CONCEPTS OF HEALTH PROMOTION

The community health approach is primarily directed towards improving the socioecological potential: the health resources of the economic, social, cultural, natural and technical environments. It is assumed that this will have a positive impact on people's physical conditions, health risks and life styles and consequently on their individual health potential. The community health approach thus follows very much the tradition of social medicine and public health. The major goals and strategies of both the individual and the community approach, as they relate to the different subsystems of the socioecological system, have been reviewed. As far as health balance and health potential are important characteristics of the socioecological system, the paper presents the summary of health resources and health risks. Today, concepts of health and health promotion can most fruitfully be analysed and discussed in the context of a socioecological paradigm. On the basis of such a paradigm health has been defined in terms of two interrelated aspects of the socioecological system and the people belonging to it: health stability and health potential. Health balance refers to the maintenance of the physical, psychological and social balance of any social group or individual, health potential to the group's or individual's capacity to cope with environmental and psychosocial demands or stresses. Whereas the treatment of an individual's imbalance and the re-establishment of balance are the main concerns of self-care and medical care, health promotion aims primarily at improving health potential and thereby at maintaining health balance. In aiming to improve health potential, health promotion may be under-taken either to strengthen health resources or to reduce the health risks of individuals, groups or whole community.