James Arnold Smith

• BAppSc (Hons), BEd, GCPH, Dip Mgmt, PhD FAHPA
• Fellow at Charles Darwin University

Health promotion has been evolving since the pioneering work of Professor Lawrence Green and colleagues in the USA more than 35 years ago1 and the Ottawa Charter in 1986.2 This evolution has included shifts in philosophies based on the best available evidence. Early in the development of health promotion the recognition of individual health behavio...

Issue addressed: Over the last three decades there has been an incremental investment in health promotion and prevention across Australia; yet, the Commonwealth Government and some state/territory governments have more recently instigated funding cuts in health promotion and prevention. This paper argues that the role of health promotion is critica...

Health promotion ethics has emerged as a hot topic in health promotion literature over the past decade. Various scholars have discussed theoretical and practical considerations associated with an enhanced understanding of what health promotion ethics constitutes. In particular, differences in rules- versus consequence-based approaches have been dis...

This study provides an in-depth qualitative exploration of Aboriginal peoples’ experiences with seeking help for gambling-related issues in the Northern Territory (NT), Australia. Through semi-structured interviews with 29 participants, including regular and occasional gamblers as well as those affected by others’ gambling, the research highlights...

Issue Addressed This scoping review aims to explore the size and scope of the body of literature relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander male health and wellbeing programs and describe key program elements. Methods This review considered unpublished and published literature from electronic peer‐reviewed databases and grey literature sour...

Aim This study is the first in-depth qualitative study that has provided insights into Aboriginal (All participants in this study identified as Aboriginal and thus we have not included any reference to the Torres Strait Islander peoples in this paper.) people’s views on current gambling policy and legislation in the Northern Territory (NT), Austral...

Background In the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia, there are significant evidence gaps about illicit drug use and harms, despite having established monitoring and reporting systems. This paper reports on illicit drug use, associated harms, contributing factors, service needs and priorities in the NT from the perspective and experiences of key...

Despite the billions of dollars invested in improving Indigenous health and wellbeing outcomes in Australia, there is little evidence of program effectiveness to inform policy and practice. The deficiency of evaluations is problematic. Critical to this process is the effective engagement of commissioners with Indigenous peoples, which is not well d...

While there has been a reduction in alcohol consumption among Australians aged 18 years and above, about 25% of people still drink above the recommended limit. The use of alcohol and other drugs is a substantial issue in the Northern Territory; however, there have been significant investments in alcohol reforms over the past few years. This paper r...

This chapter provides a summary of the evidence presented throughout the book with respect to advancing health promotion efforts with boys and young men of colour (BYMOC). It outlines the importance of intersectionality with respect to age, culture, context, and gender. We specifically highlight the importance of masculinities and gender identities...

The existing psychosocial Support activities in the Northern Territory, Australia, are mostly delivered through individualised outreach and client‐centred Support programs and do not currently have a strong Peer focus. To address this gap, a Peer‐Led Education Pilot was developed and implemented in Darwin, Australia. The pilot was comprised of thre...

https://astmanagement.eventsair.com/QuickEventWebsitePortal/2021-developing-northern-australia-conference/program/Agenda Genuinely working two-way with Indigenous communities utilizing both Indigenous and Western worldviews, knowledges and practices Climate change and substantial, increasing disasters present a considerable challenge to developin...

The term ‘health literacy’ is used widely in global health promotion contexts [1‐2]. It is firmly embedded into Australian health research, policy and practice lexicon, although occasionally remains a contested space. While there are multiple definitions that encompass individual, population and environmental health literacy, the underlying tenet i...

Introduction and aims: The Northern Territory Government has recently planned and implemented an extensive suite of alcohol harm minimisation policies, including the reintroduction of the Banned Drinker Register (BDR). It is an explicit alcohol supply reduction measure that places persons who consume alcohol at harmful levels onto a register, proh...

Scholarship indicates that gender norms influence drinking behaviours, yet the consequences of this for health professionals and health promotion remains neglected. To address this gap, we discuss the implications of gender and alcohol consumption for Australian health promotion and practice. We convey how a more integrated public health approach,...

