IELTS JOURNAL 90 medical health care, but health promotion programs and policies which would help
people maintain healthy behaviours and lifestyles. While this individualistic healthy
lifestyles approach to health worked for some (the wealthy members of society),
people experiencing poverty, unemployment, underemployment or little control over
the conditions of their daily lives benefited little from this approach. This was largely
because both the healthy lifestyles approach and the medical approach to health
largely ignored the social and environmental conditions affecting the health of people.
E During the 1980s and 1990s there has been a growing swing away from seeing lifestyle
risks as the root cause of poor health. While lifestyle factors still remain important,
health is being viewed also in terms of the social, economic and environmental
contexts in which people live. This broad approach to health is called the socio-
ecological view of health. The broad socio-ecological view of health was endorsed at
the first International Conference of Health Promotion held in 1986, Ottawa, Canada,
where people from 38 countries agreed and declared that:
"The fundamental conditions and resources for health are peace, shelter, education,
food, a viable income, a stable eco-system, sustainable resources, social justice and
equity. Improvement in health requires a secure foundation in these basic
requirements."
(WHO, 1986)
It is clear from this statement that the creation of health is about much more than
encouraging healthy individual behaviours and lifestyles and providing appropriate
medical care. Therefore, the creation of health must include addressing issues such as
poverty, pollution, urbanisation, natural resource depletion, social alienation and poor
working conditions. The social, economic and environmental contexts which
contribute to the creation of heath do not operate separately or independently of each
other. Rather, they are interacting and interdependent, and it is the complex
interrelationships between them which determine the conditions that promote health.
A broad socio-ecological view of health suggests that the promotion of health must
include a strong social, economic and environmental focus.
F At the Ottawa Conference in 1986, a charter was developed which outlined new
directions for health promotion based on the socio-ecological view of health. This
charter, known as the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, remains as the backbone
of health action today. In exploring the scope of health promotion it states that: