Health promotion through rediscovery of one's sensibilities of health: the Lifemap and WIFY Methods.
Japanese people place a high priority on maintaining social harmony and conforming with what we perceive to be mainstream thought and opinion. These social norms present challenges for developing health promotion policies and programs that value individual uniqueness and individual sensibilities about health. To address this challenge, over the past 20 years the author has developed two 'write-and-share' methods - Life-map and WIFY (What Is Important For you) to allow participants to reflect and rediscover their own and one another's feelings about daily life and health. This article summarizes his experiences using these methods and discusses their possible usefulness in other Asian societies.
Moriyama
Masaki
M
IUHPE/NPWP, Department of Public Health, Fukuoka University School of Medicine, 7-45-1 Nanakuma, Jonan-ku, Fukuoka City, JAPAN 814-0180. masakim@fukuoka-u.ac.jp
D003469:Culture; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007564:Japan; D008019:Life Style; D012922:Social Change