ways to improve public health essay

ways to improve public health essay

Ways to Improve Public Health

1. Introduction

The last half century has seen great progress in public health in particular, tremendous increases in life expectancy around the world. Yet we have also seen persistent and emerging challenges, and it is clear that health issues will remain central to the human development in the century now underway. Public health will be a central issue, and doesn’t just mean traditional public health, but the health of the whole of human society. The world’s health situation will continue to change, along with the fundamental determinants of health, and the world needs a new vision for global health in the 21st century. This should also be inclusive and not just the preserve of the rich developed countries of the world. This is broadly the theme of our work; ways to improve global health, this includes the health of the whole of human society i.e. the health of the entire human family and all that that entails. And we will make the case that a significant improvement of the world’s health in the 21st century will require the provision of a global ethic of improving the health of all, and the mobilization of the political and public will to act on that ethic.

2. Promoting Healthy Lifestyles

Finally, these initiatives hope to improve mental health by creating environments where it is easier for an individual to make healthy choices, and by providing support for those affected by poor mental well-being.

Taking healthy eating and combining it with physical activity, this will also be promoted by these initiatives in an attempt to prevent obesity and its associated health effects. This includes increasing the accessibility and affordability of healthy foods, and creating opportunities for people to be physically active, such as improving public transport and urban planning.

This can be done by creating supportive policies in a wide range of sectors that are not traditionally associated with health, such as the agricultural, education, and food and beverage industries. For example, in the education sector, food and beverage guidelines can be implemented through schools to ensure that the only options available contribute to a healthy diet.

Through better education and improved understanding about what defines health, and by making this information more accessible to the general population, it is expected that the attitudes and behaviors towards health will improve. With an understanding that most chronic diseases are preventable with a healthy lifestyle, initiatives aim to facilitate this by creating healthy environments and making the healthy choice the easy choice.

It is an established fact that it is in the best interest of individuals to prevent illness and disease as early as possible. Avoiding illness or injury is easier, cheaper, and more pleasant than the cure. Therefore, these initiatives share a common goal to preserve the health of the population by educating them on health and attempting to prevent the onset of chronic diseases.

These initiatives tackle health in various ways, such as: through education about health, healthy living, and healthy eating; preventive measures against disease and disabilities with a healthy lifestyle; and by including initiatives designed to improve the quality of life.

3. Strengthening Healthcare Systems

This is the most directly relevant way to improve public health. While improving a country’s economy or education may seem to be the most important method to drastically improve the public health in a developing or impoverished country, the most direct and efficient way to improve public health is to simply improve the health care system itself. This can take many different forms. In poorer countries, this may be an effort to build more hospitals and train more healthcare professionals. It’s also pushing for more equitable access to current health care services. In more wealthy nations, this may be more focused on administrative changes. In any case, when a nation has a stronger health care system, its people are healthier. This is a well-established relationship and there is no real debate about it. Building a stronger health care system will improve public health.

4. Enhancing Disease Prevention

Disease prevention is essential in improving the public’s health. By preventing the onset of diseases, we can reduce the amount of suffering experienced by individuals and reduce the economic burden of treatment. By targeting high-risk behaviors in certain populations, public health workers can have a dramatic impact on the health of a community. High-risk behaviors are defined as behaviors that significantly increase the likelihood of disease or injury. Examples include smoking, using illicit drugs, engaging in dangerous sexual activity, and unhealthy eating. Many high-risk behaviors are adopted by individuals during adolescent years, a time during which emerging independence frequently leads to engagement in experimental behaviors. Adolescents who have a sense of invincibility or who are uninformed about the dangers associated with certain behaviors are more likely to experiment with these behaviors. Using various mass media campaigns, public health workers can educate adolescents about the consequences of their actions. Illustrative advertising has proven to be a successful tool in health behavior change. For example, the “truth” campaign was an anti-smoking campaign that sought to educate American youth about the dangers of the tobacco industry. The campaign and others like it have been proven to effectively curb the rate of smoking in adolescents. Another example comes from the public health sector of Finland, which in the 1970s enacted a heart disease prevention campaign that targeted the entire population of North Karelia. This campaign used various forms of media to educate people about healthy eating habits and the dangers of smoking. Over the next 20 years, North Karelia saw a dramatic reduction in heart disease and an increase in the overall health of the population.

Persuasive campaigns targeted at reducing high-risk behaviors

5. Addressing Social Determinants of Health

There are recalls for different times or places when some Republicans have said, and even charged, that Black Americans were better off before the federal government began trying to help them. It’s deafening the query, when are Black Americans going to trust? When have Black Americans ever since faith in this federal government’s loyalty to race-neutral and equitable policy? The past practices of the Social Security Administration and farm loan programs recompense to Black farmers are just a few of the examples listed in this paper. These cases convey a conscientious notion to their findings that the U.S. federal government has rarely offered race-impartial acts, thus promoting the requirement for biased programs and affirmative proceedings. This is most advantageous for improving the health of Black Americans because the instituting of these programs is to offset socio-economically derived racial inequalities.