 The Ottawa Charter was developed in 1986 to help attain a level of health for all citizens that

will improve their social and economic lives. The Ottawa Charter outlines five areas of action
to achieve health and well-being. The Charter advocates that good health is essential for
economic, social, and personal development along with being an important dimension of
quality of life.
 The actions are based on the understanding that health is socially determined and
encourage health professionals and government to change the environments in which
people live in, involve the community in projects to improve health as well as educating
people about health matters.
 The Ottawa Charter promotion identifies the following prerequisites for health:
1. The basic necessities for health are peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable
ecosystem, sustainable resource, social justice and equality.
2. Health is a positive concept emphasising social and personal resources as well
physical capabilities.
3. The provision of equal opportunities and resources will help people achieve their
health potential.
4. All sectors of the community are responsible for health promotion, social and
economic sectors, governments, industry, local authorities, etc…
 The Ottawa Charter recognises five significant actions to improve health and
create greater quality in health:
1. Developing personal skills
2. Creating supportive environments
3. Strengthening the community actions
4. Reorienting health services
5. Building healthy public policy

Developing personal skills

Personal and social development occurs through the provision of information, education for health
and the enhancements of life skills which will influence the exercise of control over our own health,
and the making of choices that will promote health. To demonstrate, Skills like problem solving,
planning, decision making and many other can be developed in schools, workplaces and other
community settings as they can enhance our health by making us more empowered and self-
confident. Thus, making them have a greater capacity to respond to changes in their lives.

Creating supportive environments

This action focuses on the places where people live in, work and play as we need to protect and
support each other, our community and environments from threats of health. To demonstrate,
sporting venues that are alcohol free, the establishment of 40 km/h zones around schools, the
establishment of recreational facilities like cycle ways and many others are examples of actions that
create a healthy environment.

Strengthening the community actions

The focus of this area is the empowerment of the community to implement actions for their health
concerns. Communities who can work together to set health priorities, make decisions and plan
strategies will have a greater ownership and control of the health promotion processes. Examples of
this action can be active after school communities, health promoting schools, projects developed by
Aboriginal Medical Services.
Reorienting health services

The reorientation of health services focuses on the well-being of a more holistic image such as
promoting health, preventing ill health and supporting well-being which requires a change in
attitude and the organisation of health services along with changes to professional education,
training and research. Examples of the reorientation of health services include the National Heart
Foundation working with schools to implement the Jump Rope for Heart program, the provision of
free mammograms for women aged 50-69 years by Breast Screen NSW along with training the GPs
to help smokers quit smoking and many other.

Building healthy public policy

This action goes beyond the health sector as it involves more than just providing hospitals and
medical policies including legislation, policies, taxation, and organisational changes in the area.
Legislation relating to unsafe driving behaviour like driving under the influence of alcohol along with
laws requiring fast food and snack food chains to display labels and information at the point of sale
are all example of building actions that influence the making of healthier choices.