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Ethics in health promotion – reflections in practice
Author(s) -
Parker Elizabeth,
Gould Trish,
Fleming MaryLou
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
health promotion journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.515
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 2201-1617
pISSN - 1036-1073
DOI - 10.1071/he07069
Subject(s) - health promotion , public relations , autonomy , public health , population health , clarity , transparency (behavior) , engineering ethics , medicine , health policy , community health , nursing , sociology , political science , law , engineering , biochemistry , chemistry
Health promotion practitioners should be able to identify ethical dilemmas that are relevant to their practice and understand how to preclude and/or address such problems. This paper explores some of the broad ethical issues in health promotion practice; summarises some of the principles that require consideration; and outlines some of the recently developed ethical frameworks for public health and health promotion practice. Health promoters are encouraged to reflect not only on the consequences of their actions, but also their philosophical and ethical foundations. So what? It is crucial that health promotion practitioners scrutinise ‘codes of ethics’ with regard to their practice to guide their decision making and facilitate transparency. Clarity in the values underlying health promotion initiatives is essential to help in decisions about whether and how such initiatives should be undertaken. Ultimately, practitioners need to ensure that interventions achieve positive health outcomes while avoiding, as far as possible, damage to the other things people value, such as community networks and autonomy.