The Ottawa Charter: The Social Model Of Health Education

Health promotion is a means of improving and controlling the health of individual’s communities and even populations using a varied range of approaches. For the past 30 years there have been 3 key models used to support health promotion; The Biomedical model which focuses on health education and is used to educate individuals and communities so that they can make the right decisions which could improve their lives, the social model which tries to reduce social inequalities and looks into the determinants of health and lastly the ecological model of health which considers the relationship between health and the environments in which people live (Speller, 2007).
As early as the mid-19th century saw a social hygiene period with sewage in the streets and people living in very tight crammed areas bacteria began to grow rapidly and many people became ill and died, the 1848 public health act was then proposed and in this act offered health advice on germs and contagions. In 1862 the ladies sanitary reform association was formed and this saw a
The Ottawa charter was the first international conference on health promotion and its aim was to” achieve health for all by the year 2000 and beyond” the Ottawa charter planned on doing this by incorporating 5 key action areas, build a healthy public policy, reorient health services, create supportive environments, develop personal skills and strengthen community action which is done by the health education strategy these 5 action areas were centered around 3 health promotion strategies, enable mediate and advocate (Lloyd, 2010). The Ottawa charter enabled the public to take control of their life’s and wellbeing (WHO,