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Health Promotion – Principles and practice in the Australian context

Health Promotion – Principles and practice in the Australian context By Mary Louise Fleming and Elizabeth Parker . Published by Allen & Unwin , Sydney , January 2007 . Paperback, 386 pages with index. RRP $55 . ISBN 1 74175 017 2. . Reviewed by Chris Rissel , School of Public Health, University of Sydney, New South Wales . This third edition of Health Promotion – Principles and practice in the Australian context is an excellent text that comprehensively describes where Australian health promotion professional practice is up to in the early part of the 21st century. This edition is not fundamentally different from the earlier editions, in that they all follow the same structure. However, each new edition is more sophisticated than the last, reflecting the growth and development in health promotion. Each edition is an increment on the previous one with updated examples. In each edition there is a section on historical developments in health promotion, national strategies for health promotion, program planning, program management, and then chapters on specific settings in which health promotion activity can be found, such as rural and remote communities, worksites, schools, community, Aboriginal communities and health care settings. The discussion of program evaluation incorporates good material from the evaluation literature that acknowledges some of the political aspects. This appeared first in the second editions and is well presented in this third edition. Its reasonable length allows good coverage of many of the issues and the authors have done a good job in writing succinctly. It reads well, does not get bogged down in any one issue, and communicates well the range of skills needed in health promotion. It is more of an ‘all‐rounder’ Australian text than Egger et al.'s Health Promotion Strategies and Methods , or Hawe et al.'s Evaluating Health Promotion (without being as detailed in these particular areas), and different again to texts with a public health focus (e.g. Baum's The New Public Health: an Australian perspective ). As for areas for improvement, I can personally identify a few minor ones, but most readers are more than likely to be generally satisfied. I thought the authors could have made more effort to distinguish ‘public health’ from ‘health promotion’, but, to be fair, this is a difficult distinction to make given the overlap that does exist if you take a broad view of public health. There are many examples in text boxes throughout the book, but there were none given when describing the planning and management models. This book is well written, well organised, and relevant to Australia readers. I can see it being particularly useful for newcomers to health promotion and it is likely to be used widely for introductory or postgraduate courses in health promotion. Given that the first edition was published in 1995, the second in 2001 and the third in 2007, perhaps we can expect the fourth in 2013? http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health Wiley

Health Promotion – Principles and practice in the Australian context

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health , Volume 31 (4) – Aug 1, 2007
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Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company
ISSN
1326-0200
eISSN
1753-6405
DOI
10.1111/j.1753-6405.2007.00097.x
Publisher site
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Abstract

By Mary Louise Fleming and Elizabeth Parker . Published by Allen & Unwin , Sydney , January 2007 . Paperback, 386 pages with index. RRP $55 . ISBN 1 74175 017 2. . Reviewed by Chris Rissel , School of Public Health, University of Sydney, New South Wales . This third edition of Health Promotion – Principles and practice in the Australian context is an excellent text that comprehensively describes where Australian health promotion professional practice is up to in the early part of the 21st century. This edition is not fundamentally different from the earlier editions, in that they all follow the same structure. However, each new edition is more sophisticated than the last, reflecting the growth and development in health promotion. Each edition is an increment on the previous one with updated examples. In each edition there is a section on historical developments in health promotion, national strategies for health promotion, program planning, program management, and then chapters on specific settings in which health promotion activity can be found, such as rural and remote communities, worksites, schools, community, Aboriginal communities and health care settings. The discussion of program evaluation incorporates good material from the evaluation literature that acknowledges some of the political aspects. This appeared first in the second editions and is well presented in this third edition. Its reasonable length allows good coverage of many of the issues and the authors have done a good job in writing succinctly. It reads well, does not get bogged down in any one issue, and communicates well the range of skills needed in health promotion. It is more of an ‘all‐rounder’ Australian text than Egger et al.'s Health Promotion Strategies and Methods , or Hawe et al.'s Evaluating Health Promotion (without being as detailed in these particular areas), and different again to texts with a public health focus (e.g. Baum's The New Public Health: an Australian perspective ). As for areas for improvement, I can personally identify a few minor ones, but most readers are more than likely to be generally satisfied. I thought the authors could have made more effort to distinguish ‘public health’ from ‘health promotion’, but, to be fair, this is a difficult distinction to make given the overlap that does exist if you take a broad view of public health. There are many examples in text boxes throughout the book, but there were none given when describing the planning and management models. This book is well written, well organised, and relevant to Australia readers. I can see it being particularly useful for newcomers to health promotion and it is likely to be used widely for introductory or postgraduate courses in health promotion. Given that the first edition was published in 1995, the second in 2001 and the third in 2007, perhaps we can expect the fourth in 2013?

Journal

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health – Wiley

Published: Aug 1, 2007

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