Issue addressed: The term 'health literacy' is used in various ways in health promotion contexts. An increased global interest in health literacy has resulted in diverse methods to measure health literacy at individual, population and organisational levels. In this brief report we begin to discuss how social media platforms can be a useful source...

Health literacy, although diversely defined, refers to the abilities, relationships and external environmentsrequired for people to successfully promote health. Existing research suggests that health literacy is related to health inequities, including individual and community capacity to navigate health. A diverse range of factors shape health lite...

Health literacy is generally conceptualized as skills related to successfully navigating health – ultimately linked to well-being and improved health outcomes. Culture, gender and age are considered to be influential determinants of health literacy. The nexus between these determinants, and their collective relationship with health literacy, remain...

The use of the term ‘health literacy’ has grown significantly over the past two decades. While definitions of health literacy have remained contested, and continue to evolve in Australia and globally, there is generally a shared understanding that the concept is important. The origin of health literacy emerged out of an education paradigm that reco...

This evaluation report presents findings from a “Peer-Led Education Pilot for people with psychosocial support needs in Darwin”. The project reflects an innovative peer-led education approach that adopts a unique multi-model collaboration process in the design, delivery, and evaluation of the Peer-Led Education Pilot (PLEP). The overarching aim of...

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154916/1/hpja337_am.pdf

The number of Indigenous people enrolling in and completing higher education courses in the Northern Territory slowly continues to climb. Since the first policies supporting the Australian Government’s self-determination policy that encompassed training of Indigenous teachers in the Northern Territory, Charles Darwin University and Batchelor Instit...

Maintaining connections to family, culture and community is essential for strengthening an Aboriginal child’s educational achievements. The Australian Bureau of Statistics collects self-reported information on a range of factors that can assist in understanding what influences Aboriginal children to complete school. The 2014–2015 National Aborigina...

The rates of Australian Indigenous participation in higher education (HE) are significantly lower than those of non-Indigenous students, with Indigenous students less likely than their non-Indigenous peers to complete Year 12. As a result, they are less likely to obtain an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) needed for university admission. S...

University is not for everyone, but a university should be for everyone. To a certain extent, the choice not to participate in higher education should be respected given that there are other avenues and reasons to participate in education and employment that are culturally, socially and/or economically important for society. Those who choose to pur...

In 2008, the Bradley Review of Australian Higher Education highlighted the importance of ‘increasing the number of under-represented groups within Australia’s higher education system – including Indigenous people, people with low socio-economic status, and those from regional and remote areas’ (Bradley et al. Review of Higher Education in Australia...

An aim of this volume is to acknowledge the diverse approaches and strategies used to support and enhance pathways and transitions into higher education for Indigenous learners. Authors have approached this from various standpoints and so this book has a focus on social justice and equity issues in Australian and international contexts, and cross-c...

Community engagement is often cited as a critical component of working with Indigenous communities in both Australia and other countries. Ideally, this involves engaging in ‘bottom-up’ approaches that scope, identify and subsequently respond to community needs and aspirations. Community engagement is usually participatory and developmental in natur...

Exposure to heat has killed more people in Australia than all other natural hazards combined. As the climate warms, temperatures are projected to rise substantially, increasing the impact of heat stress and heat illness nation-wide. The relation between heat and health is profoundly complex, however, and is understood differently across multiple se...

In 1988 the release of the Higher Education: A Policy Statement White Paper focused Australia’s national higher education equity policy on “changing the balance of the student population to reflect more closely the composition of society as a whole” (Dawkins 1990, 2-3). While improvement in access and participation has been noted for women, people...

Successive Australian governments have addressed the issue of social inclusion and equity in higher education in a number of policies and reviews, the most recent being the Review of Australian Higher Education, the Bradley Review (Bradley et al. 2008); and the Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander...

Issue addressed: There has been a growing national and global focus on the need to address social determinants of health to better achieve equitable health outcomes. In Australia, this focus is now being embedded into state, territory and Commonwealth government health policies. In this paper I use the National Primary Health Care Strategic Framew...

Climate change is arguably the biggest global health threat of the 21st Century. While the spread of vector-borne diseases and the health impacts of extreme weather events dominate discussions about health and climate change, there are also a range of other issues that are central to the health promotion community. Concerns such as food security; m...

