This section is for clinicians looking for practical health promotion information to use with clients.
Focus on wellness
Imagine a continuum from well to unwell. Where would your health status fit? Where would the health status of groups or populations that you belong to (e.g., based on age, gender, sexual orientation, culture, race, spirituality or income status) fit? It’s likely that some of your health-related variables would fall along the well end of the continuum, others would fall closer to the unwell end and still others would fall somewhere in the middle. The same would be true for the collective health of populations you belong to. The same would be true for clients you work with.
The continuum is dynamic, not static. A person’s, a group’s or a community’s health and well-being can fluctuate along the continuum in response to various changing influences, such as risk and protective factors, and social determinants of health.
Regardless of where health-related variables fall on the continuum, there are ways to improve a person’s or group’s overall well-being. Some of the ways are within an individual’s control, while others are dependent on the kinds of supports provided by society and on who has access to those supports.
In Overview of health promotion
Practise health promotion
Strategies to promote everyone’s health
Mental health promotion
Strategies to promote mental health
Recovery
Stigma: Prejudice and discrimination
Populations
Resources