Spiritual_Wellness_Holistic_Health_and_the_Practic

CHAPTER
18
HEALTH PROMOTION
AND EMPOWERMENT:
REFLECTIONS ON
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
R ONALD L ABONTE
R ecent reformulations of health promotion imply the notion of empowerment
(WHO, 1986; Epp, 1986). Health promotion as “ the process of enabling people to
increase control over, and improve, their health ” (p. 1) shares a similar ethos with
empowerment as “ the process by which people, organizations and communities gain
mastery over their lives ” (Rappaport, 1981, p. 3). Both notions, however, are rarely
unpacked for their assumptions about social change processes. This article attends to
some of these assumptions. It expresses ideas generated during six years of professional
training workshops (1986 – 1992), involving over 2,500 community health
practitioners in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. These workshops asked, and
answered, one question only: How could professionals, under the rubric of health
promotion, engage in new practice styles that reduce or ameliorate inequitable social
conditions?