Public Health Essays

Public health is defined as the science of protecting the safety and improving the health of communities through education, policy making and research for disease and injury prevention. ‘Being a public health professional enables people to work around the world, address health problems of communities as a whole, and influence policies that affect the health of societies.’ They try to prevent people from getting sick or injured in the first place. They also promote wellness by encouraging healthy behaviours. From conducting scientific research to educating about health, people in the field of public health work to assure the conditions in which people can be healthy. That can mean vaccinating children and adults to prevent the spread of disease. Or educating people about the risks of alcohol and tobacco. Public health sets safety standards to protect workers and develops school nutrition programs to ensure kids have access to healthy food. they shed light on why some of us are more likely to suffer from poor health than others. ‘The many facets of public health include speaking out for laws that promote smoke-free indoor air and seatbelts, spreading the word about ways to stay healthy and giving science-based solutions to problems.’

There are strategies that are used to promote public health such as, monitoring the health status of a community to identify potential problems they then diagnose and investigate health problems and hazards in the community. They use the information to inform, educate, and empower people about health issues, particularly the underserved and those at risk the community partnerships identified and solved health problems by developing policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts. They enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety therefore they are able to link people to needed personal health services and ensure the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable. The organisations then evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services and research new insights and innovative solutions to health problems. An example of this is the NHS using the information on their website called ‘eat well’ to advice people on the amount of fat, carbohydrates and protein to intake a day as these nutrients have pros and cons that people need to know. For example having too much carbohydrates can also lead to ‘weight gain, which could lead to becoming overweight or obese, which can lead to more health problems like stroke, heart disease, and sleep apnoea.’ The information the NHS shares with the community could prevent these health problems from happening.