Public Health and Health Promotion in Australia - Case Study Example

Public Health and Health Promotion Name Institution Date Public Health and Health Promotion Introduction Public health and health promotion are two health aspects that are usually aimed at the prevention of diseases, injuries and other health conditions. These aspects enable people to take control of their health and thereby improving it. According to Hubley & Copeman (2013, p8) public health involves the organized efforts by a society for the purpose of protecting, promoting and restoring people’s health. Health promotion is an element of public health that is involves a range of many practices such as; health education, policy advocacy, community development, regulations as well as preventive services that seeks to improve health at individual as well as population level. Therefore, health promotion goes beyond just simple prevention of injuries, diseases and other health conditions. The two aspects are different but serve the same purpose of improving health among populations. As an element of public health, health promotion serves to enable people increase their control over and improve their health. It helps individuals reach a state of complete physical, mental as well as social wellbeing whereby people have the capability of identifying and realizing aspirations that satisfy their needs and changes with the environment (Elsevier Health 2014, p.17). The responsibility of health promotion is not only concerned with the health sector but also ensuring that people have healthy lifestyles that promote their wellbeing. It involves a combined effort of health education, service improvement as well as advocacy. This assessment is aimed at identifying three different initiatives that have been adopted as important responses in public health and health promotion in Australia. The assessment will also describe why each initiative fits within the public health or health promotion. These responses will also be discussed in both an historical and a recent context and explained why they are important. The assessment will also evaluate whether the initiatives worked or not. The responses that are discussed in this assessment are both local and international responses. Two local responses are discussed including; early detection and early treatment as well as integration and continuity of prevention of prevention and care. The international response involves the call for international action by the World Health Organisation and other international organisations in promoting health. The first response is early detection and early treatment. This response or initiative applied by the Australian government aims at advocating for early detection of diseases for early treatment. This response was supported because the early detection of diseases promotes early treatment that improves people’s health. Early detection and early treatment fits with public health and health promotion because it reduces mortalities that are premature, delays the progressions as well as complications of diseases (Australian Health Ministers Conference 2012, p.21). This response is important because it improves the quality of life, the capability to manage one self and prevent admissions to residential care. The reason for considering this initiative is that, early detection and treatment helps in avoiding hospital admissions that are unnecessary as well as high cost of treatments that are complex. This response advocates for identification as well as effective implementation of approaches that are evidence based and cost effective to early detection and early treatment. This serves the purpose of significantly improving the health outcomes as well as quality of life of populations that are affected by chronic diseases. The Queensland Health (2014, p.7) argue that since chronic diseases require on- going management for a man years, they usually have a gradual beginning with a deteriorating continuation. Therefore, early detection of these diseases is important to ensure early intervention in their treatment. Failure to detect these diseases early leads to high costs of treatment. In Australia, chronic diseases pose a huge burden. In the year 2007 2.5 million Australian people were detected with chronic diseases (p.9). This helped in early treatment that prevented many deaths. Currently, chronic diseases that are detected early are seen to consume seventy per cent of the health budget in Australia for their early treatment. In the year 2001 to 2002, there is evidence that in Australia, fifty seven per cent of women went for an early screening for breast cancer while sixty one per cent of women attendant early screening for cervical cancer (National Health Priority Action Council 2012, p.31). This means that, early detection of these diseases helped in early intervention of their treatment and preventing hospital admissions and deaths (Queensland Health 2014, p.9). The initiative of early detection and early treatment was important since it came with many benefits such as; reduction of mortality rates, complications as well as co-morbidities. Early detection of diseases was important to ensure that early treatment that was effective was given to patients to ensure that they improve their quality of life as well as provide potential savings to the Australian health system. This initiative worked because many people were able to receive early interventions in early treatments that were effective and achieved improvements that were anticipated in the health outcomes (National Health and Medical Research Council 2009, p.17). The second initiative or response that is applied by the Australian government is the promotion of integration as well as continuity of prevention and care. This initiative fits in health promotion because it provides integrated as well as continuous care over time, at different stages of a disease, in co-morbid conditions and the provision of health care services that are different using different health care service providers. It also supports self-management as well as family and carers contribution. The intervention of integrated care meant that, health services were provided collaboratively with each other, to patients and their families and care givers for the purpose of providing person centred care (Humphreys & Wakerman 2009, p7). The integrated initiative was seen as a solution to enhancing the general healthcare practice that was based on specific health care practices for specific illnesses of diseases (ACT Government Health 2014, p.4). It was adopted in Australia to overcome issues of cost, location as well as workforce that have an impact on the accessibility of comprehensive as well as integrated prevention and care of chronic diseases. As an example, health care organisations in Australia are