Health promotion in Australia: twenty years on from the Ottawa Charter

Abstract

Australia has a longstanding history of promoting health through programs that reflect the principles of the Ottawa Charter and recognising the importance of social determinants of health. Health promotion programs are delivered by a wide range of organisations, in a wide range of settings and sectors for, or with, multiple groups. Since the mid-1980s aspects of infrastructure and capacity for health promotion, such as human and financial resources, have been put in place including the establishment of health promotion foundations via tobacco hypothecation. Following neo-liberal reforms in the 1990s, however, government policies have increasingly focused more narrowly on specific diseases and risk factors. Chronic disease has become the new banner under which health promotion, social determinants and efforts to address health inequalities fit. While the importance of social determinants is often recognised within and outside the health sector, health promotion practitioners are seldom at the centre of policy development. (Promotion & Education, 2007, XIV (4): pp 203-208)