THE PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTITIONER

The Role Of The Public Health Practitioner



The Role Of The Public Health Practitioner

Introduction

Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals. In some ways, public health is a modern concept, although it has roots in antiquity. From the beginnings of human civilization, it was recognized that polluted water and lack of proper waste disposal spread communicable diseases (theory of miasma).

Early religions attempted to regulate behaviour that specifically related to health, from types of food eaten, to regulating certain indulgent behaviours, such as drinking alcohol or sexual relations. The establishment of governments placed responsibility on leaders to develop public health policies and programs in order to gain some understanding of the causes of disease and thus ensure social stability prosperity, and maintain order.

Defining the role of public health professionals in developing and disseminating targeted messages about clinical research on salient public health topics is new territory. The goal of targeted, audience-cantered communications is to ensure that all populations, especially those underrepresented in clinical research, receive culturally relevant and accurate information on which to base decisions about medical research.

Discussion

In the mid-1980s, national conferences on NMCs formulated a definition of NMCs that emphasized the provision of holistic, client-cantered health services using a nursing model. (NMC 2005: 5-6)

Dahlgren and Whitehead's model (below) highlights some of the main factors determining the health of our regional and local populations.

Age, sex and genetic make-up undoubtedly influence people's health potential, but are fixed. Other factors in the surrounding layers of the model can potentially be modified to achieve a positive impact on population health: (Dahlgren and Whitehead 1991:10)

individual lifestyle factors such as smoking habits, diet and physical activity have the potential to promote or damage health;

interactions with friends, relatives and mutual support within a community can sustain people's health;

wider influences on health include living and working conditions, food supplies, access to essential goods and services, and the overall economic, cultural and environmental conditions prevalent in society as a whole.

There are inequities in health are both unfair and avoidable, as they are caused by unhealthy public policies and lifestyles influenced by structural factors (Whitehead & Dahlgren, 1991:36). They even contradict the basic human rights principle that everyone has “the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health” (Whitehead & Dahlgren, 1991:16).

In 1986, a group of delegates from some 50 countries gathered in Ottawa at the invitation of the World Health Organization, Health Canada and the Canadian Public Health Association to develop and affirm a series of principles and actions framing the value systems and practice of health promotion. To many, the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion became the gospel and foundation stone of a new public health movement (Nutbeam 2005:58).

In August of 1980 the United Kingdom Department of Health and Social Security published the Report of the Working Group on Inequalities in Health, also known ...