What is Public Health? Introductory Session on Learning Programme for people who are not Public

Health professionals

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What is Public Health? Introductory

Session

Learning Programme for People who are not public health

professionals - Tuesday 7th March 2017

9.30am in Room 242, County Hall

Jim McManus

About the session

You are preparing for a session on public health which will be very interactive. This

will be a workshop session about questions and answers, your comments and group

discussion. The good news is that unless you all want it there will be very little chalk

and talk or powerpoint. The bad thing is that means you all have to do some pre-

work. About two hours’ worth to get the best value, but there are more options.

Basically you need to read an article (below), watch a couple of videos and spend a

little time thinking about some reflective questions.

By the end of the pre-work and the session You should be able to:

Articulate a brief history of PH

Describe key partner organisations and how they fit together (CCG's, Primary Care, Hospital Trusts etc)

Consider what is the PH offer to Hertfordshire

Understand a little about what PHE and NHS England do

Describe in overview the Three Domains of PH

Understand an overview of Public Health law and obligation

Understand where Health Needs Assessments fit in

Ask any question you want to have answered

Pre Session work 1: What is Public Health (read this) Public health is the science and art of protecting and improving the health of families

and communities through a variety of means from promotion of healthy lifestyles,

research for disease and injury prevention and detection and control of infectious

diseases, among other activities.

What is Public Health? Introductory Session on Learning Programme for people who are not Public

Health professionals

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Overall, public health is concerned with protecting the health of entire populations.

These populations can be as small as a local neighbourhood, or as big as an entire

country or region of the world.

Public health professionals (those who are specialists and also non public health

specialists who use and apply public health skills and competencies) try to prevent

problems from happening in the first place or recurring. This can be through

implementing educational programs, administering services and conducting

population needs assessment. This is in contrast to clinical professionals like doctors

and nurses, who focus primarily on treating individuals after they become sick or

injured.

Public health also works to limit unequal disparities in health status (often called

inequalities in health) and access to health services (often called inequities). A large

part of public health is concerned with promoting healthcare equity, quality and

accessibility to the whole population.

Across the range of public health specialists the scope of public health work is

different for every person. Whether you like to crunch numbers, conduct laboratory

or field research, formulate policy, or work directly with people to help improve their

health, there is a place for you in the field of public health. If you are trying to

address health problems of communities as a whole, and influence policies that

affect the health of societies, you are a public health professional.

Public health involves the application of many different disciplines, including the list

below, and many more:

•Biology

Environmental Health

Anthropology

•Public policy

•Mathematics

•Engineering

•Education

•Psychology

•Computer science

•Sociology

•Medicine

•Business and Management

What is Public Health? Introductory Session on Learning Programme for people who are not Public

Health professionals

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•and others

These activities are all public health activities:

•Monitor the health status of a community to identify potential problems

•Diagnose and investigate health problems and hazards in the community

•Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues, particularly the

underserved and those at risk

•Mobilize community partnerships to identify and solve health problems

•Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health

efforts

•Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety

•Link people to needed personal health services and ensure the provision of

health care when otherwise unavailable

•Ensure a competent public health and personal health care workforce

•Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-

based health services

•Research new insights and innovative solutions to health problems

So you can see, Public Health is a mindset which uses a variety of different tools, to

do different things, all of them connected with keeping populations safe and healthy

What is Public Health? Introductory Session on Learning Programme for people who are not Public

Health professionals

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I also refer to the public health mindset as the the five Ps

public health is a Perspective or which is essentially about

Populations, and that mindset is always Prospective (looking forward) to

Prevent ill health and Protect good health across a community

Public Health professionals can be people with specialist training (school nurses,

consultants in public health, public health specialists, environmental health officers,

epidemiologists, analysts) or people with different roles who apply public health tools

and mindset to get things done for their population. They are all essential to our

population.

We want this Perspective to be adopted by people who are not public health

specialists as well as those who are. There are several takes on this you can now

read, briefly “What is public health”

http://www.fph.org.uk/what_is_public_health

The Faculty of Public Health (the UK body which sets the standards for one part of

the specialist public health profession), defines public health as follows1:

What is public health

The Faculty defines public health as:

The science and art of promoting and protecting health and well-being, preventing

ill-health and prolonging life through the organised efforts of society.

