Introduction
Health promotion practitioners are delegated with the task of reviewing the healthcare needs of society. The Australian government has developed various health care programs in response to recommendations by various health promotion programs, and there is still a need for the government to develop other programs to enhance the wellness of the people.
While most of the health care programs implemented by the government are preventive in nature, there are also programs providing treatment for various illnesses. Some of the challenges that lead to the failure in health promotion programs are lack of collaboration between various government institutions and poor implementation policies. There is also a need for the programs to target the right people and use the most viable channels to promote the programs among the people in the community.
The sustainability of the programs designed to promote health in society depends on the feasibility of the holistic approaches used by the government and the private institutions. This paper looks into the current community and national healthcare issues with relation to the programs developed by the government to tackle the issues and their effectiveness in eliminating the problems. The ability to plan and evaluate health promotion programs, and to manage health promotion programs successfully, are important skills for health promotion practitioners.
Current community and national health problems
One of the prevailing issues among the Australian people with reference to health care is tobacco smoking among the member of society. The Australian government started developing intervention programs to sensitise people against tobacco smoking. The main reason for the development of the campaign against smoking in Australia is to attempt to reduce the number of smoking-related illnesses like cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Over the past decade, the Australian healthcare system has witnessed a drastic increase in the number of cancer cases diagnosed in healthcare facilities.
Tobacco smoking is attributed to a large percentage of the increase in lung cancer in the nation, and the government has enhanced its campaign to sensitise the people about the risks of tobacco smoking. The campaign against tobacco smoking has managed to lower the rate of smoking among the females in the nation, but it is yet to make a significant contribution in reducing the number of male smokers in the nation. 2013 national smoking statistics reveal that while the female smokers in the nation have reduced from 21.2% in 2001 to 16.3% in 2012. Their male counterparts moved from 27.2% to 20.4% over the same period (Smoking, 2013).
The Australian government funds health promotion programs through the health care system and other government institutions. The core business in the national tobacco program is to reduce the number of smokers in society, and the promoters have traditionally used three approaches to sensitise the people. First, the program provides information on why people should quit smoking tobacco.
In this process, the concerned institutions develop campaigns to warn people about the hazards of smoking. This sensitisation is conducted through different forms of media like television, radio, and the internet through social media platforms. The sensitisation process targets different members of society. The current program is particularly designed to warn the youth against tobacco smoking because of their high vulnerability to the behaviour.
The second approach involves educating people on how to quit smoking. There are many Australians who wish to quit their tobacco smoking behaviour, but they lack the willpower for the same. The national tobacco program has developed information channels to advise the addicts on how to quit (Australia’s Health 2012, 2012). The third approach involves directly helping smokers quit their habits. The Australian government has invested in research institutes developing technological methods of helping people quit smoking (Chapman & MacKenzie, 2010).
The biggest healthcare issue in Australia with reference to the tobacco program is the high number of new smokers in the nation. According to the current status in society, for every ten members of the society that take up smoking, 8 are either children or teenagers. 191 young members of society start smoking every day, and this translates to 70, 000 new smokers annually. Students in high school and college are the most vulnerable to tobacco smoking, despite the high intensity of advocacy applied to this group of youths.
The high level of smoking among the children and the youth in Australia is a result of tobacco companies using marketing strategies that target children and the youth. While targeting children in advertisements is banned for most companies in the nation, the tobacco companies have developed cunning approaches to target children. Efforts by the health care system to curb the vice have become fruitless in most areas of the nation because the marketing campaigns of the companies reach out to the children more than the health promotion programs.
These developments have dire implications on the healthcare system because most of the young people who start to smoke have a lower likelihood of quitting smoking. Most of the youths become heavy smokers, and their fate is normally directed toward the development of serious illnesses. Scientific research indicates that children who start smoking at an early age have a higher likelihood of dying from smoking-related diseases than the people who start smoking at the adult age (Youth smoking in Australia, 2014).
The tobacco prevention program developed by the government through the health care system and other institutions has failed in the elimination of an increase in new smokers in the Australian nation. The failure has happened because the tobacco prevention program is yet to eliminate the factors that predispose teenagers to assume the behaviour. The Victorian public schools have an obligation to implement the guidelines provided by the ministry of education with relation to smoking. While the school environments have been designed to influence health learning among the students, there are some teenagers that still fall victim to smoking (Youth smoking in Australia, 2014).
Health promotion issues
The current health issues caused by the high smoking rates among the children and the youth are the result of the failure of the tobacco prevention program to tackle the underlying predisposing factors. The program uses different media platforms to target smokers in society, but it fails to reach out to some children and youth. As revealed by the current health program against tobacco, the most feasible method to eliminate smoking among the children in Australia is through the health-promoting school model.
