Health Promotion

What is Health Promotion?

Put simply health promotion involves activities to improve individual and community’s health and prevent disease. Health promotion activities offer solutions to many of the health problems facing society through developing skills and knowledge, community action, supportive environments, healthy public policy and reorienting health services. Health promotion works towards enabling people to increase control over, and improve, their health.

With a significant proportion of ill-health related to choices about nutrition, exercise, the use of legal and illegal substances, interpersonal relationships and other social behaviours, health promotion can help us make choices that support well-being.

Our graduates are eligible for professional level membership with the Australian Health Promotion Association.

What does a Health Promotion Professional do?

Health Promotion professionals work in a variety of settings designing and delivering health promotion programs. Good generic skills in such things as project planning, media, advocacy and communication leads to a range of employment options.

Employment can be found at local, state and national government and non-government agencies including the National Heart Foundation, Asthma Foundation, Divisions of General Practice, The Cancer Council, Health Department, Main Roads, Sport and Recreation, Slocal government and many more. Many of our graduates go on to work overseas in developing countries after structuring their course of study to reflect this interest.

About our Health Promotion Program

The innovative and cutting edge Health Promotion courses at Curtin University offers students a combination of studies in health science with the theory and practice of health promotion, advocacy, and communication skills.

The programs have been designed to suit the needs of students wishing to pursue careers in community health promotion, community development, research and evaluation.

The first course of its type in Australia, three decades of cutting-edge experience offers an undergraduate program that combines biological and psycho-social science with the principles and the processes of planning, implementing and evaluating health promotion programs in various settings including the media, schools, work sites and the community.

The health promotion courses consist of specialist health promotion studies as well as support units. Each course includes studies of appropriate theoretical components with a strong emphasis on health promotion practice. Professional practice units provide opportunity for further development of practical skills.

Graduate programs in Health Promotion help to develop students' research skills to enable them to plan, implement and evaluate health promotion programs in various settings.

Upon completion of a postgraduate diploma there are a number of study options that students can undertake. Students pursuing studies by higher degree may apply for scholarships. Information about Australian and International student scholarships, and closing dates, can be found on the Curtin Scholarship website.