Public Health in California - Research Paper Example

? Public Health in California Task Introduction Public health according to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) is what people in a society do communally to guarantee the environment for citizens to be healthy. This definition emphasises the communal responsibility of organized community to enhance the health of the populace. Public health is impacted upon by the rapport between people and the environment, role of urbanization and disease causes. Recently the American Public Health Association (APHA) adopted fresh policies that tackle an extensive range of public health concerns. The concerns included reproductive health, care concerns access as well as public health education and the workforce (Gostin 2010). The past of public wellbeing in California is acknowledged mainly from the perspective of policymaking and institutional formation. Health provides a leeway for one to understand the economic development of the state, and the cultural and political vibrancy of demographics alteration. Everyone in the state and nation at large should strive to know something in public health, as they should know something in law, government functions and democracy. The capping step in public health advancement is the opening of the Public Health Assistance Act in 1947 by the parliament. It provides three million dollars for augmentation of local Health service. Innovations in public health like the infamous prepaid health plan emerged in California during WW II. From here, the California models then spread to the other states and worldwide. The foundation of administration of public health in California as it exists today was laid in 1943. California was admitted to statehood in 1850 and its capital city Sacramento. It covers over 160 sq.km and borders the states of Oregon, Arizona and Nevada. It is the 31st state and it is nicknamed the Golden City. It became the first large majority-minority state in the country. Largest city is Los Angeles. According to Schneider (2011), one expectation of living in a refined society is that livelihood circumstances will be healthy. She argues that unless something odd happens like the outbreak of cryptosporidium people assume they are safe. Cryptosporidium was a waterborne disease that infected over 400, 000 people in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1993 because of the collapse in a habitual public health measure that had been working previously (Schneider 2011). The state’s biggest problem is water. It highly depends on rainwater, which is used by the farmers and the urban areas to the south. California has been in the frontline, in monitoring healthy people, 2010 goals and purposes since the 1980’s and does the same in meeting the confrontations of increasing the worth and years of healthy living and abolishing health inequality. People assume their health safety thinking what they consume is safe to eat. From the water, they drink in public places to fast foods from restaurants and the medicine they buy they trust is in a safe environment. People’s Lives are healthier today as compared to 150, years back because; they use clean water, air, and food. They dispose sewage safely, live in better nutrition and have more knowledge concerning healthy behaviours. All this are part of the public health. Even though, there are many agencies of the community concerned with advancing public health, people depend on the government at all levels to take the initial responsibility. The government offers pure water and efficient sewage disposal as it is concerned with its’ peoples welfare. Through government regulations, food supplied is guaranteed to be safe as well as medical services provided through medical institutions. As a leading public health service provider, the national government intends to supervise health status and classify community health problems. It also diagnoses and investigates the problems and other health dangers in the community. It does this through enlightening, refining and authorizing communities about issues of health. It also rallies community affiliations in identifying and solving health problems. In addition, it expands plans and policies to support both individual and society healthy efforts. In Los Angeles, agencies such as Acute Communicable Disease Control (ACDC) aim, to control and avert contagious infections in the county by utilizing tools of scrutiny, epidemic, reaction, and education and preparedness activities. The agency aims to see that Los Angeles dwellers are free of preventable communicable diseases. They conduct surveillance for over 60 communicable diseases and their syndrome, set policies, and procedure recommendations for department activities related to infectious diseases. The agency investigates disease outbreaks and recommends control measures as well as interpreting and enforcing state federal laws and regulations. It also performs significant studies and projects and produces annual reports as well as procedure manuals. The California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA) is an NGO that heaves alertness about key public health matters and musters communities to advance the establishment of useful state and local health policies. It uses public health tools to design policy solutions that touch on crucial public health problems in California (Molina 2006). . They are primarily concerned with the increasing epidemic of obesity among children by campaigning for neighbouring and country public policies that endorse healthy eating and physical activities. They engage in this through material schooling in public schools, expanding access to healthy food in communities and ensuring implementation of nutrition standards in schools. The public health is grounded in law and cannot function effectively without a strong legal framework. Law establishes the foundations for public health governance such as funding mechanisms, administrative structure and workforce (Gostin, 2010). It empowers public health groups to act, limit the powers to protect individual rights and ensure that health authorities follow defined procedures. Mounting health threats in California include drug-resistant tuberculosis, exceedingly communicable diseases and the danger of prospective biological horror assault. It has also benefited from medical breakthroughs and progresses in communications technology that allow quick responses new threats (Molina 2006). Public health brings up controversy on moral grounds when handling issues of sexual plus reproductive matters. STIs, teenage pregnancies, and low birth weight are vital public health problems in the USA. Public health approach to these matters includes sexual education in schools and provision of contraceptives services especially condoms. Religious groups who believe that they are promoting immorality vigorously counter these measures. A disease such as AIDS has become a divisive issue as many people have contracted it through behaviours, which many regard as immoral such as homosexuality and drug use. It is commonly believed that by providing means of practising safe sex the government encourages homosexuality and promiscuity. Variations Involving Public And Community Health. Public health encompasses the health of the country in general while community health involves medical practitioners and other health professional in a community. Public health is considered the responsibility of the government; therefore, the government is concerned with nationwide health of its people. It ensures this through legislative policies and regulations that ensure health standards countrywide is up to the required standards. It ensures the adherence of set regulations through the national constitution. The government has authority to limit public health establishments to ensure impartiality. Community health conversely involves the doctors and other professionals in the health systems that are within a community. They operate within a certain locality. For instance, CCPHA and ACDC operate within the locality or community of California. All those medical and professional practitioners in Los Angeles and California form a community health (Molina 2006). . Public health inclusively protects the health of people, and community health protects a certain particular community’s health. Public health is concerned with the health of all people in that if there was an outbreak in a certain location within California the government will quarantine the area for the protection those within and without. By discouraging movement into and out of the area, this provides ample time for those within to receive treatment and prevent it from spreading to other regions. The community health groups ensure that people in the region where they operate people are guarded. They research on diseases in the area and make recommendations for the issues to be addressed (California 2011). Public health provides health care to individuals’ without charge and community health remains the common environment for the commune. The public health is concerned first with the individual rights over the wider perspective. The government is interested in upholding the liberties and rights of an individual unless when under exceptional circumstances. The community health looks after people in the community’s way of living. They are interested in their food dirt, clean water supply and general environment. Individuals’ wellbeing distresses public health, and overall health statistics concerns community health. Public health focuses on individuals’ health and health problems that face them; meanwhile, community health is concerned with general health statistics such as obesity levels in a community. Community health agencies such as CCPHA and ICDC sponsor and support a society’s health living behaviours (Molina 2006). Conclusion Public health is a crucial structure in every government, and it should be upheld and improved for better service to people. Public health initiates health program and regulatory ground to ensure satisfaction of citizens with their health services. In addition, communal health is significant as it compliments public health. it has a closer touch with residents thus understands their problems better. Public health is an integral part of society that everyone must make an effort to familiarise themselves with it. References California & California. (n.d.). Public health laws. Sacramento. Gostin, L. O. (2010). Public health law and ethics: a reader (Rev. and updated 2nd ed.). Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. Molina, N. (2006). Fit to be citizens?: public health and race in Los Angeles, 1879-1939. Berkeley: University of California Press Schneider, M. (2011). Introduction to public health (3rd ed.). New York: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Read More