Preview

P2 Describe the origins of public health in the UK

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3143 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
P2 Describe the origins of public health in the UK
P2 Describe the origins of public health in the UK
M1- Compare historical and current features of public health
Public Health has been developing from the 19th century and is still developing in the present day. Public health was best described by the Yale professor Winslow in 1920 who described it as ‘the art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical health and efficiency through organized community efforts for the sanitation of the environment, the control of community infections, the education of the individual in principles of personal hygiene, the organization of medical and nursing services for the early diagnosis and preventive treatment of disease, and the development of the social machinery which will ensure to every individual in the community a standard of living adequate for the maintenance of health’. Public health covers a range of areas, and is constantly having to be changed to keep up with the changing health needs of the public. (Fleming, M. and Parker, E. (2009) An introduction to Public Health Churchill Livingston Elsevier: Australia)

During the Victorian Era, public health was not an issue that was dealt with by the government. There weren’t public hospitals, and only those from a wealthy background were able to access medical care. There was no such thing as vaccinations as there was very few educated on health, and many people died from diseases and infections in all classes, that now a day are easily treated. The people of this time were very uneducated about personal hygiene care and knew nothing about the spread of diseases. The people based their beliefs on their interpretations of what they saw going on around them. Due to the lack of knowledge it was believed if someone died it was because they were, for example, possessed by a daemon or they were a witch. In today’s society we have the understanding and science to allow us insight into the real reasons that people die and get unwell, we know that illness are

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Look over the definitions of public health in this week’s reading and describe its main features. In your opinion, what two features have had the greatest impact on improving health status and quality of life throughout history? Explain why you selected these features and provide examples to support your opinion.…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    How has the approach to public health changed over the last 200 years? Which events or movements in public health and epidemiology were most influential? Why?…

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Public Health is about helping everyone to stay healthy rather than focusing specifically on the individual, with the aim to promote health, protecting individuals from threats to their health and preventing ill-health.…

    • 2546 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since the 19th century public health provisions have completely changed. During the early 19th century there have been a lot of deaths due to overcrowding, poor housing, dirt, poverty and diseases. After the industrial revolution origins public health began. The industrial revolution spread all over Britain during the 1800s. There was a huge increase of the number of factories due to the use of steam powered machines.…

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    HCS 457 Week 1 DQ's

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The main goal of public or community health is concentrated on inhibiting disease, extending life, and promoting health by means of organized community exertions. Public health safeguards health as disasters occur, inhibits disease from addictions, contains sexually transmitted diseases, puts up an organization in charge of maintaining the community's food and water safety, and environmental hazards. Government agencies are concerned with reporting diseases and inspecting food and water safety as they play a significant role in public or community health.…

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This paper will contrast public health agencies historical and current roles at the community, state, and national levels. A review of historic dates and significant events related to public and community health and the differences between the entities. Public health’s mission is to organize and implement health care policies to address environmental safety and planning to local residents. The focus of community health is statewide implementation of health education, fund allocation to local government, disease prevention, and establishing state wide goals to address environmental risks.…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    For this task you need to research and produce a written report which compares historical and current features of public health measures/strategies used in the past, drawing attention to the way in which the strategies are similar and different..…

    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Public health is the measures taken by the government to prevent ill health and disease. The government monitor health so that they can develop different programmes and legislation to improve the health and well being of the people in the country. They do this by attempting to solve inequalities, so that all people not matter what are able to live a healthy life. There are eight policies to improve today's public health, these are; planning for health emergencies (this is making sure that health services are prepared for emergencies such as accidents, outbreaks of disease and terrorist attacks), helping more people to survive cancer (by attempting to reduce the cancer death rate by 5000), reducing smoking (by reducing smoking rates - 18.5% for adults, 12% for 15 year olds, and 11% for pregnant women), giving all children a healthy start in life (by improving maternity care and introducing the Healthy Child Programme, which is available to all families), reducing obesity and improving diet (by introducing the Change for Life programme, and ensuring that food packaging has clear nutritional information), reducing harmful drinking (again by introducing the Change for Life programme, and by providing £448 million to improve the lives of the 120,000 most troubled families), reducing drugs misuse and dependence (by providing support and information on drugs (I.e. FRANK), and supporting children in there first five years of their lives, to prevent drug use further on in their lives), and Creating a lasting legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (by promoting sports and healthy living). (https://www.gov.uk/government/policies?topics%5B%5D=public-health, Gov.uk, Policies).…

    • 3187 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In 1854 improvements in hospital hygiene were introduced (thanks in large part to Florence Nightingale).…

    • 3199 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Over one million British people died every year during the Victorian Era to one of the many fatal diseases that you could have caught. This topic is about the diseases that many British people caught in the Victorian era. Some were fatal some were bearable. Some had cures as others didn’t. It was different back then because they did not have cures for things like the flu, now days we do. There were many of very bad diseases out there and many of them were deadly.…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Public Health P5

    • 1564 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The main aims of public health are to improve the health of the nation, this has many benefits as it reduces the amount of illness and disease in the population, reduces the cost of healthcare provision to the NHS, it improves life expectancy, and also educates individuals to take responsibility for their health. Another aim of public health is to reduce health inequalities, this is done by targeting those who are vulnerable and ensuring that equal/improved access to health support is provided, and also that factors that affect health are identified and addressed.…

    • 1564 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    New Public Health Measures

    • 2359 Words
    • 10 Pages

    In brief, the new public health has come about because of growing interest in the subtle interaction of the environment with people living in affluent societies. The old public health remains the public health that most of the world needs, quite frankly, because communicable disease, malnutrition and other scourges are still the major killers worldwide. These are more or less the same as those that led people in the fifteenth century to look at how things such as the plague and cholera could be controlled through sanitation, clean water and quarantine.…

    • 2359 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The purpose of this paper is to describe the history of public health, including pertinent dates and significant events and the different aspects of public and community-based health.…

    • 1458 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Public Health Assignment

    • 2163 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Public health (PH) is an issue continually on the UK Government agenda and one in which it is anticipated that all health professionals will participate in (Nuttall, 2008). PH focuses on the health and well-being of a society and is the most effective means of protecting and improving it. It addresses the root causes of illness and disease, including the interacting social environmental, biological, and psychological dimensions, as well as the provision of effective health services. PH relies on evidence, judgement and skills and promotes the participation of the populations who are themselves the subject of policy and action (United Kingdom Public Health Association (UKPHA), 2008).…

    • 2163 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Public Health agencies played a significant role in the past and continue to contribute in improving the overall health of communities through various interventions, focusing on prevention rather than treatment. These preventative measures include but are not limited to sanitizing drinking water, implementing immunizations to eradicate infectious diseases, and creating many programs that promote behaviors beneficial for a healthy community. What is a healthy community? According to the publication Healthy People in Healthy Communities, a healthy community is “one that embraces the belief that health is more than merely an absence of disease” (Healthy People 1). A healthy community also “includes those elements that enable people to maintain a high quality of life and productivity” (1). Access to health care services is vital for citizens to maintain their health. In addition, people living in a healthy and safe environment need basic structural provisions such as safe roads, schools, playgrounds, parks etc.…

    • 1238 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays