Drawing on concepts and theories from this module’s readings critically discuss the following statement:health promotors have the expert knowledge and their role is to empower others

THE ROLE OF HEALTH PROMOTERS IS TO EMPOWER OTHERS
By (Name)
Course
Professor’s Name
University
City, State
Health Promoters have the Expert Knowledge, and their Role is to empower others
Introduction
Health promotion is critical today in addressing health problems. There is a universal acceptance that health is affected by factors within and outside the health system such as social economic, demographic, social and cultural factors, political and economic changes among others. As such, health issues are addressed adequately by adopting a holistic strategy that involves empowerment of communities and individuals to take action concerning their health (Fertman and Allensworth 2016). Other activities may include fostering public health leadership, creating sustainable health systems and promoting intersectoral engagement to develop sound policies in all sectors. Health promotion efforts involving actions at individual and community levels helps encourage people to adopt health-enhancing behaviors that minimize health-compromising behaviors. Health promotion and empowerment can be viewed as lenses through which professional practices gain value. They may also be perceived as vehicles that neutralize social conflict within social institutions. Hence, social change is seen as a product of an empowered relationship between clients and professionals. Health promoters are equipped with the knowledge to increase awareness among groups, individuals and institutions and to empower them to make healthy choices.

Therefore, health promoters have the expert knowledge, and their role is to empower others. 
Role of Health Promotion
The primary function of health promotion is to influence positive health behaviors of individuals and groups as well as the working and living conditions that affect their health. Naturally, it can be termed as improving the quality of life. In this case, the goal can be achieved by increased or maintained health. Welfare measures are examples of the indirect quality of life interventions. It is through the promotion of health-related welfare that ultimate health is achieved. Through enhancing it, the society can create strong foundations of health-related quality of life. On the other hand, empowerment is a critical aspect of health promotion that assists individuals and communities to make healthy choices. It requires one to carefully assess the client’s background including their challenges and strengths to determine what they should change and plan how to modify their lifestyle. Studies have shown that empowerment results in better health outcomes by improving the participant’s psychological well-being, self-esteem as well as their confidence (Fertman and Allensworth 2016). More so, it also facilitates increased knowledge and awareness. Empowerment may be viewed as a means to reach goals. In health promotion, it is associated with professional relinquishing or believing that a client can understand problems and formulate solutions. It, therefore, means that the health promoter works with a client as a facilitator. Typically, health promoters empower people by increasing their ability to attain the health-related quality of life aspirations by eliminating external obstacles such as social, political and economic or by increasing their health-related knowledge base including, skill development, autonomy, and self-esteem. Therefore, the role of health promotion is to empower.
Health Promotion Theories and Concepts
Power, Powerlessness, and Empowerment
Health promotion theories prove that empowerment is key to the practice. For instance, power refers to the ability to please or harm other people at a fairly low cost to oneself; power can achieve intended objectives, change the mind of an individual, or influence the behavior of other people. Power may be hard where individuals are forced to comply or soft where it exercised through persuasion, coercion or by the use of culture or values. Health promoters’ use power to reward through compensation for compliance; they may also be viewed as people who have power due to the superior knowledge and skills. They may exercise power coercively in instances of non-compliance. For instance, patients fear that physicians will be angry with them if they fail to take medication as advised. This is due to the powerlessness aspect associated with patients; they tend to believe that doctors have power over them. In some situations, health promoters may exercise the top down power dynamics. For example, if a particular community faces the problem of drugs, health promoters act as the powerful group while the passive public/ community serves as the powerless group. The influential group defines the problem affecting the community by involving police, creating more social marketing platforms and drug rehabilitation centers, providing more drug education programs, and distributing antidrug pamphlets and posters. This way, health promoters influence change by exerting knowledge and offering other potential solutions. However, the powerless group (community members) may misinterpret the entire process and start worrying about their safety especially when the police are involved as they may create more tension.
