Unit 8 promoting public health
Introduction:
In this assignment, I will discuss how public health is used around the UK and across the globe.
Learning Aim A: Examine strategies for developing public health policy to improve the
health of individuals and the population
P1
Explain the strategies used to develop public health policy in order for it to meet its aims
The aims of public health policy
Public health can be defined as "the art and science of avoiding disease, extending life, and
improving health through the concerted efforts of society" (Acheson, 1988; WHO).
Strengthening public health capacities and services is to create conditions that allow individuals
to stay healthy, enhance their health and wellbeing, or prevent their health from deteriorating.
Public health is concerned with all aspects of health and well-being, not just the abolishment of
specific diseases. Numerous initiatives, such as health promotion strategies, are aimed towards
certain demographics. Personal interventions to individuals, such as vaccines, behavioural
therapies, or health advice, are included in public health services.
In the development of public health, there have been a number of pivotal moments. The
National Health Service was established on July 5, 1948, with the goal of ensuring that all
persons in the United Kingdom would obtain free healthcare at the time of the transaction,
regardless of their means. It was the nation's initial health service of its sort.
The administration and mainstream governmental parties grew more observant of and worried
about individuals 's wellbeing throughout and afterwards WWII. There were also concerns about
recovering from traumatic complications, some of which had rarely been encountered before, as
a result of bombing strikes in the UK and those sustained by individuals heading back from
combat. Individuals who could finance it had confidential medical coverage up until this point to
aid with their medical expenditures. Those who could not manage to spend for a doctor or
medicine received inadequate medical care.
Sir William Beveridge was appointed by the government to look into methods for the economy
to rehabilitate from WWII. Beveridge had a lot of governmental knowledge and was a specialist
on the issue of underemployment. The Beveridge Report (1942) was released in 1942.
According to the study, the postwar time frame was a moment of profound transformation, and
one proposal was that the government discover strategies to combat sickness.
The Beveridge report was warmly received by the people. In England and Wales, measles
became a reported disease in 1940. In 1940, there was once a measles outbreak, and that
constituted an extremely deadly infection at the period, with around 400,000 cases documented.
Each year, individuals passed away from communicable diseases like pneumonia, meningitis,
TB, and influenza, and there was significant documentation of the necessity for universal health
care.
,There had been various recommendations on health promotion amid the First and Second
World Wars, from 1919 to 1939, but none had been adopted. The report's proposals were
adopted by the new Labour administration in 1945, and the National Health Service Act was
established in 1946 and went into effect in 1948. The National Health Service (NHS) would be
entirely funded by taxes, would advantage everyone in the community, and would be accessible
from birth to death. For perhaps the first moment, anyone, irrespective of their financial
situation, may be diagnosed and treated for any ailment at home or in the hospital,
encompassing dentistry and optical care. The establishment of a National Health Service has
had a huge influence on the country's health, benefiting millions of people.
Planning national provision health care and promoting the health of the population
The government's overarching fundamental goal is to ensure that the healthcare of its
population is prioritised, and this has become increasingly more apparent as a result of the
health of individuals throughout and following WWII. The NHS began to establish a greater
comprehensive health service to accomplish the goal of public health policy by ensuring
equitable and unbiased health services throughout the UK, so that everyone, in spite of social
status or geographic location, may enjoy a tolerable quality of good health.
Public health policy must be adaptive in order to address the requirements of a shifting
demography. To prepare for future requirements and offer care in emergency circumstances
including the 2009 swine flu outbreak, the administration must collect statistical data and
commission reports on existing health patterns in the country, as well as endeavouring to
anticipate future changes in the country's health status.
Understanding of characteristics that affect health, such as personal decisions,
underemployment, schooling, accommodation, illness incidence, and homelessness, aids in the
health-care strategic planning. With science and technology advancements in medication and
infrastructure, public perceptions of health care and the security it offers for their wellbeing have
risen. As additional medical diseases have become treated and life expectancy has improved,
health trends have shifted.
As of now, public health policy must tackle a number of challenges, including dementia, mental
health problems, and increasing levels of antimicrobial agents, along with promoting knowledge
of the necessity of nutritious food, exercise, alcohol tolerance, and quitting smoking.
Identifying and monitoring needs
Food shortages benefited individuals 's health throughout the wartime and through the next 10
years, according to health professionals. This was also looked into. For the first moment, local
governments established Children's and Mental Health Departments to aid promote disease
and circumstances imposed on by war or hardship, and this had been described as the social
citizenship' ideology, in which the administration assumed responsibility for everyone's
wellbeing. In 1946, the World Health Organisation (WHO) established healthcare as a different
problem in which authorities should be engaged, not simply for the treatment of diseases, but
for the enhancement of people's physiological, intellectual, and social well-being. During the
1970s and 1980s, governmental enlightenment movies on themes ranging from appropriate
fireworks management to crossing the road responsibly to sexual health continued to take an
effective position in improving public awareness.
, In the diagnosis and prevention of diseases, the government 's involvement in recognising and
anticipating change in society is critical. Health policy must become increasingly flexible as
societal forces such as the mainstream press and social conditioning become more pervasive.
Campaigns to increase consciousness of the perils of illegal substance usage and the
consequences of operating when under the intoxication of alcohol or drugs are illustrations of
this. The government's approach to medical information linking smoking to several forms of
cancer, particularly lung cancer and throat cancer, has resulted in a slew of regulations
governing not only cigarette advertisements but also where people can smoke. In England,
consumption in the workforce was outlawed on July 1, 2007.
Identifying and reducing inequalities
The NHS was not in charge of the entirety of general health until 1974; before that, the NHS
was forming, extending throughout the country, and recapturing accountability for all individuals'
health. Nevertheless, because the health demands of the people vary greatly across rural and
urban areas, incorporating municipal administrations was proven to have a greater
consequence on the supply of suitable health services.
Protecting society from health threats
Crime figures, inadequate housing, contamination, socioeconomic restoration, and schooling
have all been shown to have an impact on individuals 's wellness and well-being since the
1970s. There are international and regional norms for monitoring and improving these concerns.
The strategies used to develop public health policy in order to meet its aims, must
include;
1. Reducing risks through screening.
2. Planning and evaluating provision, and target setting.
3. Minimising harm from the environment
P2
Explain how monitoring information to determine patterns of health and ill health is used
by government to inform the creation of public health policy
How monitoring information to determine patterns of health and ill health is used by
government to inform the creation of public health policy;
Purpose of monitoring health and what we can monitor
The frequent collecting of statistics on essential aspects of health and their factors that influence
in the community or in sampling of either, with the goal of influencing the public health policy
framework, is known as public or population monitoring systems. In perspective of quantities
and patterns, geographical dispersion, prices, and health consequences, health factors are
combined important if they address topics of considerable public health relevance. In regards to
our comprehension of the mechanics of health and disease, there must also be consistency
between the processes, i.e. health concerns and their determinants. Following that, there must