Unit F912:
Promoting Good Health
Health & Social Care AS

Contents Page

A01 – Pages 3 - 13

A02 -

A03 –

A04 –

Promoting good health

This unit explores what is good health, the models, the range of lifestyle choices and societal factors which influence health and well-being. Health and well-being are not only affected by an individual’s lifestyle choices (e.g. smoking, eating unhealthy ‘fatty food), but also by societal and environmental issues (e.g. living near a motorway – high pollution levels)
Government policies and legislation have an imperative part to play in the promotion of good health, as the introduction on screening programmes (e.g. cervical smear test, antenatal screening etc.); which prevent ill health, has been an incredible and useful tool.
Health promoters also have a significant role to play in helping individual’s using services to make the right decision about their health. As their choice of presentation approach can make or damage a health promotion campaign. Further, health promoters need to take into account the presentation methods, and to ensure that they have been chosen well to confirm that the message is successfully put over to the individual to whom it is directed.
What is ‘health’?
The Worlds Health Organisation (WHO) defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. However, others may simply define health as the absence of illness, eating balanced diets, or exercising regularly. Consequently, because there are different views on ‘health’, its definition is referred to as ‘biomedical’, ‘positive’, and the social ‘holistic’ approaches.
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The ‘negative’ view of health
A very common way of defining health is the ‘negative’ concept of health, whereby ‘health’ is defined in