How to engage Children and Families as Part of Multidisciplinary Health Promotion Teams
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35898/ghmj-71981Keywords:
Education for girls, Health literacy, Immunization, Measles, Misinformation, WHO Health Promoting SchoolsAbstract
Health promotion is the process we employ as health care providers and policy makers to enable people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. Effective health promotion includes several major components, and while policies must be made to promote health, much can be also done by small multidisciplinary teams working with local communities. Importantly such teams are most effective where they include members of the target audience for the health promotion initiative. Consequently where the health of mothers and children is the priority, to engage the target audience effectively, parents and family members including children should contribute as members of the team.
Worldwide, education of girls is known to generate multiple health and economic benefits; measures to counter misinformation and use of education programs such as the WHO health promotion model to provide knowledge accompanied by practical health-related skills are of proven value.
Effective teams incorporate cultural traits and gender equity into strategies that build resilience and self-regulatory efficacy over social determinants of health. Strategies that help individuals and communities to advance towards the UN sustainable development goals have obvious merit.
Health knowledge can be conveyed readily, for example in relation to childhood vaccination, but achieving changes in values, attitudes, and health habits requires effort and innovation by multidisciplinary teams that work synergistically to promote health in an innovative and inclusive manner. The more this is done, the greater the beneficial changes we are likely to achieve.
Downloads
References
Aria W, de Freitas J, Francis M, Macnab AJ. (2019) Engaging Afghan men at a societal level to increase women's access to contraception. Medical Anthropology Theory. 6(4):152-165 doi.org/10.17157/mat.6.4.732
https://doi.org/10.17157/mat.6.4.732.
Bartlett, L. A., Mawji, S., Whitehead, S., Crouse, C., Dalil, S., Ionete, D., & Salama, P. (2005). Where giving birth is a forecast of death: maternal mortality in four districts of Afghanistan, 1999-2002. The Lancet, 365(9462), 864-870. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(05)71044-8
Bustreo, F., Okwo-Bele, J. M., & Kamara, L. (2015). World Health Organization perspectives on the contribution of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization on reducing child mortality. Archives of disease in childhood, 100(Suppl 1), S34-S37. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2013-305693
Gandhi, G. (2015). Charting the evolution of approaches employed by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI) to address inequities in access to immunization: a systematic qualitative review of GAVI policies, strategies and resource allocation mechanisms through an equity lens (1999-2014). BMC Public Health, 15, 1-35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-2521-8
Larson, H. (2018).The biggest pandemic risk? Viral misinformation.. Nature, 562(7726): 309-310. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07034-4
Macnab AJ. (2013) The Stellenbosch consensus statement on Health Promoting Schools. Global Health Promotion. 20(1), 78-81.doi:10.1177/1757975912464252 http://pedsagepub.com.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1757975912464252
Macnab AJ. (2020). The World Health Organization 'Health Promoting School' model: a potential avenue for DOHaD education in Africa. In: ''Health in Transition: Translating DOHaD Science to Improve Future Health in Africa.' Macnab AJ, Daar A, Pauw C (Eds). STIAS Book Series. Sun African Media, Stellenbosch, South Africa. pp 203-231. https://doi.org/10.18820/9781928357759/12
Macnab AJ. (2023) Innovative strategies to promote global health: Lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic. Global Health Management Journal. 6(1): 47-53. https://doi.org/10.35898/ghmj-61956
Macnab, A. J., & Mukisa, R. (2017). The UN Sustainable Development Goals; using World Health Organization's 'Health Promoting Schools' to create change. Global Health Management Journal, 1(1), 23-27. https://doi.org/10.35898/ghmj-1190
Macnab, A. J., Gagnon, F. A., & Stewart, D. (2014). Health promoting schools: consensus, strategies, and potential. Health Education, 114(3), 170-185. https://doi.org/10.1108/HE-11-2013-0055
Rutstein, S. O. (2005). Effects of preceding birth intervals on neonatal, infant and under"five years mortality and nutritional status in developing countries: evidence from the demographic and health surveys. International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, 89, S7-S24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgo.2004.11.012
Sippel L, Kiziak T, Woellert F, & Klingholz R. (2011). Africa's demographic challenges. How a young population can make development possible. Berlin Institute for Population and Development. 1-80. ISBN: 978-3-9814679-0-1.
Tsui, A. O., McDonald-Mosley, R., & Burke, A. E. (2010). Family planning and the burden of unintended pregnancies. Epidemiologic Reviews. 32(1):152-74. https://doi.org/10.1093/epirev/mxq012
UN Human Rights Commission. (2008). The Right to Health. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Publications/Factsheet31.pdf
Viner, R. M., Ozer, E. M., Denny, S., Marmot, M., Resnick, M., Fatusi, A., & Currie, C. (2012). Adolescence and the social determinants of health. The Lancet, 379(9826), 1641-1652. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60149-4
World Health Organization Expert Committee on Comprehensive School Health Education and Promotion. (1997). Promoting Health Through Schools (WHO Technical Report Series No. 870.
World Health Organization. (1986). Ottawa charter for health promotion, 1986. World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe.
World Health Organization. (2014). European vaccine action plan 2015-2020. World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Andrew John Macnab

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
GHMJ (Global Health Management Journal) conforms fully to The Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) and DOAJ Open Access Definition. Authors, readers, and reviewers are free to Share ” copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and Adapt ” remix, transform, and build upon the material. Author(s) retain unrestricted copyrights and publishing rights of their work. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Learn the details at the License policy.