Overview of National Preventive Health Taskforce

Discuss About The Aboriginal Communities In Central Australia.

The assignment title emphasizes on the health promotion and public health. Thus this study focuses on a report titled “Australia: The Healthiest Country by 2020 National Preventive Strategy”. The chapters upon which the study will be based upon are the chapter 1: buildup of preventive health in Australian communities; and chapter 2: obesity in Australia. Chapter 1 will mainly discuss the vision, mission and action upon the healthcare choices related to the life of the Australians. It will also include various types of the action with respect to the several types of health issues related to alcohol, tobacco and obesity. The conceptual framework and the roadmap for the prevention of the issues along with ensuring with its effective implementation. Chapter 2 provides a more focused approach to the prevention of the obesity, the key target and action areas.

The purpose of the document or the report lies in the main vision of making Australia one of the healthiest country by 2020. In order to turn the vision into a reality, a list of strategies is set that will provide a series of practical and strategic actions. These strategic and the practical actions are thus implemented in all the sectors and by all the Australians within the year 2020. This is at first instance can be considered as a huge task but the rewards gained can be beneficial for the whole nation in terms of the wellbeing, improved health and lives saved (Health.gov.au 2018).

The relevant aspects of the report are embedded into the tackling of the economic burden, social, personal burden with respect to the chronic illness. These especially act as a burden upon the ageing population of Australia. Prevention is considered as the only means through which the burden of the burdens. The three priority section that is identified by the Australian Government is the reduction in the number of the Australians that are obese and overweight; increasing the rate of reduction in the number of smokers; addressing the social and health harms which results due to risky drinking.

When the health and the social issues are highlighted, the strategies undertaken are based on the certain theories and models which are as follows: social marketing, public policy framework and diffusion of innovation at the community level. With respect to the first phase of obesity reduction strategy, the first strategy involves the environmental changes that are to be brought within the community in order to increase the physical activity and also reduce the sedentary behavior (Wadden et al. 2012). The diffusion of innovation can be seen through the strategy of encouraging the people to have higher levels of physical activity and eating healthy food through the effective social marketing. The public policy framework explicitly emphasizes on the supporting the low-income communities by providing them with funds so that such low-income communities can improve their eating habits and have high physical activities. At the community level, the Australian government is putting emphasis on the reduction of the prevalence of obesity and its burden within the indigenous Australians. The report also emphasizes the building up of an evidence base that will help in evaluating and monitoring the effectiveness of the actions taken. This has a coherence with the evidence-based policy (Head 2013).

Health promotion theory as a tool for the assessment of the National Preventive Health Taskforce report

 Parental involvement is one of the major aspects of improving the dietary intake of the children. Research has shown that the parental involvement in activities like the meetings, food preparation, phone calls, text messages and weekly newsletters are vital for the successful nutritional programs in the schools. Parental involvement along with the school-based intervention program is found to increase the physical activity in children and reduce the tendencies of obesity in children. The report, however, fails to take into account the role of the parents in the whole strategy of improving the condition of obesity among the children (Swinburn and Wood 2013). The findings from certain research reveal that the isolated regulatory interventions have a large impact on the health improvement with respect to the obesity reduction. It is important to mention that the public policies exclusively directed towards improving the nutritional intake haven’t reflected much on the overall health of the individuals. The interventions carried out in an open geographical area did not yield positive outcomes, while it is much more fruitful with respect to the interventions carried out in an isolated area (Sisnowski, Street and Merlin 2017).

The key areas of action upon which the strategies are made are as follows:

1. To bring environmental changes throughout the community in order to elevate the levels of activity and also to reduce the sedentary behaviour of the people.
2. To bring the changes within the supply of food so as to increase the demand and the availability of the food products that are healthy. The strategy is also to decrease the demand and the availability of the unhealthy food products.
3. Embed healthy eating and physical activity into the everyday life.
4. Encourage and motivate people to have healthy eating practices and improve the levels of physical activity through the effective and comprehensive social marketing (Health.gov.au 2018).
5. To reduce the exposure of the children to the sponsorship, promotion, advertising and marketing of the energy-rich nutrient beverages and food.
6. Support, upskill, support the public workforce and primary health care so that the people can be supported to make proper healthy choices.
7. Address child health and maternal health which will enhance the growth patterns and early life of a child.
8. To provide support to the low-income communities so that they can have a healthy eating practice and also improve the physical activity.
9. Reduce the prevalence of obesity and its burden on the indigenous communities.
10. Build the evidence base through which the effective actions can be effectively monitored and evaluated (Health.gov.au 2018).

