Public health strategies

PUBLIC HEALTH STRATEGIES Public Health is protecting and improving the health of populations through education advertising of healthy lifestyles, and research for disease and injury prevention. Monitoring the health status of the population Explanation: monitoring the health status of a population helps to discover emerging forms of illness and disease and provides information to inform policy and planning of health services. This section reports on health-related quality of life (including self-rated health, difficulty with daily activities, and bodily pain), asthma, cardiovascular disease precursors, diabetes or high blood glucose, mental health (psychological distress), oral health, and population weight status. How do they track the changes in health? * Visit to clinics and GPs * The census, by collect information for each household, how many people are in family? Identifying the health needs of the population Explanation, finding the health needs of population and discuss how to discover it. Health programs and services must consider the health needs of the local population. Data and information on need should be used to guide decisions at the local level. How do they track the change? To Increase obesity in children they give parents information about healthy food and how to keep the children healthy. Developing programmes to reduce risk and screen of disease Explanation: reducing the risk of the disease by finding out by who is at risk. They are offered a test, to identify those individuals who are more likely to be helped than harmed by further tests or treatment to reduce the risk of a disease. Example: Going to colleges and schools and do Chlamydia screening and encourage them to go and get tested in a local clinics. Controlling communicable disease Explanation: Introducing vaccination programmes to reduce communicable disease and impact of it. They provide a free vaccination in colleges and local clinics to avoid communicable disease such as swine flu. Example: free vaccination to children’s and old people to reduce the risk of communicable disease such as catching swine flu. Promoting the health of the population Arrange different ways of activity to recover health and developing personal skills, support community action, and creating helpful environments for health, backed by healthy public policy. Special consideration is also given to the need to reorient health services towards health promotion. Example, Encourage them to exercise regularly and eat healthy food at home. And they also recommend using 5 A day meal planner to help boost your fruit and vegetable intake, with menu ideas and recipes. Planning and evaluating health and social care provision Examining the improvements in detail and producing research, analysis and observation on the important changes to the way care is organized and delivered. Example: Making sure that people are getting the right care and satisfied with the service. What is done for a patient or a population, and how well? This could include: * methods by which patients are identified as suitable to be recorded on a disease register * how thoroughly the diagnostic criteria had been determined * validity and reliability of diagnostic tests * time taken from diagnosis to treatment * frequency of patient follow up * how people are recruited and involved in a process, e. g. a screening or immunisation programme or substance abuse treatment Outcome * Did the patient get better? * Were there complications? * Did the patient feel satisfied with the service? * Has there been a recurrence? * Was there a reduction in incidence in a population? * Has coverage improved? * Has life expectancy increased? Target setting Explanation, Action plan to reduce diseases and improve the health of the population. Examples: to reduce teenager’s pregnancy by giving free condoms and contraception’s and sexual transmitted diseases. Organisations HPA The Health Protection Agency is an independent UK organization that was set up by the government in 2003 to protect the public from threats to their health from infectious diseases and environmental hazards. It does this by providing advice and information to the general public, to health professionals such as doctors and nurses, and to national and local government. From April 2013 the HPA will become part of Public Health England. The Health Protection Agency’s role is to provide an integrated approach to protecting UK public health through the provision of support and advice to the NHS, local authorities, emergency services, other arm’s length bodies, the Department of Health and the transferred managements. The Agency classifies and responds to health hazards and emergencies caused by: * Infectious disease * Hazardous chemicals, * Poisons * Radiation It gives advice to the public on how to stay healthy and avoid health hazards, offers data and information to government to help notify its decision making, and guides people working in healthcare. NICE The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is an independent organization that provides national guidance and standards on the promotion of good health and the prevention and treatment of ill health. This role was set out in a 2004 white paper, choosing health, making healthier choices easier, and is intended to help people to make well-informed choices about their health. Their evidence based guidance and other products help resolve indecision about which are: * medicines * Treatments * Procedures They plan represent the best quality care and which offer the best value for money for the NHS. They also produce public health guidance recommending best ways to encourage healthy living, promote wellbeing and prevent disease. Their public health guidance is for local authorities, the NHS and all those with a remit for improving people’s health in the public, private, community and voluntary sectors. NLPH The national library for public health provides access to the public health evidence base by providing access to guidelines, strategies, policies, systematic reviews, news, and events of note to the wider public health workforce. They are responsible for national library policy and work closely with Arts Council England on a range of issues. On 28 June 2012, Culture Minister Ed Vaizey, set out the Government’s current work in supporting public libraries and an outline of the challenge ahead. This set out his vision for a future where: * The Arts Council acts as a development agency for libraries; * Libraries can access funds and support from the Arts Council * Poorly performing authorities are identified and helped to improve; * Key initiatives can be taken forward by central government, such as wi-fi or automatic enrolment for school children; * Government and local authorities understand what vital resource libraries are across a whole range of activities. Food standard agency The Food Standards Agency is an independent government department responsible for food safety and hygiene across the UK. We work with businesses to help them produce safe food, and with local authorities to enforce food safety regulations. They aim to ensure that food produced or sold in the UK is safe to eat. Customers have the information they need to make informed choices about where and what they eat and that regulation and enforcement is risk-based and focused on improving public health. The production, handling, distribution, selling, packaging and labelling of food stuffs are ruled by a form of laws, regulations, codes of practice and guidance. This includes: * General food law * The Food Standards Act 1999 * Food Alerts, product withdrawals and recalls * Regulatory approach * European legislation * Codex * Food Information Regulation * Whistleblowing The Food Law Code of Practice and the equivalent Feed Law code sets out the way local authorities should apply food law, and how they should work with food businesses. Practice guidance is also provided as a further help to enforcement officers. The Agency also provides guidance on specific regulations which are relevant to enforcement officers and food businesses to ensure that the law is clear. This includes: * Letters to local authorities * Food fraud * Working with diverse communities * National Control Plan for the United Kingdom * Framework Agreement * Food Law Code of Practice * Making every inspection count * Report an incident National healthy schools agency To become a Healthy School, you need to evidence how you have met criteria in the following four core themes that make up national Healthy School status. Across the four core themes, there will need to be evidence of how the whole school approach has been used in the process. Schools must demonstrate they have met the criteria in each of the following: 1. Personal, social and health education, including sex and relationship education and drug education including alcohol, tobacco, and volatile substance abuse. PHSE provides pupils with the knowledge, understanding, skills and attitude to make informed decisions about their lives. 2. Healthy eating Pupils have the confidence, skills and understanding to make healthy food choices. Healthy and nutritious food and drink is available across the school day. 3. Physical activity Pupils are provided with a range of opportunities to be physically active. They understand how physical activity can help them to be healthier, and how physical activity can improve and be a part of their everyday life. 4. Emotional health and wellbeing Promoting positive emotional health and wellbeing to help pupils understand and express their feelings, and build their confidence and emotional resilience and therefore their capacity to learn World health organization World health organization (WHO) is the directing and organising authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing management on worldwide health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health developments. Who has four main functions: * To give worldwide guidance in the field of health * To set global standards for health * To cooperate with governments in strengthening national health programmes * To develop transfer appropriate health technology, information and standards. WHO has started successful health promotion projects, such as Healthy Cities and Villages, Healthy Islands and Health-Promoting Schools, Hospitals and Work Sites. Some projects target exposed populations such as the elderly and women. Others focus on encouraging healthy lifestyles, sexual health and tobacco-free societies. The impact of the environment on health is a high priority for WHO. One example is access to safe drinking water. WHO puts the highest priority on the development of community water supplies and sanitation facilities with the AFRICA 2000 initiative. WHO is deeply concerned with prevention and control of ionising radiation so dramatically highlighted by the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Other issues such as the health effects of electromagnetic fields and the increasing exhaustion of the ozone layer are of major concern. The also help safeguard right standards by maintaining, for example, that agreement must be reached on what is acceptable in emulating, that there is informed consent when carrying out experiments with humans, or estimating how much risk should be tolerated by volunteers testing the efficacy of drugs or vaccines.