NADA - Health Promotion

About NADA

Health Promotion

The NADA Health Promotion Subcommittee is a formal committee of the NADA Board of Directors and was established in 2004. The subcommittee provides a forum to identify, discuss and analyse key health promotion issues facing the non government drug and alcohol sector.

The role of the subcommittee is to:
• Provide advice and direction to the NADA Board of Directors on key issues for D&A health promotion in NSW
• Identify the highest priority issues for D&A health promotion for NADA
Develop and maintain strategic linkages with key stakeholders e.g. MHDAO, ADCA and member agencies.
• Advocate for greater involvement of AOD NGOs, and in particular NADA, in government decision making processes and funding decisions on D&A health promotion initiatives.
• Actively inform and contribute to health promotion policy and advocacy at both a state and commonwealth level

The Health Promotion Action Plan is the document that guides the work of the subcommittee and is reviewed on an annual basis. Click here to read the 2009-2010 Health Promotion Action Plan.

MEMBERSHIP
The members of the subcommittee consist of interested NADA Board members, representatives from the NADA membership with appropriate health promotion expertise and external representatives selected for specific expertise. The subcommittee meet on a bi-monthly basis.

Current members:

Kerri Lawrence (Chair), MDECC
Karen McLaughlan (Deputy Chair), WAYS

Ange Matheson, ACON

Ralph Moore, MHDAO - NSW Health

Sandra Pedler, WESDARC

Debbie Roberts, Youth Solutions

Helen Sowey, DAMEC

Robert Stirling, NADA

Sarah Morrison, NADA

EVENTS
The next Health Promotion Subcommitee Forum will focus on Community Engagement and will be held on 22nd September 2010. Click here for more information about the upcoming forum.

A key initiative of the subcommittee has been the establishment of health prevention forums. Peer Education in Practice was the theme for the forum held in March 2009. Thirty three people attended the forum which had a diverse audience from both government and non government organisations. The forum showcased a range of peer education programs, including presentations on the:

Rover Program and NSP Peer Education Volunteer Program: ACON
Keep It Simple (KIS) Club Project: MDECC
Strong and Deadly: Ghinni Ghinni Youth and Culture Aboriginal Corporation & MDECC
NSW Users and AIDS Association (NUAA): A Peer Based Organisation

Invited speakers at previous forums includes: Dr Catherine Spooner of National Centre in HIV Social Research, University of New South Wales on the social determinants of drug use, DAMEC, Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service and ACON presented at the forum focusing on drug and alcohol issues and prevention activities for diverse communities. The next series of health promotion forums will be held in 2010.

For more information about the Health Promotion subcommittee please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it at NADA.

WHAT IS HEALTH PROMOTION?

The following information is taken from the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (WHO).

Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. To reach a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, an individual or group must be able to identify and to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment. Health is, therefore, seen as a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities. Therefore, health promotion is not just the responsibility of the health sector, but goes beyond healthy life-styles to well-being.

Prerequisites for Health

The fundamental conditions and resources for health are:
* peace
* shelter
* education
* food
* income
* a stable eco-system
* sustainable resources
* social justice, and equity

Improvement in health requires a secure foundation in these basic prerequisites.

Advocate
Good health is a major resource for social, economic and personal development and an important dimension of quality of life. Political, economic, social, cultural, environmental, behavioural and biological factors can all favour health or be harmful to it. Health promotion action aims at making these conditions favourable through advocacy for health.

Enable
Health promotion focuses on achieving equity in health. Health promotion action aims at reducing differences in current health status and ensuring equal opportunities and resources to enable all people to achieve their fullest health potential. This includes a secure foundation in a supportive environment, access to information, life skills and opportunities for making healthy choices. People cannot achieve their fullest health potential unless they are able to take control of those things which determine their health. This must apply equally to women and men.

Mediate
The prerequisites and prospects for health cannot be ensured by the health sector alone. More importantly, health promotion demands coordinated action by all concerned: by governments, by health and other social and economic sectors, by nongovernmental and voluntary organization, by local authorities, by industry and by the media. People in all walks of life are involved as individuals, families and communities. Professional and social groups and health personnel have a major responsibility to mediate between differing interests in society for the pursuit of health.

Health promotion strategies and programmes should be adapted to the local needs and possibilities of individual countries and regions to take into account differing social, cultural and economic systems.

LINKS

Drug and Alcohol
Alcohol & Other Drugs Council of Australia

Australian Drug Foundation

Australian Drug Information Network
Community Drug Action
Drug Arm
http://www.diayll.sl.nsw.gov.au/

Family Drug Support
National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre

NSW Government - Druginfo

Youth Solutions
Manly Drug Education & Counselling Centre
Western Sydney Drug & Alcohol Resource Centre
Ted Noffs Foundation

Young People
Australian Drug Foundation
Centre for Adolescent Health

Child and Youth Website

Kids Health

WAYS Youth Service

Play Now Act Now 2010

General
National Preventative Health Strategy