MHST 631: Health Promotion 1 Foundation, Midpoint Course Reflection

I have reached the midpoint of the Health Promotion 1 Foundations (MHST 631) course. This blog post captures my reflections and key takeaways so far.

In week one, I explored positionality from both professional and personal standpoints. I applied Nixon’s (2019) coin model of privilege and critical allyship, which provided insights into my own privilege and social position. As a visible minority, I often positioned myself as being disadvantaged, but working through this exercise allowed me to reflect on my own privilege and how it relates to the work that I do and my personal life. This provided a impactful foundation for the course.

During weeks two to four, I examined foundational frameworks such as the Ottawa Charter (1986) and Canada’s Health Promotion Population Cube (2001) and how they can be used to conceptualize contemporary health promotion initiatives. I also chose to focus on enhancing the mental health supports for children in Canada’s child welfare system as my assignment topic and started to apply these frameworks to deepen my understanding of the issue.

In weeks five and six, I examined the differences between health promotion theories, models, and evaluative processes within the context of health promotion. I found this material to be the most challenging so far and continue to work through the material to build my understanding.

Week 7 was the most enjoyable part of the course because I examined health misinformation. When researching topics for my last blog post, I found numerous topics ranging from vaccine misinformation and unsubstantiated health and fitness trends and decided to focus on modern waist trainer corsets. This activity emphasized the pervasiveness of misinformation that is readily available to the public.

With this foundation in place, I am excited to expand upon these learnings in the next phase of the course.

References

Nixon, Stephanie A. “The Coin Model of Privilege and Critical Allyship: Implications for Health.” BMC Public Health, vol. 19, no. 1, Dec. 2019, pp. 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7884-9

Public Health Agency of Canada. (2001). Population health promotion: The population health promotion cube. Government of Canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/population-health/promotion/population-health-promotion-cube.html

World Health Organization. Regional Office of Europe. (1986). Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, 1986. World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe.

https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/349652