Health Promotion International Advance Access originally published online on January 28, 2005
Health Promotion International 2005 20(2):209-210; doi:10.1093/heapro/dah512
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RESOURCE REVIEW |
Hands on Health Promotion
Rob Moodie and Alana Hulme (eds)
IP Communications, East Hawthorn, Victoria, April 2004, 418 pp., ISBN: 0 9578617 6 1
E-mail: bernie.marshall{at}deakin.edu.au
Hands on Health Promotion is an interesting and unusual text in health promotion. Its focus is clearly on everyday practice, rather than theoretical or academic considerations and, in bringing together over 50 authors, it has succeeded in exploring areas of practice that have not traditionally appeared in health promotion texts. However, it is not simply a descriptive text telling stories of good practice, but strives to set such practice within developmental and critical frameworks that will support students, practitioners and organizations in understanding how good health promotion practice arises and is sustained.
The book is divided into five parts, most with a number of chapters. Part 1 presents the ‘building blocks for health promotion’ and is the largest section of the book. It begins with an introduction to basic epidemiology and measures of population health and follows this with an interesting overview of the why and how of evaluation. Other chapters in Part 1 cover traditional health promotion topics, such as advocacy, partnerships to promote health and health communication, while others are areas we see covered less often in texts: how to influence policy; public health, health promotion and the law; leadership and management; project management; and improving community capacity in developed and developing countries.
Part 2 looks at the contexts for health promotion practice in relation to nine health issues and behaviours, including tobacco control, physical activity, healthy eating and mental health. The focus is on how to develop effective practice in each of these areas, including issues such as how to create the public and political climates that would support health promotion action. In some (e.g. tobacco control) the focus is more on the ‘big picture’ with little coverage of what role a health promotion practitioner might undertake. The chapters on healthy eating and physical activity provide similar big picture material but also present frameworks and principles that underpin action in these areas. The chapter on harm reduction gives considerable attention to how to work with community concerns about these matters, particularly in relation to illicit drug use.
Part 3 has a similar approach to Part 2, but this time in relation to five settings and sectors for health promotion. Again, some have been covered in other health promotion texts (school communities, sport and recreation settings) but others are breaking new ground—early childhood settings and community arts. Part 4 looks at effective health promotion practice for special populations, and ranges from groups traditionally covered in health promotion texts (such as the health of children, men and women) to emerging priority population groups (refugees, older people) and to a population group where we still are to create significant health gain—indigenous health. The final part of the book, containing only one chapter, sets the scene for what is likely to be another of the real challenges for health promotion—our capacity to address and redress health inequities linked to socioeconomic factors.
In general, these chapters take a ‘what to do’ and ‘how to do’ approach. They present information on the big picture, provide frameworks and contexts for action, identify principles and case studies, and provide resources and further reading. They explore the context of effective practice, not simply describing programmes, projects and strategies. But clearly, with an average chapter length of about 12 pages, there will not be sufficient detail to make you an expert in any of these areas or to give comprehensive answers to the ‘what’ and ‘how’ questions that the book sets out to address. But they do provide valuable insights into effective approaches to a broad range of areas, of some of the considerations that need to be made in working for change, and of the roles that people at various levels within the health and other sectors need to play.
In his introductory chapter, Rob Moodie says that this is a book designed to meet the need for ‘simple and clear information and advice on how to conceptualise, develop, implement, monitor and evaluate health promotion programs at national, provincial/state and local levels’. This is a challenge for a relatively slim volume (418 pages) but one that the book goes a considerable way to meeting. The diverse range of authors, both Australian and international, their considerable expertise and the book's focus on practice, will ensure that it finds a place on many desks and be used on a regular basis.
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