Page 18 - HPP

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FUTURE-ORIENTED HEALTH PROMOTION
6. USING COMPETENCIES FOR HP TRAINING DESIGN
Kaija Matinheikki-Kokko
The competencies required of HP professionals are explored and de ned further in this chapter within the context of designing HP training. Health promotion as a distinct discipline is still very young compared e.g. to medicine or law as established disciplines. Therefore, the debate as to what constitutes health promotion is important affecting the culture of professional discipline (Madsen, Bell 2012).
The concept of positive health was feeding our perspective and understanding of holistic approach emphasized in our HP approach. The competencies identi ed in HPP survey are organized here around the health concept and the roles of HP professional. A competency based umbrella was provided which guided our HP curricula and study program design for students.
Positive health model with its six dimensions (Huber et al. 2016) outlines the holistic understanding of health and human well-being, in the design of HP study programs. It is described as a cornerstone in our health promotion training umbrella (Figure 3). Huber et al. (2016) found that people representing customers or patients considered all six dimensions of health almost equally important, thus preferring a broad concept of health, whereas physicians e.g. assessed health more narrowly and biomedically.
This positive concept of health is in line with our survey results about essential competencies demanded in future health promotion, e.g. “to strengthen citizens’ ability to take responsibility for their own health and well-being”. In HP focus group discussions, the participants pointed out that everybody is not capable of self- management or even willing to do that In HP practice, self-management is actually one element re ecting wider demands to enable change towards positive health