Workplaces
Workplaces are anywhere that people are employed—business and industry (small, large, and multinational), governmental offices (local, state, and federal), schools, universities, community based organizations, and healthcare organizations. It has become increasingly clear that it makes financial sense to encourage and support employees’ healthy practices. Employers, both on their own initiative and because of the Affordable Care Act and federal regulations administered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, have been active in creating healthy and safe workplaces. As employers become aware that behaviors such as smoking, lack of physical activity, and poor nutritional habits adversely affect the health and productivity of their employees, they are providing their employees with a variety of workplace–based health promotion programs. These programs have been shown to improve employee health, increase productivity, and yield a significant value for employers (Fertman, 2015; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 2021).
Stakeholders in Health Promotion Programs
Stakeholders are the people and organizations that have an interest (i.e. a stake) in the health and programs of a specific group or population of people. First and foremost are the program participants, also called the priority population (for example, students, employees, community members, patients). The program is for their benefit and works to address their health concerns and problems. Although the authors of this book believe that the audience of any health promotion initiative should be regarded as the primary stakeholders, the term stakeholders traditionally has referred to other stakeholder groups that also have an interest in a program—for example, top civic, business, or health leaders in the community. The term stakeholders may also be used to describe the sponsoring organization’s executives, administrators, and supervisors; funding agencies; or government officials. In other words, stakeholders in a health promotion program are people who are directly or indirectly involved in the program.
Involving Stakeholders
Involving the stakeholders in a health promotion program is essential for its success. Involvement creates value and meaning for the stakeholders—for example, enlisting stakeholders to assist in identifying a program’s approaches and strategies in order to ensure congruence with stakeholders’ values and beliefs will strengthen stakeholders’ commitment to the program. Different stakeholders have different roles. Some stakeholders might help to define what is addressed in a program by sharing their personal health needs and concerns. Other stakeholders might offer services and activities in conjunction with the program (service collaborators). Stakeholders might serve as members of a program’s advisory board or as program champions or advocates, roles that are often essential in creating successful health promotion programs.
Advisory Boards
Most health promotion programs form some type of advisory board or advisory group (also sometimes called a team, task force, planning committee, coalition, or ad hoc committee) to provide program support, guidance, and oversight throughout the program planning, implementation, and evaluation process. For example, during planning, advisory board members are involved with determining program priorities as part of the needs assessment, developing program goals and objectives, and selecting program interventions. During implementation, they might participate in the initial program offering, program participant recruitment, material development, advocacy, and grant writing. During evaluation they often review reports and give feedback on how best to disseminate and use the evaluation results and findings. Some advisory boards are formal, with bylaws, regular meeting schedules, member responsibilities, and budgets. Others are informal, perhaps without any meetings but acting instead as a loose network of individuals who will offer advice and information when called upon by program staff.
Champions and Advocates
Health promotion programs often have champions whose advocacy provides leadership and passion for the program. The champion typically knows the setting, the health problems, and the individuals, families, and communities affected by the health problem. In the process of planning, implementing, and evaluating a program, champions provide insight into how the organization operates, who will be supportive, and potential challenges to implementing a health promotion program. They know the history of the health problem and what has worked before in solving it as well as what has not worked. (Frequently, champions are also called key informants because they know this important or key information about an organization.) Champions are the people who have initiated the effort to start the program, identify the health problem, or try to solve the problem (often volunteering their time and energy). They fight for resources, funding, and space for the program operations. Building a trusting and honest relationship with program champions, advocates, and key informants builds the foundation for the work of planning, implementing, and evaluating a health promotion program.
Emerging Health Promotion Era
For the health and health promotion professionals, a new health promotion era is emerging from the pandemic. COVID-19 is now part of our lives. The work of promoting health gained prominence and importance, but at the same time is intertwined with larger and more volatile societal forces. Furthermore, health and health promotion are now a global challenge that requires a coordinated global response. The race to find vaccines, drugs, and effective testing is a global pursuit. This reality shapes our work.
It is a given that we carefully and continuously monitor socioeconomic factors. We know to identify environmental threats and opportunities, including changes in governmental policies, legislation, and public policy statements to help formulate and take action to promote the health of the individuals and communities for which we care and serve. In the new era fragmentation within the general population is accelerating, causing tension and conflict that at times creates both opportunities and barriers to health and improved quality of life for individuals and communities.
In the new era health promotion and healthcare practice uses digital information, artificial intelligence, and communication technologies to improve people’s health and healthcare. The increasing use of technologies, especially the Internet and personal mobile devices, to manage health highlights the potential of technology tools to improve population health. COVID-19 caused a massive acceleration in the use of telehealth. Consumer adoption skyrocketed, from 11 percent of U.S. consumers using telehealth to 46 percent of consumers now using telehealth to replace cancelled healthcare visits. No longer are healthcare and health promotion programs just at a given site (i.e. school, workplace, clinic, hospital). Technology supports individuals’ engagement and full participation in promoting their health as well as being decision makers in their healthcare. We are not limited to a physical place, and therefore health promotion programs are not limited to a particular site. They can and do work within homes, schools, universities, communities, and workplaces, thereby involving family, colleagues, peers, co-workers, and friends. A key in the new health era is equity in peoples’ capacity and resources to access technology to promote their health.
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