The Ottawa Charter: evaluating action areas

This week has certainly challenged my thinking and comprehension surrounding the Ottawa Charter and its five action areas. In exploring whether some actions might be more or less important, several nuanced arguments emerged. A consistent theme in the literature is that these action areas were intentionally designed to be interdependent rather than hierarchical (Potvin & Jones, 2011). Nonetheless, it is tempting to rank the areas. As others have noted, I would also agree that building healthy public policy and creating supportive environments are fundamental to fostering health equity. Different contexts will of course call on different action areas.

For example, in my role within mental health, building healthy public policy and creating supportive environments is critical. Therapeutic Recreation and mental health promotion depend on policies outside the clinical sphere. This means advocating for policies in transportation, parks and recreation and social services. Each of these sectors influences whether people have access to meaningful leisure, social connection, safe environments, and opportunities for choice— all core determinants of mental well‑being. Policies that fund community recreation centres, green spaces, and inclusive programming directly support mental health by creating accessible environments for engagement, belonging, and self-expression.

The report really drives home the idea that health isn’t something created solely by the health‑care system. If public health is to support healthy population — it must use strategies that reach far beyond traditional health‑care services. I also resonate with the idea that leisure should be a source of health for the community (WHO, 1986)

Lastly, I found that the Population Health Promotion (PHP) model helped me better conceptualize the Ottawa Charter and understand how the population health approach interacts with a broad range of health determinants, as illustrated below.

Population Health Promotion (PHP) Model (2001)

References

Government of Canada. (2001) Population Health Promotion: An Integrated Model of Population Health and Health Promotion https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/health-promotion/population-health/population-health-promotion-integrated-model-population-health-health-promotion/developing-population-health-promotion-model.html

Potvin, L. & Jones, M.C. (2011). Twenty-five years after the Ottawa charter: The critical role of health promotion for public health. Canadian Journal of Public Health. 102(4). 244-48. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Louise-Potvin/publication/51633617_Twenty-five_Years_After_the_Ottawa_Charter_The_Critical_Role_of_Health_Promotion_for_Public_Health/links/566aa70308ae62b05f031a82/Twenty-five-Years-After-the-Ottawa-Charter-The-Critical-Role-of-Health-Promotion-for-Public-Health.pdf

World Health Organization. (1986). Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. World Health Organization. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/phac-aspc/documents/services/health-promotion/population-health/ottawa-charter-health-promotion-international-conference-on-health-promotion/charter.pdf