DESCRIBE THE SCOPE OF

PUBLIC HEALTH AND THE

TYPES OF PUBLIC
HEALTH WORK
Presentation outcomes:

1. Learner to appreciate and describe the scope of public health

work

2. Learner to describe the types of public health work roles

3. Learner to describe the possible challenges of public health

work.
What is Public Health?

➢ Public health is the science and art of preventing disease,

prolonging life, and promoting health through the organized
efforts of society. This definition underscores the
broad scope of public health and the fact that public
health is the result of society's efforts as a whole, rather than
that of single individuals
What is Public Health ….contd.?

➢ The World Health Organization (WHO) refers to public health

as ‘organized measures to prevent disease, promote
health, and prolong life among human populations.’ Public
health researchers, practitioners, and educators focus on
entire populations, not on individual patients or diseases. For
example, instead of treating a substance abuse patient, a
public health professional tries to identify the causes of
substance abuse, and develop interventions and programs to
prevent the spread.
Scope of public health
❖ Public health careers are incredibly varied, but come down to
one key tenet: protecting the health of the population. Public
health programs exist at the community, national, and global
levels.
❖ The cornerstone of public health is the field of epidemiology,
which is the study of patterns of infection and disease in a
population. Where I work, we call epidemiologists “disease
detectives.” Epidemiologists may work in food-borne infection
outbreaks, emerging infectious diseases, or even environmental
health.
Scope of public health ……..contd.
❖ Surveillance is another area of public health that looks closely
at infection and disease, but with systematic, continuous
collection of data in order to determine trends. It helps
determine if a particular infection or disease in increasing,
decreasing, or staying the same. For example, the National
Immunization Survey in the United States determines the
percentage of children receiving each of the recommended
vaccinations each year.
❖ Related to this is public health informatics which is the
management of health data, and the intersection between
Scope of public health ……..contd.
❖ All of this health information needs to be communicated to the
public and that is usually done through public health
communicators and health educators. Public health
communications can include development of messages and
content, working with news media, and training medical
professionals on how to talk with patients about specific topics.
❖ Health education is usually focused on a specific health concern
and aims to increase awareness and knowledge about a
particular health topic.
Scope of public health ……..contd.
❖ All public health programs requires strategies and management,
and that is where public health services administration
comes in. This can range from managing programs and
projects, to contracts and grants, to resources and supplies.
❖ There are also health care providers who work in public
health facilities such as doctors, dentists, nurses, just to name
a few. Often these professionals are providing medical care to
people who are not able to get private health care or live in an
area where medical resources and staff are scarce.
Types of Public Health work roles

There are various public health work roles. This discussion has
attempted to group these roles in various groups and
categories:

1. Management and leadership roles in PH work

➢ Policy making, implementation and reinforcement

➢ Disease surveillance management and capacity building

➢ Planning, implementation and evaluation and report writing

Types of Public Health work roles……contd.

2. Specialist roles

➢ Monitoring water and food quality – nutritionists

➢ Waste management and environmental pollution

➢ Work place health and safety

➢ Health promotion and education

➢ Disaster planning and preparedness

Types of Public Health work roles……contd.

3. Assessing the health needs of communities work roles

➢ Collecting data and community demographics, mortality &

morbidity, available amenities, culture and traditions

➢ Meeting with the community leaders, discussing ways to way

with the communities

➢ Consulting stakeholders
Types of Public Health work roles……contd.

4. Community based public health work roles e.g (HSAs)

➢ Disease survellaince

➢ Record cases of communicable diseases in the villages

➢ Run vaccination clinics

➢ Follows up antenatal and postnatal care

➢ Treatment of individual who are malnourished or have TB

➢ Health Education

➢ Adcocacy
Types of Public Health work roles……contd.

5. Public health work role in research ( Academics, Govt,

NGOs etc)

➢ Causes of ill health

➢ How to bring about behaviour change

➢ Evaluation of PH initiatives

➢ Dissemination of research findings

General challenges to public health work
• Lack of consensus on the content of the public health mission;
• Inadequate capacity to carry out the essential public health
functions of assessment, policy development, and assurance of
services;
• Disjointed decision-making without necessary data and
knowledge;
• Inequities in the distribution of services and the benefits of
public health;
• Limits on effective leadership, including poor interaction among the technical
and political aspects of decisions, rapid turnover of leaders, and inadequate
relationships with the medical profession;
General challenges to public health work….condt
• Organizational fragmentation or submersion;
• Problems in relationships among the several levels of
government;
• Inadequate development of necessary knowledge across the
full array of public health needs;
• Poor public image of public health, inhibiting necessary
support; and
• Special problems that limit unduly the financial resources
available to public health.
Remember to revisit the following previous
work done:

1. Epidemiology (level 4 unit 4)

2. Communicable diseases (level 5 unit 1)

3. Epidemics (level 6 unit 2)