The specific theories used in the report are: diffusion of innovation (at the community level), social marketing (at the communication level), public policy framework and evidence-based policy (at the public policy level).

The theory of diffusion of innovation is described as the process through which the new ideas and practices are communicated and adopted in a social system. The process of the adoption of the new idea is influenced by the characteristics of the targets of change, rates at which the innovations are adopted, nature of the system itself, nature of the innovation and the nature of the change agent (Di Benedetto 2015). The scope of the theory is explicit for the programs that aim to maximize adoption of effective practice that is evidence-based. However, one of the limitations of the theory is the laggards may face structural barriers and may lack the resources (Kiesling et al. 2012). The key action 3 explicitly highlights the incorporation of the proper eating habits and physical activity into the daily lives of the people. This particular action emphasizes on the workplace, schools and communities which provides the ideal scope for the individuals to engage and take control of their own. In the schools, the agencies can provide the opportunity so that children can gain the awareness and understanding. This, in turn, will promote a healthy environment and will reduce obesity in children (Gibson et al. 2012). Within the spreading awareness and practicing the habit of having healthy food and reducing the sedentary behavior can lead to the promotion of the obesity reduction. Promoting health issues at the workplace, schools and the community level will require a larger workforce and effective management of the information dissipation. This strategy is not feasible for quick results, whereas in the long term this will lead to positive outcomes (Dobbins et al. 2013).

Social marketing aims to influence the health behavior and social norms. Within this perspective, the seller is the health organization, government and the practitioner, while the buyer is the target group. Social marketing involves the placement, promotion, price and product. Social marketing is more a planning model than a theory and it encourages the creative thinking. The planning model is more complex than a commercial marketplace (Lefebvre 2013). Similarly, the key action 4 also deals with the social marketing planning. The key action 4 focuses on funding the social marketing campaigns at the national level which will incorporate the healthy eating, increase the physical activity and reduce the sedentary lifestyle (Schultz 2012). The social marketing will also help people to make informed choices about their health. This strategy is feasible and when the government is funding, then the resources will not be a constraint. However, the major concern is that consistency with which the social marketing will be used. The process needs to be consistent in order to increase the awareness and make people have the proper lifestyle (Campbell et al. 2014).

The public policy framework and the evidence-based policy work at the public policy level and this can be related to the key action 8 and 10. To provide support to the low-income communities so that they can have a healthy eating practice and also improve the physical activity. The building of the evidence base through which the effective actions can be monitored and evaluated (Kingsley et al. 2013). Supporting the low-income communities will be a resource-intensive process and since the target is to attain a healthy Australia will need a consistent approach. While the key action 10 also demands a consistent approach and it might strain the resources due to continuous monitoring and evaluation.

Similar kind of initiative was taken up by the Chinese government with respect to the prevention of obesity in children and teenagers and adults. Few education programs acted as intervention programs for increasing the awareness among the people. Finally, the government intervention through the effective policy measures and also through the corporate social responsibility led to the reduction of overweight and obesity in Chinese children, teenagers and adults (Wang and Zhai 2013).

With respect to the report, one can align his or her views of health promotion. The high rates of obesity, alcohol and smoking tendencies have led to deteriorating health conditions among the Australians and the indigenous people of Australia (Bourke et al. 2012). The health promotion plan is ambitious regarding the key actions the government is taking. Economics, it is also important to note that the plan will last till 2020 and it will require a lot of funding to promote awareness among the low-income communities, spreading awareness through the social marketing. 

Conclusion

 From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the report is well documented and structured and it has the clear mention of the intentions of the government. The reports emphasize the three major issues of drinking, tobacco addiction and obesity. In this study, the obesity section is focused and it highlights 10 major key actions upon which the Australian government will act. From the report, a reader can learn that the considering the present deteriorating health condition of the Australians, the report and its strategies will serve a guide for making Australia a healthy country within the year 2020.

Reference

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