Public Health and Health Promotion

The aim of this book is to identify the difficulties of working for health - a challenge which health service providers in the UK and elsewhere have to face and expect health care professionals to address. Professionals in this area are increasingly having to shift their attention from health promotion to the broader public health arena. To do this poses specific problems - linking theory and practice, identifying and evidence base and establishing guiding principles and values on which practice should be based.

Since the publication of the first edition there has been a significant policy shift within the UK which makes this book even more important for an increasing number of health care professionals. In addition the rise of evidence-based health care makes this books focus on the dilemmas and challenges which underpin health promotion - i.e. where is the evidence and how is health promotion practice informed by it - even more timely.

The new edition will continue the emphasis on examples from practitioners work which was popular in the first edition but will enhance this aspect by including a much wider range of case study material reflecting the diversity of health promotion practice. All the case studies will be accompanied by commentaries from the authors allowing the reader to see the relevance to their own practice.