Handbook

Can public health actions be designed to shape social change and to avoid exacerbating social inequalities and discrimination?  Can actions to improve population health at global and country levels reach beyond appeals to individual responsibility and address drivers of health that are not under individual control?

In this course you will learn to be attuned to public health actions that over-emphasise individual responsibility for population health outcomes. The course gives you foundations for developing inclusive public health interventions that attend to the social drivers of and reasons for people’s actions. You will learn that promoting population health is not about fixing problematic individuals, but involves shaping our broader social, cultural, political, economic and physical environments so that healthier choices become easier choices.  

You will adopt the role of a practitioner who, before developing public health action, first asks the right questions with the aim of avoiding exclusion or discrimination. You will be challenged to use tools such as root cause mapping to critically and systematically analyse health problems and identify priority health needs that go beyond individual responsibility. You will learn skills in applying best practice health promotion principles and health promotion strategies that involve intersectoral collaboration, engage and empower people and fosters community ownership.