[Health promotion: application of the Ottawa Charter]

One of the greatest challenges for community health today is to translate the health promotion framework into specific actions. An essential step toward integration of the strategies suggested by the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion lies in a close scrutiny of community health practice by health professionals. In the context of our own organization, we have set up a series of policy development seminars designed to bring together staff involved in different areas of community health and to have them work through clear institutional positions regarding current public health issues. We examined the policy positions in the light of the Ottawa Charter. Some of the Charter's suggested strategies were not well covered by the seminar participants. This could be partly attributed to the traditional mix of disciplines in community health. In order to approach health as defined in the Charter, a novel mix of disciplines should be invited to collaborate with the already existing professionals. The Charter is a useful tool for better focusing community health practice onto the health promotion paradigm.