Young People and The Aesthetics of Health Promotion: Beyond Reason, Rationality And Risk
| Date | 19 September 2016 |
| Published date | 19 September 2016 |
| Pages | 177-177 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-06-2016-0027 |
| Author | Sarah Sherwin |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Public mental health |
Young People and
The Aesthetics of Health
Promotion: Beyond
Reason, Rationality
And Risk
Kerry Montero and Peter Kelly
Routledge
Oxford
2016
Review DOI
10.1108/JPMH-06-2016-0027
This is a sound and innovative text for all
those practitioners researching and
working with young people in the field of
health promotion.The focus is on a tightly
structured health promotion initiative Fit
to Drive, which is aimed at reducing road
deaths amongst young drivers within
Western Australia. Young people engage
in risk taking behaviours in whichever
culture they live in. So despite the
seemingly specific focus of this book, it
does have a wide ranging appeal to all
those trying to engage with young
people, to empower them to make
safe and informed choices.
The prelude to the book is particularly
gripping, powerful and thought provoking.
It challenges the reader to consider why
healthpromotionissuchanimportant
concept suggesting that health promotion
isoftenseenas“tragic theatre”. Indeed
the authors state that the aim of the book
is to unsettle and trouble, in order to
explore what factors and strategies make
health promotion interventions successful
within the context of the school setting.
The authors refer to spaces within
schools, such as dining rooms and school
halls, to uncover what engagement and
interactions take place, and it is elements
such as these that help enhance the text.
There is a narrative story threaded
throughout the book, which portrays
Kerry’s story (the writer and facilitator of
the Fit to Drive Programme), which
provides a valuable context and insight as
well as provoking questions about the
intervention and its approach.
The chapters that follow explore
concepts which include rationality and
risk, emotions and values, the role
stories play in health promotion using the
Greek Tragedy and young people as
choosing agents. An interesting and
useful discussion is presented exploring
how young people fear being seen as
ordinary, yet they are often viewed by
others as being risk takers. But there is
the connected notion that young people
are actually at risk.
One of the most important messages
within the book is that health promotion
programmes aimed at young people
need to evoke a sense of emotion. It is
not enough to just present facts,
statistics and didactic messages stating
what they should and should not do.
Young peopleneed to be able to respond
on an emotional level to the health
promotion messages being delivered.
Therefore the Fit to Drive programme
uses powerfulstories and in particular the
personal narrative, by adopting
techniques such as backshadowing;
enabling the young people to step into
the drama, consider how to rewrite the
plot and then to make different decisions
thereby helping them to transfer new
thinking into behaviour changed action.
Overall the text manages to provide an
excellent balance between theoretical
discussion, laced with references to well
established theorists such as
Polkinghorne, Bourdieu and Bruner,
alongside details of what activities
actually took place with the workshops.
Although on slight occasions the level of
fine detail of the narrative appeared a
little unnecessary. Within the conclusion
the key themes of the book are brought
together well and are then tied to the title
of the book, i.e. the aesthetics of health
promotion. The authors revisit their aim,
which was to open up spaces for others
working with young people to reorder
their practices, by delivering effective
health promotion messages using an
innovative approach. Overall this book
will be a valuable and stimulating text for
all those working with young people.
Sarah Sherwin
Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Education,
Health and Wellbeing, University of
Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK.
Book reviews
VOL. 15 NO. 3 2016, pp. 177-178, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-5729
j
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC MENTALHEALTH
j
PAG E 17 7
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