Key Concepts From Health Promotion Evaluations: What Psychology Needs to Know

Competing perspectives and debates about the meaning of health promotion and the best ways to evaluate the effectiveness of initiatives that focus on enhancing wellness pervade the literature. Given the emergence of health promotion, the impetus for outcomes-based practice in psychology, and the push for evidence-based care in the health system (Thorogood & Coombes, 2000), demonstrations of value and effectiveness are fundamental to the sustainability of mental health promotion activities. Psychology (and counseling as a sub-set field) needs to place itself as a profession vital to the sustainability of wellness initiatives. This paper proposes that psychologists’ awareness and understanding of six key concepts from health promotion evaluation are essential for advancing psychology as a profession and enhancing applied practice for wellness initiatives. The key concepts include: formative, process and outcome evaluations, the qualitative/quantitative debate, the ecological nature, the participatory approach, the focus on community and the underlying philosophies of empowerment and utilization. The use of key concepts from health promotion evaluation strategies support psychologists to a) deal with issues of major public health importance and b) collaborate with other disciplines for the benefit of the public (Sartorius, 1999). Finally, this paper makes recommendations to secure psychology’s place as a vital contributor to future research directions in health promotion, in part because of adherence to the scientist-practitioner model.Whilst Psychology is the generic term used here to represent the broad field, counseling as a sub-set in the discipline is particularly relevant for the ideas and issues discussed. Rather than adding the sub-set qualifier each time the broad field is referred to, the reader in this context is encouraged to hold this perspective of the place of counseling in regard to psychology as they work through the materials presented.