Foundations for Health Promotion

Jane Wills is Professor of Health Promotion in the School of Health and Social Care at South Bank University and is also Director of the Centre for Applied Research in Improvement and Innovation (CApRII). She has over 25 years of experience of teaching public health and health promotion. Her research focuses on health education and health literacy and behavioural interventions particularly in relation to obesity. She is a trained counsellor and also teaches motivational interviewing and counselling skills to health care professionals. She has also held numerous external examiner and independent assessor posts, maintaining the discipline of health promotion. Initially qualifying as a teacher, she has a strong interest in pedagogy and student development, regularly publishing with students.

Part 1: The theory of health promotion



Concepts of health
Influences on health
Measuring health
Defining health promotion
Models and approaches to health promotion
Ethical issues in health
The politics of health promotion

Part 2: Strategies and methods



Reorienting health services
Developing personal skills
Strengthening community action
Developing healthy public policy
Using media in health promotion
Health promotion and infection control

Part 3: Settings for health promotion



Health promotion in schools
Health promotion in universities
Health promotion in the workplace
Health promotion in neighbourhoods
Health promotion in health services
Health promotion in prisons

Part 4: Implementing health promotion



Assessing health needs
Planning health promotion interventions
Evaluation in health promotion
The importance of being research and evidence informed