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Summary Unit 8- promoting public health
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Full assignment on unit 8 Promoting public health. Distinction grade met
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Unit 8: Promoting public healthP1: Explain the strategies used to develop public health policy in order for it to meet
its aims.
Public health is in place to prevent disease, prolong life and promote health. (1.RCN). It is
also in place to help reduce inequalities within society. Public Health England put strategies
and policies in place to protect the health and wellbeing of the public.
The welfare state came about after the second world war by the incoming labour
government. It used Williams Beveridge report which was addressing social inequality and
the 5 evils in society which were: idleness, ignorance, disease, squalor and want. The report
came out to find different methods on how to prevent diseases. The main aim was that
people should pay a certain amount of money to the movement so that in return there could
be benefits for the unemployed, sick, retired or people who are widowed.
Within public health there are 5 key aims: Identifying and monitoring the needs of the
population. This means that the government must focus on the overall population's health
(mental, physical and wellbeing) as a whole instead of just treating diseases. This will then
allow the population to become healthier. The government has been given this responsibility
by the World Health Organisation who identified that the health status of the population
needs to be more closely monitored and the government should take action when
necessary. Some of the issues that they have started to identify are the rise in obesity and to
prevent this the government has put in place a 12 week weight loss plan app to empower
and reduce obesity. (2.gov.uk). However, when the government has done this, it has shown
that they disregarded some of the other health issues such as cancer which is still a big
issue in society.
The second aim is to identify and reduce inequalities. Across the UK, there are different
health inequalities such as in the cities, pollution risks will be higher and within the
countryside there isn't a pollution issue as such. To help deal with these issues, local
authorities have been given resources to help local issues decrease.(3. Gov Uk. Health
inequalities) For example, within London there is a housing shortage so the London local
authority has put in place a strategy to tackle housing. Their steps are to 1) Building more
council and affordable homes 2) Improving the Private Rented Sector. 3) Helping London’s
homeless by using the live off the streets programme. (4. London. gov.uk). This will then
allow a reduction in housing so more people will be off the streets.
The third aim is to plan and evaluate health care and promote the health of the population. In
each local area there is a local authority who has the responsibility of those people. Within
each local authority, they have to collect data to identify any health risks or threats within that
community and then inform the local government if it spreads. The local government can
then initiate plans and preventative measures to stop the threat from increasing. For
example, when there was a breakout of measles, the local authorities dealt with it as the
picture shows below:
1
,The next aim is to protect the population from health threats. This means that it is vital to
protect the population from any danger to their health and wellbeing which could be from
diseases such as the flu. The UK health Security is in charge of making sure ‘every member
of the community from the impact of infectious diseases, chemical, biological, radiological,
nuclear incidents and other health threats’. (5.HSC. gov). These people then regulate the
local authorities who are responsible for the health and wellbeing of their local community.
The most recent health threat is covid 19. An app was put in place so if anyone came in
contact with someone who has COVID then they would be notified and told to isolate at
home. As Covid was highly contagious, vaccinations were given as well as highly promoted
by the local authorities and the government. By promoting and doing this, it will help reduce
the strain on the NHS and their limited resources.
The next aim is developing screening programmes and this is important to help the health
and wellbeing of everyone in the uk. Public health policies can gather and build on existing
data to understand what areas of screening need improving and how they can be developed
to benefit the whole of the UK. For example, a screening programme could be breast cancer
screening. They have advertised this through leaflets and TV adverts which can be done to
reduce the risk of a higher stage of cancer and treating options as well as stopping someone
from dying.
The last aim is minimising harm from environmental factors which means controlling the
environment and making sure issues such as air pollution and food standards agency. These
are important so that it doesn't affect the society's health and wellbeing such as with too
much air pollution, a person's physical health can suffer. This can also improve a person's
full wellbeing as they would be less ill and more able to do things they enjoy.
(6.byju's.environmental issues). For example in Devon there have been 150 death related
incidents to air pollution due to the long exposure. (7.devon live)
P2: Explain how monitoring information to determine patterns of health and ill health
is used by the government to inform the creation of public health policy.
2
, The government monitors the health of the population through statistics and health reports.
By monitoring this, local authorities and the government are able to put in place resources
and reduce the risk of serious illness and outbreaks of diseases.
The government monitors this through data sources such as the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE). They are a government agency who report directly to the government
when there has been a rise, fluctuation or outbreak of a disease so that the government can
start putting a plan in place to reduce these. It is a legal obligation to report incidents to the
HSE such as ill health and incidents at work so then they can gather more data with other
agencies to see why and how the risks are arising and to investigate the serious incidents so
prevention strategies can be put in place.
The next way that the government
monitors is through the Labour Force
Survey (LFS). The survey determines
whether occupants of over 40,000
households in Britain have work-related
illnesses which is fed back to the HSE so
they can carry out further investigations.
Government departments use LFS to
update and inform future policy changes.
(8.gov.uk surveys). As shown in the
survey, that has been created by LFS in
2021/22.
https://www.ofi.co.uk/blog/health-and-
safety-statistics-2022/
The next way is through the Occupational Reporting network (THOR). THOR was created
and run by university students in Manchester. Their aim is to produce statistical information
on work related illnesses which the government can then use and create prevention plans
which allow the work related sickness to be reduced. The data is collected by over a
thousand doctors voluntarily providing information on diseases relating to work- related ill
health.
The next strategy is through statistics. By having
statistics about different health trends and the
overall population it can identify patterns and
abnormalities which can be addressed by the
government. For example, in this chart there has
been a rise in type 2 diabetics which then indicate
that the population as a whole are consuming more
sugary and fatty foods from 1980 to 2010.
Statistics can also show similar patterns in medical
conditions, physical and mental health conditions.
Moreover, it can also show whether private care
needs more support to improve the services they
offer to their service users.
Finally, the last strategy the government can use to monitor the health of the population is
through Epidemiology. This is a method of taking in information about the spread of disease
and monitoring it. An example of this is Covid-19, when the government had to keep track of
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