What does a health promotion officer do?
“The focus of health promotion is on prevention,” says Jacqui, a lively bundle of energy. “It involves working with a population group and designing programs that will assist the health of that group.” Population groups vary in size and type, and might range from an entire town, to a group of single mothers with different ethnic backgrounds living in a high-rise estate, or a recently settled Sudanese community in Melbourne. Jacqui manages the macro and micro health needs of the various communities, which might mean lobbying the State and Federal Governments for funding or working with single mothers to stop them being socially isolated. “The aim is on prevention,” Jacqui emphasises, “stopping things like depression, domestic violence or post-natal depression before they become unmanageable.
