Asset Approaches

Asset Approaches

Asset approaches have been seen as central to improving health for a long time. However, there has been a recent renewal of interest in this approach. An asset approach firstly undertands health as a positive state of wellbeing (salutogenic) rather than seeing health as just about illness and disease (pathogenic). The assets are the factors that support the creation of health and wellbeing - the skills, strengths and resources of individuals, communities and organisations that contribute to health.
"The asset approach values the capacity, skills, knowledge, connections and potential in a community. In an asset approach, the glass is half-full rather than half-empty."
(IDEA, 2010, A glass half full: how an asset approach can improve community health and wellbeing)

“Communities have never been built upon their deficiencies. Building communities has always depended upon mobilising the capacities and assets of people and place”
(Kretzman and McKnight 1993)
“Many of the key assets required for creating the conditions for health lie within the social context of people’s lives and therefore [the asset model] has the potential to contribute to reducing health inequities.”
(Morgan & Ziglio, 2007, IUHPE briefing)
Real gains can be made if health and wellbeing boards look beyond needs to examine how local assets, including the local community itself can be used to meet identified needs. Not only does this approach generate energy and make the best use of all available resources, but it also stimulates innovation, for example through joining up services, to find truly local solutions to address local issues.(DH 2012, Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and Joint Health & Wellbeing Strategies draft guidance)

USEFUL RESOURCES
-A glass half-full:how an asset approach can improve community health and well-being|Jane Foot, with Trevor Hopkins | Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) | March 2010
- Appreciating Assets|Tara O’Leary, Ingrid Burkett and Kate Braithwaite |A report by IACD and Carnegie UK Trust | February 2011
- Assets Alliance Scotland| Long Term Conditions Alliance Scotland (LTCAS) & Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC) | December 2010
- Asset Approach to Living Well| Jude Stansfield |NHS NW | 2010
- Asset based approaches for health improvement: redressing the balance|Dr Jennifer McLean | Glasgow Centre for Population Health | October 2011
- "Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets" |John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight | 1993
- Communities in Control – Developing Assets |Cormac Russell, ABCD Institute and Nurture Development | June 2009
- Developing a rich and vibrant JSNA|NHS Wakefield District, Wakefield Metropolitan District Council and theLocal Government Assocaition |
- Development of a Method for Asset Based Working|Brett Nelson, John Campbell, Judith Emanuel | NHS North West | March 2011
- Growing Communities from the Inside Out| NHS Wakefield District, Wakefield Metropolitan District Council and theLocal Government Assocaition | 2011
- Reasons to be cheerful: the ‘count your assets’ approach to publichealth|Lynne Friedli | 2011
- Revitalising the evidence base for public health: an assets model|Antony Morgan and ErioZiglio |IUHPE Briefing | 2007