Essentials of Health Promotion

James Woodall is a Senior Lecturer and the Co-Director of the Centre for Health Promotion Research. He is also the Course Leader for the MSc Public Health – Health Promotion programme (UK course). His research interest is offender health, particularly health promotion in prison settings. He completed his PhD in 2010, which examined the health promoting prison and how values central to the health promotion discourse are applied to the context of imprisonment. He has since published a number of peer-reviewed articles based on his PhD. He has also published work on young offenders and mental health, the role of prison visitors′ centres for supporting prisoners′ families and research exploring prisoners′ lay views on health. He continues to focus his research attention on the health of the prison population. As Co-Director of the Centre for Health Promotion Research, he is also involved in broader health promotion research projects such as oral health promotion and men′s health research. He currently teaches on the MSc Public Health – Health Promotion programme and contributes to other undergraduate and postgraduate areas in the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences. Ruth is Course Director for Health Promotion at Leeds Beckett University.  Ruth teaches on a range of modules including health communication, global health and health promotion as well as supervising post-graduate and doctoral research. She has been involved in many projects with the Centre for Health Promotion Research including research into health and wellbeing with vulnerable groups and has led several pedagogical research projects into teaching and learning practice.Ruth has written many papers for peer-reviewed journal and published twelve textbooks with colleagues including, in 2024, Health Promotion: Planning and Strategies 5th Ed; Health Promotion Ethics: A Framework for Social Justice; and Health Promotion & Health Education in Nursing and the monograph ‘What is Health?’.

An invaluable text for pre-registration or undergraduate students. It includes key health promotion theory, roles and excellent case studies. Very accessible and easy to read. Written by international experts.

• Chapter 1 - What is ‘health’?Chapter 2 - Health promotion: an historical overviewChapter 3 - Health Promotion ApproachesChapter 4 - The role of health promotion in tackling contemporary health challengesChapter 5 - Inequalities in healthChapter 6 - The importance of health promotion valuesChapter 7 - Assessing Health Needs: Principles and PracticeChapter 8 - Valuing Lay PerspectivesChapter 9 - Understanding epidemiology and health profilingChapter 10 - The role of the individualChapter 11 - The role of the stateChapter 12 - Partnership workingChapter 13 - Settings approach: overarching theoryChapter 14 - Healthy settings in actionChapter 15 - Virtual settings for healthChapter 16 - Professional competencies and core skillsChapter 17 - Searching and appraising the evidenceChapter 18 - Planning and designing health promotion programmesChapter 19 - Health promotion research and evaluationChapter 20 - Communicating effectively