New ways in health promotion and health education

1
New ways in health promotion and health education

• An interdisciplinary development project in
  community based health care to the elderly

2
A collaboration between

• University College Øresund
• Faculty of Nursery, Jette Roesen
• Faculty of Occupational Therapy, Jane Andersen
• Faculty of Physiotherapy, Alex de Vries
• Municipality of Copenhagen
• Indre By, Vesterbro and Kongens Enghave
• Danish University of Education,
• Bjarne Bruun Jensen

3
Background

• Municipality of Copenhagen experienced, after
  health professional end their intervention, that
  the elderly had difficulties in maintaining their
  health and needed professional support again.

4
Overall purpose

• To develop and test health promotion and health
  education as a possible strategy and method in
  community based healthcare to elderly.

5
Overall focus

• Which competencies do health professionals need
  to create space to elderly, so they can develop
  ownership and action competence related to their
  own health, also after health professionals have
  finished their intervention?

6
Health promotion ? prevention

• Common statement
• Health promotion is to
• Help in seeing possibilities
• Release resources
• Make independent
• Something you do together with people
• Prevention is
• Concerning with avoiding faulty conditions

7
Underlying concepts

• Health Promotion ? enhancing well-being The
  underlying concept is that of a biopsychosocial
  approach (empowerment approach) to health
  promotion
• Prevention ? health education
• The underlying concept is that of a medical
  approach to health promotion

8
Method

• Combination of quantitative and qualitative
  research methods
• Phase 1 Interviews, questionnaires and document
  analyses
• Phase 2 Dialogue workshops and experiments
• Phase 3 Depends on the results of phase 2

9
Do you work with health promotion and prevention
related to elderly?

• fall prevention, prevention of loneliness
  network building activities related to promote
  life quality (occupational therapist)
• Im not always aware of when Im working with
  health promotion or when Im working with
  prevention (physiotherapist)
• Its part of being a nurse, you cant take it
  from us (nurse)
• Our task is treatment, we always have a specific
  goal but we consider specific things at their
  home, so some prevention can be actual (nurse)

10
Is their a difference in working with health
promotion or working with prevention?
1

• If I have to make a distinction between health
  promotion and prevention, then I should say If
  it is about health promotion then I think its
  campaigns at television. If it is about
  prevention, then I think smaller, Its me
  together with a client. (occupational therapist)
• I think prevention is to prevent more loss of
  function, or this could also be health promotion
  because its life quality as well.
  (physiotherapist)
• Health promotion, isnt that something we do
  with prevention? I promote health with
  prevention. (social and health assistant)

11
Is their a difference in working with health
promotion or working with prevention?
2

• Health promotion is a part of prevention
  (social and health helper)
• Prevention must be health promotion but also the
  other way around! (social and health helper)
• Eg. Food and physical activity can both work as
  health promotion and as prevention (social and
  health helper)
• I consider both as being dependent of each
  other (nurse)

12
Results phase1

• Health professionals do work with health
  promotion and prevention in their current
  practice
• How do they work? As a conscience strategy or
  as implemented in ordinary observation
• The majority says, it doesnt make sense to make
  a distinction between health promotion and
  prevention in their work with elderly

13
Results phase 1 continued

• Conceptual confusion in relation to health
  promotion and prevention
• Maybe you can separate the concepts
  theoretically, but this is not possible in
  practice
• The concepts are not connected to a notion of
  health

14
Discussion

• How can we think health promotion and prevention
  together in stead of thinking in two separate
  concepts?

15
Discussion

• Is there an existing concept of health promotion
  and prevention which fits to health professionals
  working with community-dwelling elderly or do we
  need a new understanding?