"Compare features of individual lifestyle approach with the New Public Health Approach"

Essay by chicken2night July 2006

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Approach constituting to better health for all Australians.

The new public health is primarily about empowering individuals, encouraging community participation and recognising social determinants of health in health promotion programs and initiatives. It also provides us with a holistic view of health whereby interacting factors influence health. It's aim is to increase community action and participation this is done by the encouragement of healthy public policy, intersectoral collaboration and social support.

The Individual lifestyle Approach assumes people can take control over their own health, it uses the blame mentality where the ill individual is the one responsible for ill health, also it supports the belief that the supply of resources solves health problems. It aims to primarily encourage individuals to take control over health by changing their own lifestyle behaviour. This view of health is limited because it is narrow minded and fails to define social factors that influence health and the basic fact that not everyone is able to fully take control of their health.

E.g. such social factors include: socio-economic status, education, religious and cultural backgrounds.

Features of the individual lifestyle approach and the New Public Health Approach show us their effect on the community as a whole and aim to achieve to promote better health for all Australians. Australia has moved towards the New Public Health Approach to health promotion mainly due to the simplistic understanding and the limitations of the individual lifestyle approach.