Using the bottom-up approach, the same community may suggest possible causes for the drug problem as unemployment, street violence, poor street lighting, and unemployment. Therefore, health promoters should build a partnership with the community before addressing their concerns. In this approach, the health practitioner works together with the community and his/her purpose is to facilitate by sharing power in a way that allows the provision of resources and services as requested by the community.
While playing the role of facilitation, the health promoter creates community groups to provide enthusiasm as well as important resources required to move the project forward. Such a partnership reflects the ability of the community to develop relationships with others based on the recognition of shared interests and respect. Health promoters play a vital role in creating awareness, providing resources and technical help but it has to be in line with the concerns that have been identified as necessary by the community. The role of the practitioner is to help people acquire a greater sense of control in their lives. The first step towards empowerment can be through engaging in small groups where one gets information that helps in clarifying an issue or acquiring new skills. It could also be achieved by allowing individuals to define, analyze, and cooperate on matters of mutual interest. Health promoters exercise this by advising, educating, and connecting people to interest groups. In this case, while using the bottom-up approach to solve the drug problem, the community should take more control over the issue. The health promoter should invest mostly in development processes such as managing finances, providing necessary information, writing reports and evaluation.
Agency
Agency is the capacity to affect things; this aspect is strongly related to social power. In most cases, single actors are viewed as causes of events and as premises from which people are held accountable for their circumstances. The concept of agency embodies the notion that actions, activities and decisions symbolize a ‘ meaningful choice.’ More so, intentionality and the ability of actors to demonstrate conscious and goal driven behavior are pondered to be the defining features of the agency with the implication that desires can provide explanations for individual actions. In the case of health promotion, ‘Agency’ tends to focus on the choices that shape circumstances. It is also concerned with an individual’s realization that they have the power to resist or challenge forces that oppress them. Over the years, people have thwarted those with power and have managed to change different social structures. In this case, health promoters play a critical role in empowering people to discover their potential. For instance, they may educate people about their rights such as the right to have a clean environment, a proper sewerage system, and even fresh water. When people discover that they are entitled to an appropriate system of sewerage, then they can be able to demand proper facilities. Through empowerment, people can resist substandard products that may compromise their health. Without the knowledge that particular products are of low quality, people will continue using them. However, when they get the knowledge that the products are not suitable for their health, they may demand that such products are eliminated from the market. As such, collectively, people construct the structure of the world, which can be altered by human agency.  
Structural Violence
Health promoters must fight structural violence. This problem arises from social circumstances that are influenced by the distribution of resources, money, and even power. These factors are termed as structural since they are entrenched in the economic and political constructs of the social environment; on the other hand, they are regarded as violent as they inflict harm on people. For instance, racism and poverty are types of structural violence; these factors may result in ill health as victims may not be in a position to access proper medical services. For instance, people with a low social economic status may not afford insurance covers and are likely to die from treatable diseases. On the other hand, victims of racism may suffer discrimination especially in accessing proper medical services and therefore resulting in increased mortality rates among segregated groups. In this case, health promoters should eliminate structural violence by advocating for equal treatment. This can be done by educating minority groups about their rights as citizens of a given country. More so, in order to eliminate the problem of poverty as a cause of mortality, practitioners may educate people on alternative ways of getting money or connect them with creditors to lend them money to start small businesses that can sustain them. Such empowerment can help eliminate health disparities that may lead to ill health.
Expert Knowledge
Expert knowledge has the power to change different things. Therefore, health promoters play a vital role in transforming the face of the society. Change is realized through empowerment of the community, where members are educated about various things that affect their livelihood and health. For instance, practitioners may teach people about the importance of living in a clean environment; this allows people to take control over their lives by cleaning up their environment, which not only improves the appearance of the surrounding but also reduces the chances of contracting diseases that are associated with dirt. Knowledge prompts a sense of belonging whereby, it enhances the relationship between health practitioners and clients. For instance, apart from educating people about the adverse effects of drug use, health promoters have to formulate solutions to the problem. Some of the possible ones may be the establishment of rehabilitation centers; while at these centers victims of drug use enjoy a sense of belonging where they even feel secure unlike in their previous environment where they may have been subjected to isolation due to their unkempt nature. As such, this may help tackle problems like stigma, restore self-esteem, and encourage personal growth.
