Investigating Health Promotion in the Light of Theories of the Policy Process: The Perceptions of Finnish Practitioners

Abstract

As a new form of health governance, health promotion still lacks a distinctive institutional structure. Thus, it is important to engage it more with social science in order to explain goals, perceptions, and events among a variety of stakeholders. This manuscript investigates health promotion approaches, structures, and implementations by a qualitative study undertaken in the region of South Savo, Finland, with practitioners from the public, private and third sectors. The analysis reveals that health promotion appears to be a random result of the conflicting interests, motives and struggles of different people and institutions in different areas of policy making. The effectiveness of health promotion could be improved both by increasing the skills of practitioners involved with such policy field, and by further developing the comprehensiveness and inclusiveness of accessible services. A better integration of the health information of private individuals and specific population groups is also desirable.