The model advocates for the health care system and the concerned institutions to work closely with the education system to develop health promotion programs. This model is quite effective in the enhancement of preventive health care among the children and the youth. The model empowers the children and the youth with information on the need for prevention of certain diseases, and it highlights the causal factors for illnesses. Using the model, the campaign against smoking can achieve tremendous success in lowering the number of new smokers in the nation (Gartner, Barendregt & Hall, 2009).
The health-promoting school strategy has four main components. The first component is the incorporation of health promotion programs in the formal curriculum. The majority of the children and youths in Australia go to school in institutions offering formal education. The current tobacco prevention program in Australia has incorporated its awareness information in the formal curriculum of schools. Students should learn about the dangers of smoking from their teachers, and this is likely to lower the rate of new smokers in the nation.
The second component of the model is the development of a social climate that promotes preventive health behaviours among people (Booth & Samdal, 1997). Teaching children about the importance of refraining from smoking would lead to the reduction of new smokers in Australia. They are developing school rules that discourage smoking influences the students to develop a negative attitude toward tobacco smoking. This approach can help eliminate new cases of smokers in Australia because it would discourage smoking among peers in the school environment. Children and youths learn to respect the rules and regulations in their schooling institutions, and this drives their character in the desired course.
The third component of the model is the physical environment. The physical environment encapsulates the policies and rules governing the conduct of the students in schools (Booth & Samdal, 1997). Developing rules that prohibit smoking would go a long way in compelling the youth to eliminate their smoking behaviours, and it would also discourage new smokers. The fourth component is the health service in the school. Schools can reach out to more people in the community in the advocacy for preventive health care; hence, the tobacco campaign should use the model to reach out to more youths.
Most students share the formal and informal information gathered from school with their parents and peers at home; hence, developing a health promotion program through schools would be more effective for the government. The health-promoting school model remains untapped by the Australian government, but the theoretical framework has the potential to help in the elimination of smoking among children and teenagers in school. Young smokers become adult smokers; hence, the government should target the younger generation to achieve long-term success in the tobacco program (Fleming & Parker, 2006).
Tobacco prevention education program
The Australian government, through the Ministry of Education, has developed policies that dictate the banning of smoking in the school environments. The policies compel the authorities in the school systems to ensure that the activities that take place within the school boundaries conform to the aims of the health education program incorporated in the curriculum.
The curriculum offers lessons on healthy lifestyles, and it condemns smoking. The tobacco prevention program in Victorian schools has managed to lower the number of teenage smokers significantly over the past two decades. Statistics on teenage smoking in the nation reveal that by 2005, the number of teenage smokers was half the number in 1999 (Smoke-Free Schools, 2009). This lowering rate of smokers is an indication that the current smoke-free school’s program has the potential to lower the number of smokers over time.
As more students become aware of the health hazards associated with smoking, they develop a desire to refrain from experimenting with the behaviour. This program has translated to a positive trend in the reduction of new smokers in Australia. Smoking-related illnesses like cancer are on the increase in the hospitals, and the tobacco prevention education program has set out to reduce the number of teenage smokers to safeguard their health (Worsley, 2008).
The tobacco prevention education program aims at developing measures that steer children from the use of tobacco in their lives. The values of upholding health are enshrined in the children through their early childhood learning period. The schools in the education system are supported by the program to ensure that the students are provided with the appropriate information regarding the risks of engaging in drug use, especially smoking. The program utilizes the health-promoting schools model to influence the development of a curriculum-based in promoting health (Smoke-free schools, 2009).
It also has guidelines that help teachers to influence health learning among the students. The program has partnerships between the ministry of education and the ministry of health, as well as the members of the community. Despite the current positive achievements from the tobacco prevention education program, there are still many teenagers engaging in smoking, owing to various factors. These factors include poor parenting, delinquent teenagers, peer pressure, and target-marketing by tobacco companies. These challenges indicate that the pilots of the programs must evaluate their objectives, and devise countermeasures to eliminate the current challenges (Denman, Moon, Parsons & Stears, 2003).
References
Australia’s Health 2012: The Thirteenth Biennial Health Report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2012). Victoria, Australia: AIHW.
Booth, M. L., & Samdal, O. (1997). Health-promoting schools in Australia: models and measurement. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 21(4), 365-370.
Chapman, S., & MacKenzie, R. (2010). The global research neglect of unassisted smoking cessation: causes and consequences. PLoS Medicine,7(2), e1000216.
Denman, S., Moon, A., Parsons, C., & Stears, D. (2003). The Health Promoting School: Policy, Research and Practice. London: Routledge.
Fleming, M. L., & Parker, E. (2006). Health Promotion: Principles and practice in the Australian context. Crows Nest, New South: Allen & Unwin Pty LTD.
Gartner, C. E., Barendregt, J. J., & Hall, W. D. (2009). Predicting the future prevalence of cigarette smoking in Australia: how low can we go and by when?.Tobacco control, 18(3), 183-189.
Smoke Free Schools: Tobacco Prevention and Management Guidelines for Victorian Schools. (2009). Web.
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