Health promotion, prevention, and psychosocial health

The promotion of psychosocial health among individuals, groups, and society is an increasingly important subject in the field of public health. Psychosocial health is a complex interaction between the psyche of an individual and the social environment in which that individual lives. Promoting psychosocial health is often challenging and complex for health care professionals. Therefore, an important question of public health significance is: "how can we address and improve the psychosocial health of individuals, groups, as well as society in general?"

An interdisciplinary team of specialists at the Department of Health Professions at the Bern University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland, have proposed action models based on the relationships between health promotion, prevention, and psychosocial health. The swiss team, led by Tannys Helfer have defined these concepts in relation to how they could be synergistically combined to promote psychosocial health. Understanding the terms helps to construct an action model. The researchers have depicted the model in a graphical manner.

Their proposed action model is based upon already well-established concepts, models, frameworks in health promotion, and prevention practice. "We have tried to depict them in a way that clearly integrates and combines their core concepts for their practical application in promoting psychosocial health" says Heifer. As these topics are overlapping, their clear illustration is important in promoting their systematic and planned usage.

The action model has five elements: 1. psychosocial health (the combination of an individual's experience, perception, psychological/mental processes, behaviour, and lifestyle as a continuum of healthy function), 2. health promotion (supporting processes that enable and increases peoples' self-determination and control over their health, 3. disease prevention (steps taken to prevent the development and spread of disease symptoms and control risk factors, 4. the relationship between health promotion and disease prevention, 5. and The relationship between Psychosocial Health, Health Promotion and Prevention

This new suggested action model encourages the systematic usage of health promotion and prevention for the promotion of psychosocial health. The researchers acknowledge that there is a need to evaluate how the model performs in a practical setting.

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