Determinants of Health

This is another way of showing the same thing. And this model from Canada shows twelve of the social determinants of health. It’s slightly more comprehensive in its illustration of those core determinants. And the model includes more than just social determinants. You’ll note that it’s actually titled Determinants of Health. What it also includes are the environmental determinants. So, please note the inclusion of things like gender, the skills and personal coping capacities of the person, social and support structures around culture, the health of children, early childhood development. You’ll also see the word literacy then used. Now in health promotion, health literacy is in much in what we do. It’s a course skill set for practitioners.

But it needs to be considered in the broader context not as just a standalone action. And it’s really worth noting that when we talk about literacy, there are many types of health literacy. For example, nutrition literacy, obesity literacy, safety literacy, all have unique ways of knowing, unique language and also unique skills. So I put this slide up because all of these things that we do relate to a competency base that underpins health promotion. And in many countries, what we are seeing is health promotion practitioners becoming accredited.

And the Ottawa Charter, sorry, and with expectations that they will understand what we would consider to be core knowledge, be able to demonstrate core skills, and be able to apply them in different situations. They would understand aspects around social and cultural diversity, issues around inequity, being able to create calls to action, apply various models, and so on. And there’s quite a large skill set,

but the critical part about this is that health promotion combines both content: knowledge, skills, but also an art element and I’ll talk about that in a while. If you would like a little bit more examples around social determinants, have a look at this video. It’s about Aboriginal people in Australia. And if you’re viewing it, what I’d suggest you do is write down the determinants as they’re mentioned. It presents a unique example, but it’s worth thinking about that each culture has unique determinants. Certain determinants that will be more important than others.