Health promotion settings

Settings are an important cornerstone for successful health promotion as outlined in the 1986 Ottawa Charter. The settings approach moves interventions upstream from defining goals and targets in terms of populations and people, towards goals that look at changes in organisations, systems and the environment.

Historically health promotion has focussed on controlling external factors that might have a detrimental effect on our health e.g. reducing passive tobacco smoking or exposure to sun. A settings based approach moves to the other end of the continuum by introducing health interventions within the environment to reduce risk factors e.g. introducing smoke-free workplaces or erecting shade structures.

There are a number of different strategies for settings including developing healthy public policy, introducing regulations or legislation and launching new decision-making mechanisms for change.

Good practice factors include a critical understanding of the setting, developing effective inter-sectoral collaboration with relevant parties, active leadership, meaningful community participation and a commitment to equity issues.

Health promotion settings include:

• Schools
• Local Government
• Workplaces (smoke-free workplaces)
• General Practice