About CHP

The Centre for Health Promotion (CHP) is a service within the Women's & Children's Health Network (WCHN), formerly Children, Youth & Women's Health Service (CYWHS), of SA Health.

The CHP contributes to the WCHN vision of excellence in health care and improved health and wellbeing for all children, young people, women and parents in South Australia.

Within the SA Health sector WCHN has the unique advantage of an identified Centre for Health Promotion established in 2001 with experience working both internally and externally to prevent illness, promote wellbeing and encourage better health outcomes across the state of South Australia. In addition to our place within the WCHN organisation, CHP has a history of attracting external funding agreements for health promotion program delivery on specific topics.

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CHP Strategic Goals

CHP identifies three overarching goals for its work in 2010 – 2015:

• the coordination of WCHN Health Promoting Health Service activities
• the building of staff capacity to integrate health promotion approaches into service delivery
• the implementation of statewide health promotion programs as agreed, directed and/or required.

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Organisational structure

The Centre for Health Promotion's Manager is Jenny Philip-Harbutt. We have 15-20 staff at any time with a mix of full time and part time positions.   We organise our work around 4 major areas of responsibility:

• Partnerships and community participation
• Healthy Youth, including the Headroom program aimed at promoting mental health and wellbeing for young people aged between 6-18 years. 
• Centre for Health Promotion website
• Sahps.net – online communication tool for people interested in health promotion
• Consumer access to quality health information
• Parenting SA
• Public Health Seminars program
• Quality health information guidelines
• Workforce learning and organisational policies and processes
• SA Breastfeeding Program
• WCHN staff health promotion
• Evaluation and continuous quality improvement for our programs and services
• Planning and evaluation tools
• Safe Sleeping Program

In addition, CHP is involved in a number of strategic partnerships and projects including the

CYWHS Health Promoting Health Service Action Plan.

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Our approach

The Centre for Health Promotion provides health promotion programs in line with evidence and best-practice health promotion. CHP works to deliver a more health promoting health service and to increase the health promotion capacity of key settings. 

Centre for Health Promotion theoretical underpinnings of programs and services

Our programs and services are developed based on the following:

• An understanding that health and wellbeing is influenced by a broad range of social determinants.
• Strategies that improve whole of population health and equity of outcomes.
• Evidence-based based practice using research, consumer and stakeholder sources.
• The Ottawa Charter Health Promotion and capacity building strategies where possible.
• Regular evaluation and review of our programs and strategies to ensure continuous learning and quality improvement.
• Advocacy of a health promotion approach through our partnerships and alliances with SA Health, WCHN and external stakeholders.  

For the sake of consistency, WCHN has adopted the following definitions to describe the difference between a program and a project:

Program - A program is a collection of projects that together address a broad health goal or issue e.g. a nutrition program aimed at reducing the number of children in South Australia who are overweight may contain a healthy eating campaign (health information project), a community development garden project and a physical activity project.

Project - A specific strategy based on evidence and designed to influence a broader health issue (usually identified in a program plan).

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Service Population

As a health region WCHN is charged with addressing the health needs of children, youth and women in South Australia. From a health promotion and illness prevention perspective this mandate focuses our attention on the key life stages and transitions of pregnancy, birth, early childhood, youth, parenting and menopause. Family circumstance, Aboriginality and remoteness are also considered key determinants of health and therefore requiring consideration in the planning and development of programs.   

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Contact details

For further information, please complete the enquiry form on the contact us page.

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Resources

Centre for Health Promotion Strategic Plan 2010-2015

 

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