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2022/12/12 【Asia Pacific Health Promotion Capacity Building Workshop Review Article 】03

Author | Fauzi Budi Satria
Personal Information:
  • Year of participation
          2021
  • Institution
          Global Health and Health Security, College of Public Health, Taipei Medical University

Q:
Based on your professional experience, please reflect and elaborate on the field of health promotion across academics and practice.

A:
  • Whenever people mention the word "Health Promotion", most people will immediately think of counseling or presentations both indoors and outdoors
  • Either in academics or health practices, the one-way paternalistic education pattern from promotion to listeners/targets of promotion is an approach that is always carried out in health promotion
  • Unfortunately, even this frequently used pattern is rarely effective because it is not carried out by skilled communicators
  • Often the selection of resource persons is only based on their expertise and educational background without considering whether they are good communicators
  • This is one of the "Noise" that makes the message delivered by the resource person not received properly by the listener
  • Health promotion carried out with this approach also has a lot of potential for other "noise" that can be an obstacle in conveying the message that you want to promote in these activities
  • "Noise" can not only come from bad communicators but can also come from the tools/means used. Then, if the activity is carried out outdoors, the "Noise" can come from a noisy environment or a disproportionate arrangement of the place for the activity
  • Lastly, “Noise” can also come from listeners/audiences who have a very large knowledge gap with the communicator, if the topic is uncommon, or if there are technical barriers such as language or even culture
  • All of these “Noises” are classic problems that are simple but difficult to solve
  • When discussing who should become the communicator in doing health promotion, hierarchical issues arise, especially in the field of health care where hierarchy is something to be respected
  • Not only that, a dilemma will occur when a "trust issue" arises. Even if the health promotion is carried out by skilled communicators, if the participants present know that there is someone more competent to speak, then the communicator will not be easily accepted by the participants. Even the "rejection" by the listener occurs before the message is delivered
  • Then, in terms of tools and means, this depends on the availability of resources. Therefore, partnerships are very important to support health promotion activities
  • In addition to "Noises", another problem that often affects the ineffectiveness of a health promotion activity is the low self-awareness of the listener/audience about health.
  • Participants who attend are usually those who need the information to be conveyed. Whereas the essence of health promotion is to avoid approaching risks that can cause health problems
  • If preventive efforts are aimed at those who have risk factors, then promotive efforts are aimed at those who do not even have the risk so as not to approach the risk. In other words, health promotion is one step ahead of preventive efforts.

Q:
What are your suggestions or expectations for the next exchange of the 
seminar?
A:
  • Seeing how the world is changing, especially the change in how fast information spreads globally thanks to technological advances, technical innovation in health promotion is mandatory
  • In addition to maintaining the material that was done well in last year's workshop, for the next seminar, I suggest the committee invite some new and unusual speakers from other fields outside of health
  • This can boost the ability of participants who take part in the workshop to have the competencies to be achieved, especially in the 3 competencies; Competence to build partnerships, Communication competence and report writing, and Technological competence
  • We advise the committee to invite Visual Communication Design and/or Digital Marketing experts, film industry professionals (cinema), and even influencers/(non-TV/internet) celebrities
  • From film industry professionals we expect to learn how they deliver the messages directly or indirectly from the movie/short film they have been produced
  • From Visual Communication Design and/or Digital Marketing experts, we expect the on-hand experience to develop our project in marketing our health campaign digitally
  • From the influencers/(non-TV/internet) celebrities, we expect to learn how they develop their small team to run and grow their account sustainably to get more community engagement and achieve success even on a limited budget