LITMIR.BIZ

PREFACE

      We are pleased to share this third edition of Health Promotion Programs: From Theory to Practice. The pandemic in 2020 shed a blinding light on critical conversations about equity and systemic injustice, which attained both new urgency and a well-deserved central role in our national conversation health and health promotion. We have all seen, in real time, how structural discrimination and obstacles to opportunity do their work in a crisis. In our communities, every burden—from rates of infection and care outcomes, to economic adversity, to the challenges of virtual learning when schools are closed—falls heaviest on those for whom true equity has always been farthest from reach. Health Promotion Programs: From Theory to Practice is being published as the pandemic recedes; however, we can’t simply assume that healing and recovery follow. It falls on all of us—individuals and communities, companies and governments—to ensure that what’s ahead is not just the end of a disease but a durable and hopeful future for all who sacrificed and endured during this unprecedented time.

Today, health promotion programs have evolved to be integral to promoting a culture of health and wellness and to healthcare across the United States and internationally. The Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) recognized the need for a book to help advance the field. Escalating rates of chronic disease, soaring healthcare costs, and increasing diversity of the U.S. population, as well as aging of the current health education workforce, all call for training a new generation of health promoters. The SOPHE board of trustees, executive director, and members offer this book, which combines the theoretical and practice base of the field with step-by-step practical sections on how to develop, implement, and evaluate health promotion programs. SOPHE hopes that this book, read in its entirety or in part, will help not only students who choose to major or minor in health education, health promotion, community health, public health, or health-related fields (e.g., environmental health, physical fitness, allied health, nursing, or medicine), but also professionals already working who want to acquire the technical knowledge and skills to develop successful health promotion programs. Acquiring the competencies to effectively plan, implement, and evaluate health promotion programs can improve health outcomes, promote behavioral and social change, and contribute to health equity and social justice. This book offers a concise summary of the many years of research in the fields of health education and health promotion, along with the expertise of many SOPHE members working in diverse contemporary settings and programs. The book also reflects SOPHE’s mission and its commitment to professional preparation and continuing education for the purpose of improving the quantity and quality of the lives of individuals and communities.

      Undergraduate and graduate programs that prepare professionals to work in public health, health education, and health promotion and wellness have been flourishing in the United States and throughout the world for more than half a century. Thousands of students graduate every year with a baccalaureate or advanced degree in health promotion and get jobs in schools, colleges, businesses, healthcare facilities and systems, community organizations, and government.

      We are enormously grateful to the many SOPHE members who wrote this book. Their expertise in many fields, including health education, public health, sociology, anthropology, psychology, nursing, medicine, physical education, nutrition, allied health, and many others, have been braided into this health promotion anthology. They have shared the foundations of the field as well as their own practical experiences in health promotion planning. May this book help teach, guide, inspire, ignite, catalyze, and transform students and professionals in their quest to develop successful health promotion programs that address the health challenges of both today and tomorrow.