heart failure, dementia, mental disorders, long-term ICU patients, elderly individuals, families with newborn babies, palliative care patients) and examines different health promotion approaches integrated into primary care services. This edited scientific anthology provides much-needed knowledge, translating research into guidelines for practice. Today’s medical approaches are highly developed; however, patients are human beings with a wholeness of body-mind-spirit. As such, providing high-quality and effective health care requires a holistic physical-psychological-social-spiritual model of health care is required. A great number of patients, both in hospitals and in primary health care, suffer from the lack of a holistic oriented health approach: Their condition is treated, but they feel scared, helpless and lonely. Health promotion focuses on improving people’s health in spite of illnesses. Accordingly, health care that supports/promotes patients’ health by identifying their health resources will result in better patient outcomes: shorter hospital stays, less re-hospitalization, being better able to cope at home and improved well-being, which in turn lead to lower health-care costs. This scientific anthology is the first of its kind, in that it connects health promotion with the salutogenic theory of health throughout the chapters. the authors here expand the understanding of health promotion beyond health protection and disease prevention. The book focuses on describing and explaining salutogenesis as an umbrella concept, not only as the key concept of sense of coherence.

"Would you want to be at your ideal weight? Truly look and feel younger and avoid premature aging? Eliminate or vastly reduce some disease or illness? Increase your daily energy and not feel down or tired all the time? Something else, or all of the above? Next, envision what it will feel like to achieve that improvement. Maybe that sounds a bit hokey, but please try it. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine what it will really feel like to look in the mirror and see a fit and younger looking you. Imagine feeling healthier, full of energy, free of illness, and more upbeat throughout the day, no matter what your current condition." -- publisher website (August 2006).

Shine a spotlight on the benefits of promoting health in theworkplace Workplace Health Promotion Programs focuses on theincredible value that employee health programs can offer byexploring six key topics: behavioral health, physical health,healthy environments, health education, nutritional health, andphysical activity. This in-depth resource explicitly establisheswhat successful workplace health promotion programs, services, andcollaborations are, and then builds upon this foundationalunderstanding by introducing methods and tools for promotingemployee health and safety, while emphasizing the skills studentsneed to do so. Through this resource, students will come tounderstand how to recognize employee health and safetyopportunities, and how to think on a larger scale when it comes toworkplace health initiatives in small, midsized, and largeremployers that are comprehensive and fiscally sound. Workplace health promotion programs have the potential to bothimprove the health of the population as a whole and controlhealthcare spending in the process. Health problems are estimatedto cost employers in the United States over $200 billion per yearthrough medical costs, absenteeism, disability, and overall reducedproductivity. Improving well-being through effective workplacehealth promotion programs can reduce this cost—and createhealthier, happier workforces. Discover the design, implementation, and evaluation ofworkplace health promotion programs that address the range ofemployee health needs and concerns Understand how evidence-based programs can positively impactbusiness and reduce health care cost Explore the larger scale implications of successful workplacehealth programs, including health policies, health insurancedesign, worker safety, employee behavior, etc. Learn how together employers and employees work to create aculture of health and well-being to support and promote employeehealth and safety Review the ways in which successful workplace health promotionprograms can prove financially beneficial Workplace Health Promotion Programs is a resource thatguides students and professionals alike in the discovery,development, and execution of successful employee healthinitiatives.

Incisively written, this new edition of a popular guide first published in 1996 slices through the rhetoric of health promotion. Its penetrating analysis quickly reveals health promotion’s conceptual roots, providing an enlightening map of their web of theory and practice. David Seedhouse proves that health promotion, a discipline intended to improve the health of a population, is prejudiced—every plan and every project stems first from human values—and argues that only by acknowledging this will a mature discipline emerge. To help speed progress the author proposes a positive, practical theory of health promotion destined to inspire anyone who wishes to create better health. This new edition includes three new chapters on conventional health promotion, radical and foundational health promotion and mental health promotion, providing examples of the use of foundational health promotion. This new edition also adds five new teaching exercises, incorporates and updates the guide for teachers and lecturers and includes a new topical case study. This book is laced with entertaining dialogues and readers are encouraged to explore ten carefully presented exercises. Educational, accessible and intelligent, Health Promotion: Philosophy, Prejudice and Practice, 2nd Edition is a seminal work which heralds the beginning of the end of health promotion’s long adolescence. It is nothing less than essential reading for all practitioners and students of health promotion.