What is Public Health?

In 1920, Charles Edward Amory Winslow built up a fitting meaning of Public Health: “The science and art of preventing disease and promoting health and efficiency through organized community effort.”

Public health is about taking the responsibility for improving the health of the public, our community’s health. Doctors treat individual patients for a specific disease or injury. Public health professionals monitor and diagnose the health concerns of entire communities and promote healthy practices and behaviors to assure that populations stay healthy. 

Public health is a field comprised of many professional disciplines such as medicine, dentistry, nursing, optometry, nutrition, social work, environmental sciences, health education, health services administration, and the behavioral sciences. 

The four major eras in the United States public health history are: 

• Prior to 1850 – Epidemics: avoidance and acceptance
• 1850 to 1949 – Sanitary reform through state and local infrastructure
• 1950 to present – Gaps in medical care and the expanding agenda
• 2001 to present - Terrorism - biological and chemical; intentional injury

The Ten Essential Public Health Services: 

1. Monitoring health status to identify community health problems
2. Diagnosing and investigating health problems and health hazards
3. Informing, educating, and empowering people on health issues
4. Mobilizing community partnerships to identify and solve health problems
5. Developing policies and plans to support individual and community health efforts
6. Enforcing laws and regulations which protect health and ensure safety
7. Linking people to needed personal health services, and assure the provision of health care
8. Assuring a competent public health and personal health care workforce
9. Evaluating effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services
10. Research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems

Resources:

http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/tengpha.htm