currently adopting electronic health record that will improve the coordination of effective delivery of health care to patients by health care professionals. Such an initiative was not there before and health care providers had a lot of difficulties in tracing patient information that would help them in providing better treatment interventions. The adoption of this initiative has enabled health care professional to have a single point of information access which is integrated for every individual patient. Integrated care initiative was an important initiative since it provided patients, families and carers with coherent, consistent and a connected care that catered for their needs as well as personal context (Australian Nursing Federation 2009, p.7). Through this initiative, the health care system would be organised to ensure the improvement of accessibility, integration as well as continuity of care through better planning, service access and collaboration, finding and systems if information sharing that supports the patient journey to recovery. To effectively implement this initiative, the Australian government ensured that the general practice in hospitals are enhances, there are systems in the emergency department that can lag people who have hospital admissions that are multiple and the systems in the hospital support discharge procedures that are improved. It is a very important initiative in the health sector since it advocates for planning of health care as well as coordination across health providers and settings that are multiple. The initiative worked because it achieved better integration as well as continuity of care that maximised health outcomes for people who had chronic diseases by ensuring that all of their health care needs were met within a timely manner. Patient journey in healing was also experienced as a positive one. The other initiative that was adopted by the Australian Government in promoting public health and health promotion was the call for international action. This is an important initiative that fits in public health and health promotion since it involves the World Health Organisation and other international organisations in advocating for the promotion of health in every forum which is appropriate for the purpose of supporting the Australian Nation in setting up strategies as well as programs for promoting health (World Health Organisation 2010, p.12). This initiative advocates that, people from all walks of life as well as voluntary organisations, the World Health Organisation, governments and other concerned bodies should join together in the introduction of strategies that are aimed at promoting health. This intervention was aimed at achieving a reality in health provision for every Australian by the year 2000. Through exchanges of experiences and knowledge sharing in promoting health that is stimulated through an open dialogue by health care professionals, government representatives, politicians, academics, voluntary as well as community organisations and practitioners. Northern Territory Department of Health (2014, p1) describe that, the initiative of international call for action was important because it recognised and acted upon the needs of Australian People. The initiative also used strategies and approaches that are fundamental in promoting health among the populations in Australia such as; monitoring the health of the populations, the presence of diseases among the populations, development of policies that promote health and reduces the increase of diseases or even death, advocating for members that are vulnerable within the community and support of programs that are aimed at improving community welfare. Through the coordination of efforts from all participants, the initiative was successful because it was able to define the major health challenges that Australians may face (State Government of Victoria 2014, p.2). This enabled them to strengthen their individual as well as collective commitment to a goal that was common in achieving health for all by the year 2000. The initiative also provided solutions to the achievement of universal health for all Australians. Worldwide, this initiative towards a new public health is now evident. Conclusion Public health and health promotion aims at improving the general population health among communities. This involves preventing illnesses, disability as well as injury. It also reduces the burden of diseases and rehabilitation of people who have chronic diseases. This assessment has clearly provided the evidence of public health and health promotion purpose within the Australian nations through the application of different initiatives. This is a sure way of recognising the social, cultural as well as political determinants of health which is achieved through responses that are organised and systematic for the purpose of improving, protecting and restoring the health of individuals and populations. The responses are interventions that are planned and opportunistic those are general in the setting of health care practice. Public health and public population achieved population health by defining the population’s health problems as well as needs, then identifying the methods by which those needs should be met, while providing health care services that are required for the purpose of meeting these needs. References ACT Government Health, 2014, ACT Primary Health Care Strategy 2011–2014, Health Directorate, Policy and Government Relations. Australian Nursing Federation, 2009, Primary Health Care in Australia, A nursing and midwifery consensus view. Elsevier Health, 2014, What is Health Promotion?, Promoting Health: A practical Guide. Hubley, J & Copeman, J, 2013, Health Promotion and Public Health, Hubley Int & Ch01. Humphreys, J & Wakerman, J, 2009, Primary Health Care in Rural and Remote Australia: Achieving Equity of Access and Outcomes Through National Reform, A discussion Paper. National Health Priority Action Council, 2012, National Chronic Disease Strategy, Australian Health Minister’s Conference, Australian Government, Department of Health and Ageing, Canbera. National Health and Medical Research Council, 2009, Clinical Guideline for the Diagnosis and Management of Early Rheumatoid Arthritis, The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Northern Territory Department of Health, 2014, Health Promotion: Strategic Framework 2011 – 2015, A Territory Government Initiative. Queensland Health, 2014, Introduction to Concepts: Chronic Disease Care, Participant Manual. Pathways to Rural and Remote Orientation Training. State Government of Victoria, 2014, Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, Fact Sheet, Better Health Channel. World Health Organisation, 2010, Milestones in Health Promotion. Statements from Global Conferences, Health Promotion. Read More