Health promotion principles for practice are closely aligned with that of environmental sustainability. Health promotion practitioners are well positioned to take action on climate change. However, there has been scant discussion about practice synergies and subsequently the type and nature of professional competencies that underpin such action. Th...

The recent publication of national men's health policies in Ireland and Australia marks the first attempts by state governments anywhere in the world to target men as a specific population group for the strategic planning of health. The impetus for policy action in both countries can be traced to an increasing concern about sex differences in healt...

The achievement of gender equity is central to improving health outcomes across the world. Indeed, this will be a foundation principle within the men's and women's health policies currently being developed by the Australian Government. For this to be meaningful and relevant to the 21st Century, it will be important to clearly define what gender equ...

The state of men's health, internationally, is a deep public health concern. Despite pressure from the World Health Organisation that all health policy should consider the specific needs of both men and women through their push for ‘gender mainstreaming’, and increased interest in men's health, there have been relatively few gendered policy respons...

The Australian Government announced its intention to develop a national men's health policy in June 2008. A focus on prevention was identified as a foundation principle that would underpin the development of this policy. This brief report provides a descriptive account of the key discussion points relating to health promotion and prevention during...

In April 2008 the Australian Government announced the establishment of a National Preventative Health Taskforce (NPHT) with the primary function of developing a national preventative health strategy. In October 2008 a discussion paper and three technical reports1 were released with a call for input from individuals and organisations, professional a...

To determine the core qualities that men value when communicating with general practitioners in primary care settings. In a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews in non-clinical environments, 36 white Australian men drawn from the Florey Adelaide Male Ageing Study, stratified by age and marital status, discussed their help-seeking beha...

Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) is of paramount concern to men's health, with a high prevalence in Western societies. While previous research has examined PCa from a variety of standpoints, this literature fails to take into account the difficulties encountered by marginalized groups of men, such as gay men. Methods: For this phenomenological, qu...

The randomized clinical trial (RCT) and systematic review underpin evidence-based medicine. They are perceived to provide the strongest evidence on interventions—when viewed as part of an evidence hierarchy, and are generally accepted as such, in clinical medicine. Yet, they are perceived to have limited currency in health promotion practice.1 Thos...

The field of men’s health has grown markedly over the past few decades. Increased activity specifically relating to men’s health promotion in both Australia and the UK has been noted during this period. There has, however, been a reticence to critically examine men’s health promotion work within a broader discourse relating to gender and gender rel...

It is commonly held that men delay help seeking because they are ignorant about and disinterested in their health. However, this discussion has not been informed by men's lay perspectives, which have remained almost entirely absent from scholarship relating to men's help seeking practices. In this qualitative paper, we draw on semi-structured inter...

This paper draws on semi-structured interviews conducted with 36 older men to examine how older men's understandings of independence relate to their help seeking behaviours and health service use. We argue that discourses of masculinity and successful aging are both represented in men's talk about independence. Recognising that these discourses are...

There has been increased interest in men's health over the past two decades. A major focus has been on men's apparent reluctance to seek health-related help. As such, innovative methods to facilitate health promotion engagement and preventive health practices among men have emerged. Men's health promotion activity in Australia has paid particular a...

There is a lack of consensus about what men's health constitutes in Australia. The absence of a widely accepted definition has been problematic for establishing state and national men's health policies. I consider that one impediment to the implementation of state and federal men's health policies has been a lack of willingness to approach men's he...

Interdisciplinary health research is increasingly perceived as an expectation of research institutions and funding bodies within Australia. However, little consideration has been given to the extent to which this re-orientation has produced a new type of researcher--an interdisciplinary health researcher. As cross-enrolled postgraduate research stu...

Background There are gaps in the literature where ageing men's nutrition is concerned. Despite the rise of research on men and their health, ageing men appear to be under-researched and less from a qualitative perspective. Investigating men's understanding of nutrition from a public health perspective provides a deeper insight of the implications t...

Men seek help and use health services less frequently than women do. Men's help-seeking practices and health service use are complex issues involving biological, psychological and sociological considerations. Most discussion on men's help-seeking positions them as reluctant consumers or "behaving badly" with respect to their health. Few studies hav...