Essay
Health and social Unit 5
- Module
- Health and social Unit 5
- Institution
- AQA
- This essay is for Unit 5 - meeting individual care and support needs - Achieved a Pass and Merit - Valerie and billy case study
[Show more]
Seller
Follow
Content preview
Ella LawtonHealth and social care – unit 8 promoting public health
A1 The origins and aims of public health policy
The National Health Service (NHS) act was created by a man called Aneurin Beran and was
launched on 5th July 1946. Before the creation of the NHS, when people needed a doctor or
the use of medical facilities, they would generally be required to pay for such hose
treatment. The national health service took control of 480, 000 hospital beds in England and
Wales, and an estimated 125, 000 nurses and 5,000 consultants were available to care for
patients. Nurse training was strengthened the same year by the professional regulator, the
general nursing council, which improved its education syllabus. Strict educational
requirements for new individuals looking to join the profession, which had been relaxed
during the war, were reimplemented. Public health helped to promote and protect health
and prevent diseases and injuries. The Government became more aware of people’s health
during and after the second world war and were considerate about the injuries that people
had received during the war on the frontline and the during the bombing raids.
Infant mortality is affected by a combination of risk factors such as gestation length and
mother’s age, which can have an impact on the health of both the
mothers and their babies. However, the adjacent chart identifies
that the introduction of the NHS act was successful in reducing
infant mortality and that the strategy of providing free health care
resulted in a significant decline of infant mortality. (The line on this
graph connotes that there was a decrease in infant mortality rate,
from 36 children in 1948 to 3.9 children per 1000 in 2016.)
This decrease in infant mortality has shown a positive impact on
the population due to less infants dying each year. The NHS are
now able to prevent a high percentage of infant mortality due to
the development of treatments that they can provide.
The Beveridge report (1942) was named after a man called William Beveridge, who was a
social economist, that published a report titled, 'Social Insurance and Allied Services'. This
report provided the blueprint for social policy in post-war Britain. The Beveridge Report
aimed to provide a comprehensive system of social insurance 'from cradle to grave'. It
proposed that all working people should pay a weekly contribution to the state. In return,
benefits would be paid to the unemployed, the sick, the retired and the widowed.
The Beveridge report identified the following five significant challenges which Beveridge
considered, if addressed it would allow Britain to make progression with health care.
1. Tackling Squalor: by giving financial help to local authorities to allow them to rebuild
damaged cities during the war. Between 1945 and 1951 1.25 million permanent new homes
were built.
2. Tackling Disease: by having 8.5 million people receive free dental care and 5.75 million
people getting pairs of glasses issued in 1949. Free health care was also freely accessible for
all.
1
,3. Tackling Want: by having benefits for the unemployed and for pregnant women. There
were also allowances provided for the sick, widowed and mothers who needed financial
help. Those who were retired also got a decent pension to allow them to live comfortably.
4. Tackling Ignorance: by making all local authorities provide free primary education,
secondary education, and further education and making secondary education compulsory
until the age of 15.
5. Tackling Idleness: by establishing a skilled workforce and funding for school leavers and
training de-mobbed serviceman. The authorities aimed to regenerate areas of previously
high unemployment such as south Wales.
I think the reason that the Beveridge report was such a success was due to Beveridge’s
positive outlook on it because he had no idea whether it was going to be approved or not
and with only a small staff to help him, he produced one of the greatest and most
revolutionary documents in our social history.
Rising public anxiety heightened about the risk of epidemics, such as measles, as it became
a notifiable disease in England in 1940 Fifty years ago, the illness killed 500 children a year in
the UK, cases fluctuated between 160,000 and 800,000 during the 1950s and 1960s, with an
epidemic every two years. Measles causes fever and
can have serious complications including pneumonia
and encephalitis. However, from this graph you can
see that the number of cases of measles, that was
notified, rapidly decreased due to the vaccination that
was introduced in 1968. Before the measles vaccine
hundreds of thousands of cases occurred each year.
