Public Health 

 

What is public health?


" The Science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organised efforts of society."
                                                                                        Sir Donald Acheson


The public health approach


The goal of Public Health is to improve lives through the prevention or treatment of disease. The United Nations' World Health Organisation defines ill health as "a state of disease or infirmity". Public Health pays special attention to the social context of disease and health, and focuses on improving health through society-wide measures like vaccinations, the fluoridation of drinking water, or through policies like seatbelt and non-smoking laws. Public Health also seeks to engage partners, including local communities, in action to strengthen the community and to address the determinants or causes of ill health which are strongly linked to social circumstances, poverty, educational attainment, housing quality and employment and training as well as access to services.

The public health approach can be applied to a population of just a handful of people or to the whole human population.

Public Health:

  • is population based
  • emphasises collective responsibility for health, its protection and disease prevention
  • recognises the key role of the state, linked to concern for the underlying socio-economic and wider determinants of health, as well as disease
  • emphasises partnerships with all those who contribute to the health of the population.


Public Health practice is divided into nine key areas:

  1. Surveillance and Assessment of the Population's Health and Well Being

  2. Assessing the Evidence of Effectiveness of Health and Healthcare Interventions, Programmes and Services
  3. Policy and Strategy Development and Implementation
  4. Strategic Leadership and Collaborative Working for Health
  5. Health Improvement

  6. Health Protection

  7. Health and Social Service Quality

  8. Public Health Intelligence

  9. Academic Public Health

 

There are three domains in which Public Health Specialists practice:

  1. Health Improvement
  2. Improving Services
  3. Health Protection


 

1. Health improvement


This area includes work focused on:

  • Inequalities
  • Education
  • Housing
  • Employment
  • Family/Community
  • Lifestyles
  • Surveillance and Monitoring of Specific Diseases and Risk Factors


 

2. Improving services


This area includes work within the NHS as well as across partner organisations:

  • Clinical Effectiveness
  • Efficiency
  • Service Planning
  • Audit and Evaluation
  • Clinical Governance
  • Equity


 

3. Health protection


This is an area where Public Health teams work very closely with other members of the NHS family and partner organisations including the Health Protection Agency, Local Authorities, the Police, Fire and Rescue Service, the Armed Services, Voluntary Sector organisations and many other organisations. This work includes responding to the potential threat from the following:

  • Infectious Diseases
  • Chemical and Poisons
  • Radiation
  • Emergency Response
  • Environmental Health Hazards