Another impact of knowledge is the provision of effective services, for example, health promoters may educate people about their rights, such as access to medical services, this may prompt community involvement in advocating for better healthcare services, which may influence policymakers to support the establishment of more medical centers. Finally, education has the power to reduce harm; for instance, when people are aware of the health problems that they are likely to be predisposed to when they take drugs, they may avoid using them. Empowerment may also prompt behavior change such as, minimizing drug use and eventually stopping.
Austerity
Austerity is another concept that demonstrates the role of empowerment in health promotion. This aspect affects people’s health depending on how the system of a country works. For instance, during the recession period, healthcare funds disappear at the point where other financial problems are on the rise. Further, austerity can worsen an economic downturn, which may result in a health crisis since the larger social, economic environment wields a powerful influence on health. More so, prolonged stress related to financial problems may alter the immune system as well as the brain and may eventually lead to depression, behavioral issues, and anxiety. Austerity hampers progress in minimizing poverty and equality.
Poor job prospects, a decreased number of families acquiring the minimum income to ensure a healthy life, increased cases of childhood poverty and increased rates of material deprivation are some of the factors that can affect health in the absence of a resilient social support system. As such, vulnerable groups are most affected and especially those who are not able to work due to terminal illnesses or disability. Some of the adverse impacts associated with austerity include increased mortality, deteriorated health conditions, food insecurity, increased cases of homelessness, and reduced household income. Health promoters play a critical role in mitigating the adverse impacts of austerity by promoting health and welfare reforms. For instance, they may focus on reducing social and economic inequalities through empowerment supported by the government. This can be done by developing local approaches to empower vulnerable populations in accessing proper health services; health practitioners may also connect community members to non-medical sources of support. They may even advocate for assessment of the effect of policies and policy changes on health. Therefore, health promoters help in reducing the negative impacts of austerity and preventing future policies from having further adverse implications.
Limitations
Health promoters face several challenges that may hinder the empowering process. Some of them include the challenge of maintaining trust in communities and especially those that are socially marginalized. In the face of growing poverty and inequality, the socially marginalized groups may not be receptive to the health-related messages. Another problem is associated with research in this field, where there is a failure to implement and apply evidence when developing policies (Meyer et al. 2017). It then turns out that these policies have adverse effects on health and it may take long before the policies are changed. Insufficiency of finances is also a significant challenge which constraints the effectiveness and sustainability of health promotion programs.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is clear that health promoters have expert knowledge and their role is to empower, some theories and concepts support this. For instance, health promoters have power over the passive public as they can demand compliance. Since they have accumulated expert knowledge, they can formulate solutions regarding health-related problems. More so, due to their expertise, they can empower communities through education. Specialist knowledge has the power to transform the face of the society including better health services and a more empowered generation. Health promoters achieve this by educating the community on various issues that influence their life and health. Moreover, it is evident that health practitioners play a critical role in reducing the adverse effects of austerity. This is done by empowering vulnerable groups in accessing better health services as well as advocating for policies that do not pose threats to the health of the population. Health promoters help eliminate structural violence by reducing poverty and inequality. Finally, regarding the theory of agency, health practitioners assist people to realize that they have the potential to resist powers that oppress them. However, the process of empowerment is confronted by some challenges including financial problems to support health promotion activities, failure to apply evidence when formulating policies, which results in adverse impacts on health and the issue of maintaining trust, especially in socially marginalized populations.

References List
Fertman, C.I. and Allensworth, D.D., 2016. Health promotion programs: from theory to practice. John Wiley & Sons.
Meyer, S.B., Edge, S.S., Beatty, J., Leatherdale, S., Perlman, C., Dean, J., Ward, P.R. and Kirkpatrick, S.I., 2017. Challenges to evidence-based health promotion: a case study of a Food Security Coalition in Ontario, Canada. Health Promotion International, p.dax011.