From Theory to Practice: A Determinants Approach to Workplace Health Promotion in Small Businesses

Abstract

A determinants approach to workplace health promotion focuses on the sources of health and ill health in the workplace itself. Key practice requirements of such an approach include the capacity to shift focus beyond the individual to the work environment, to cross disciplinary and jurisdictional boundaries in identifying problems and solutions, to foster health promotion self-sufficiency within the workplace, to enable worker participation in the process, and to adapt practice strategies to a business setting. This article identifies the challenges of such practice by reference to the experiences of health promoters in a Canadian public health department who attempted a determinants-centered stress reduction program for small-sized businesses. Findings under-score the significance for workplace health promotion of the broader structural context in which the workplace and the intervention are located, of differing perspectives between health professionals and workplace parties, and of conflicting professional accountabilities. Possibilities for addressing these challenges are considered.