Public Health Theory and Practice - Essay Example

"Public Health Theory and Practice" is a decent example of a paper on the health system.
Health is a term that is used to describe a state of being physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally wellbeing (Huber et al., 2011). It can be used to describe the absence of any disease that may affect a person in any way. Physical health refers to the wellbeing of a person's body, which is highly connected to mental health, which refers to the overall wellbeing of an individual’s mind (Ohrnberger, Fichera & Sutton, 2017, pg. 47). Spiritual health, on the other hand, is achieved when an individual feels that they have peace in their lives while emotional health can only be achieved when one is able to accept their emotions and be able to manage them (Dhar, Chaturvedi & Nandan 2011, pg. 275).

According to the Universal declaration of human rights, every individual in the world has a right to live a healthy living (Ooms et al.,2013). we can, therefore, say that a person's health is the responsibility of another person, organization, or national government. This is what brings out the idea of public health. Public health is concerned with the health of the whole community. It archived through promoting healthy living of individuals in the community as well as undertaking research on diseases and how to prevent them (Turnock, 2012). Also, responding to diseases that can be spread from one person to another is part of public health.

Despite being a person’s right, health has been faced by a lot of challenges in various societies and environments (Blair, Grivna & Sharif, 2014 pg. 30). It is clear that some communities in the world, especially in Africa and Asia, experiences poor health services. Factors affecting health, also known as determinants of health, include; Early childhood development, stress, unemployment, availability of healthy food, and transportation, among others. Due to such factors, many organizations, both profit, and nonprofit making organizations have come up with programs or activities that can assist in promoting public health. Also, various individual and governments haves established projects all aiming at improving the health of certain communities, regions, or countries, so as to ensure that individuals in such areas can have healthy lives.

Health promotion is one of the essential elements of public health. It is the process of enabling individuals to have control over their health, as well as being in a position to improve it (Nutbeam, Harris, & Wise, 2010). It involves a public policy dealing with factors that affect health (determinants of health) (Solar & Irwin, 2010). various institutions such as the world health organization (WHO) are doing their best to promote health, aiming to help those living with poor health conditions. Health promotion can also be considered as a way of reducing inequalities in health.

Recently, inequality in health has become a major concern of the world health organization (Fang et al.,2010, pg.14). About 85% of the people in the world are located in developing countries despite the fact that these are the countries that are associated with poor health services. For instance, only thirty percent of the total radiotherapy facilities are available in developing countries. This means the 15 percent of the world's population living in the developed countries are served by 70 percent of radiotherapy facilities. We can, therefore, see a clear inequality in health since those living in the already developed countries are able to access radiotherapy services easily as opposed to those living in developing countries, who have to strain a lot to get such services. Public health promotion can be a way of improving the health of those living in developing countries, and as a result, the inequality in health can be eliminated.

Discussion

There are a number of activities aiming to promote the public health of a certain group of people or community in a given country or region. These activities or programs are usually projects initiated by certain individuals or organizations, aiming to improve a certain group of people. An example of such activities is known as making school food healthier. This is a campaign in Wales, United Kingdom, that aims at providing healthier food to children and young people in schools, as a way of promoting their diet. The activity Is carried out by the Scottish local authorities and the national government. One of the aims of the Scottish government is that by the year 2030, they will have reduced childhood obesity, which can be caused by poor diets taken by their children and young people. Diagnosing and investigating health problems in the community is one of the essential elements of public health services, which is what the Scottish government has is doing through making school food heather camping.

Africa’s right to health campaign is another activity aiming at improving public health services in various countries in Africa. Launched by the Africa action, the campaign aims at removing any of the obstacles that make it hard for African countries to get access to the necessary resources for fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It is clear that the continent is the most affected by these pandemics, yet most of its countries are underdeveloped third-world countries. Due to the huge amounts of debts that most of the African countries have, they are forced to reduce the amount of money that they allocate to the provision of proper health facilities so that they can pay their creditors. The campaign also aims at reducing racial discrimination and promoting equal access to HIV drugs and treatments.

Based on the essential elements of public health theory and practice, we will compare these two public health promotion activities. The comparison will be in terms of how the activities are helping in improving the public health services to the respective countries. Also, some recommendations to Africa’s right to health campaign will be made.