1 / 14

Public Health

Public Health. The “Big Picture”. What is Public Health?. http://www.thisispublichealth.org/ http://www.generationpublichealth.org/ Thoughts?. What is Public Health?. The sum of all official or governmental efforts to promote , protect , and preserve the people’s health.

garth-porter
Download Presentation

Public Health

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Public Health The “Big Picture”

  2. What is Public Health? http://www.thisispublichealth.org/ http://www.generationpublichealth.org/ Thoughts?

  3. What is Public Health? • The sum of all official or governmental efforts to promote, protect, and preserve the people’s health.

  4. Public Health Achievements Top Ten PH achievements: • Seat belts • Tobacco as a health risk • Safer work places • Healthier moms & babies • Vaccines • Food safety • Water fluoridation • Motor vehicle safety • Control of infectious diseases • Decreased morbidity from heart disease

  5. However, • “For decades, public health had been eclipsed by novel surgeries and the drama of the emergency room… The big problem is that when public health is successful, nothing happens, because we’ve prevented it from happening.” • Stephen Smith, Boston Globe, 1/7/2003

  6. Public Health is many things A System A Profession A Method Government Service The Health of the Public

  7. Three Core Functions of Public Health • Assessment • What are the health problems of a population or individual? • Policy Development • Collectively deciding which actions or interventions are most appropriate for the problems identified. • Assurance • The necessary interventions will be put into place, assuring conditions in which people can be healthy.

  8. http://www.health.gov/phfunctions/public.htm

  9. Unique Features of Public Health **Social JusticePhilosophy Inherently Political Nature Grounded in Science Expanding Agenda Link with Government **Uncommon Culture Focus on Prevention

  10. What is Social Justice? • Justice indicates fairness in the distribution of benefits and burdens in society. • Access to health services, or even good health itself is considered a social benefit… and conversely, poor health is considered a burden. • There are significant factors within society that impede the fair distribution of benefits and services (e.g. social class, heredity, racism)

  11. Social Justice Continued • Many modern public health problems disproportionately affect some groups… • Collective actions are then necessary • This means that those less affected take on greater burdens while not directly benefiting from those actions.

  12. Problems requiring collective actions? • Health Care Reform • Big news right now! • Poor Public Education Systems • Poverty

  13. Uncommon Culture • Public health is multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary and utilizes a population-level focus. • The link between people working in Public Health is NOT a specific professional degree or work setting… • Public Health professionals are connected by the intended outcomes of their work.. Promoting, protecting, and preserving the public’s health.

  14. A Sampling of Public Health Professions Alcohol, tobacco and other drugs Chiropractic health care Community health planning and policy development Environment Epidemiology Food and nutrition Gerontological health Health administration HIV AIDS Injury Control and Emergency Health Services International Health Maternal and Child Health Medical Care Mental Health Occupational Health and Safety Oral Health Podiatric Health Population, Family Planning & Reproductive Health Public Health Education and Health Promotion Public Health Nursing School Health Education and Services Social Work

More Related