I have purposely chosen these two dates as an example to
identify the effectiveness of public health treatment. In 1967
there was 460,407 cases with 99 deaths, which was prior to the
release of the vaccine which was rolled out in 1968., In 1969,
just one year after the vaccine was introduced, the death rate
decreased by 63 and the total number of cases had decreased
by 318,296. This reduction could be attributed to the
introduction of the vaccine, improvements in education because of the Beveridge report
and the NHS act providing free healthcare, people now had more knowledge about the
importance of health and medical intervention. More employed people gained access to
facilities to strengthen their hygiene and health, such as, improved housing conditions and
medication to treat infections and to reduce death rates. For that reason, statistics of ill
health have proven that an increase in education and health systems had successfully
supported people to stop the spread and prevention of measles.
The aims of public health policy, which include planning national healthcare provision and
promoting population health, are that the government has an overarching moral goal to
ensure that the health of its citizens is prioritised, and this became even more prevalent due
to the health of people during and after World War II. The NHS has a general obligation to
provide medical and nursing services, as well as to prevent sickness, care for those who are
ill, and aftercare for those who have been ill. Accessible healthcare service was introduced
by the NHS to meet public health policy aims, in ensuring impartial and fair services across
the UK.
2
, For example, from 1948 to 1959, there was a medical breakthrough and the start of
immunisation programmes, as well as the first bowel cancer screening programme from
2000 to 2009, as the NHS continues to enhance its cancer research. The last two years have
seen a significant transformation in the NHS, with rapid progress and the country's economy
allowing the health and social systems to deliver more efficient care and enabling them to
expand life expectancy even more with the assistance provided. The goal of health services
provision is to improve health outcomes in the population and to respond to people’s
expectations. The health care needs of the population should be met with the best possible
quantity and quality of services produced at minimum costs.
As more modern medications and equipment develop in the public's expectations of health
care, the protection they give has improved in the welfare, with medical conditions
becoming curable and life expectancy improving. Public health in the United Kingdom is
significant in recognising the importance of assisting people in staying healthy, particularly
with the goal of preventing disease, ill health, and injuries, such as advising people to smoke
less because it causes long-term conditions such as lung cancer and throat cancer.
However, it is believed that preventative methods, rather than treatments, should be
adopted through collaborative efforts of public health professionals who address a
comprehensive approach as their declared health care aim in order to reduce the number of
individuals using health services. Adhering to national health policy enables people or the
public to make better choices, empowering them to lower the risks and impacts of illness
regardless of their circumstances. It is then crucial for achieving population health
promotion because healthcare policy lays out a comprehensive plan of action that is used as
a vital guideline in acquiring personal control over health decisions and achieving the
intended end result.
Identifying and monitoring needs of the population allows a way for health visitors and
school nurses to gain a more in depth understanding of their communities and the needs
that exist, enabling effective planning, prioritisation, development, and delivery of services
to improve outcomes for the population. By monitoring the needs of the population,
Government has the ability to identify what support they need to provide. Local
governments established children's mental health departments to help children cope with
war, poverty, and disease, which became known as the 'social citizenship' agenda, as the
government took responsibility for everyone's welfare for the first time. In 1946, the World
Health Organisation classified health as a separate issue that governments must address in
order to benefit people's physical, mental, and social well-being as well as their illnesses.
During the 1970s and 1980s, public awareness was actively promoted through public
information films on topics ranging from safe firework handling to sexual health. The
government's involvement in inciting societal change, as social pressures such as peer
pressure and the media, compelled health policy to become more responsive than simply
treating and regulating diseases. For example, programmes to increase awareness about
illegal drug misuse and drink driving, campaigns like these are known to decrease the risk of
these events happening. Through government's understanding, medical evidence such as
the relationship between smoking and a range of cancers, e.g., throat cancer, has led to
intervention regulating cigarette advertisements and limitations on where individuals can
smoke. In England, smoking was outlawed in workplaces in July 2007 in an attempt to try
and stop the dangers of cancer by preventing smoking all day every day.
3
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller ella_lawton. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for £8.49. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
67096 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy revision notes and other study material for 14 years now