The Faculty's Public Health Approach

The Faculty's approach is that public health:

is population based emphasises collective responsibility for health, its protection and disease prevention recognises the key role of the state, linked to a concern for the underlying socio-

economic and wider determinants of health, as well as disease emphasises partnerships with all those who contribute to the health of the

population.

1 This is taken from the Faculty of Public Health website www.fph.org.uk

What is Public Health? Introductory Session on Learning Programme for people who are not Public

Health professionals

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Three key domains of public health practice:

Health Improvement

Inequalities Education Housing Employment Family/community Lifestyles Surveillance and monitoring of specific diseases and risk factors

Improving services

Clinical effectiveness Efficiency Service planning Audit and evaluation Clinical governance Equity

Health Protection

Infectious diseases Chemicals and poisons Radiation Emergency response Environmental health hazards

The nine key areas for public health practice:

The Faculty's core values are that public health practice should be:

equitable empowering effective evidence-based fair inclusive

In light of these core values, and the three domains of public health practice, we have agreed nine key areas for public health practice. These nine areas are at the basis of all standards of training and practice that the Faculty develops. The nine key areas are:

Surveillance and assessment of the population's health and wellbeing Assessing the evidence of effectiveness of health and healthcare interventions,

programmes and services Policy and strategy development and implementation Strategic leadership and collaborative working for health Health Improvement

What is Public Health? Introductory Session on Learning Programme for people who are not Public

Health professionals

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Health Protection Health and Social Service Quality Public Health Intelligence Academic Public Health

Pre-Session Work 2 Watch these short videos about public health (about 16 minutes in total)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy1CAMObRzc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA8uYvJ_i8Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQkYIpCmTDw

https://youtu.be/8CSp6HsQVtw

Finally, pleasecomplete the self-reflection sheet overleaf

What is Public Health? Introductory Session on Learning Programme for people who are not Public

Health professionals

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Pre-Session Work 3: Reflection Sheet

Think through these questions

Question Space for your reflections

How would you describe public health

What do you do that is public health related?

What do you want to know more about? What could public health perspectives do for you?

Whats the difference between public health and health care/social care?

What can Public Health do for Hertfordshire?

What do you think are the three domains of Public Health? What do you think about them?

What are the benefits of taking a public health approach?

Write down here your own definition of what the public health aspect of

your role is or could be

What is Public Health? Introductory Session on Learning Programme for people who are not Public

Health professionals

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Additional Work if you want to do it

If you have an hour watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-

dmJSLNgjxo

This l 9 minute video focuses on what skills and competences you need to be

competent and effective in public health

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6mghZmVPlc

Work your way through Modules 1 and 2 of the free course here

http://ocw.jhsph.edu/index.cfm/go/viewCourse/course/publichealthpractice101/cours

ePage/lectureNotes/ (This should be four powerpoints)

Hertfordshire Additional Resources e-learning resources on public health here

http://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/services/healthsoc/healthherts/eventscampaigns/ele

arn/

The Public Health library collection at Welwyn Garden City library can be borrowed

by anyone with a Hertfordshire Libraries card

http://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/services/healthsoc/healthherts/eventscampaigns/ele

arn/lbooks/

Additional Resources – Free Public Health Online Courses Harvard public health nanocourse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYrCbtgoNXg

http://ocw.jhsph.edu/index.cfm/go/viewCourse/course/publichealthpractice101

/coursePage/lectureNotes/

General Introductions

http://ocw.jhsph.edu/index.cfm/go/viewCourse/course/publichealthpractice101

/coursePage/index/

Directories of free online learning

http://ocw.jhsph.edu/index.cfm/go/find.browse#topics/topicID/9/

http://mphprogramslist.com/awesome-free-online-public-health-courses/

What is Public Health? Introductory Session on Learning Programme for people who are not Public

Health professionals

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History of Public Health

http://ocw.jhsph.edu/index.cfm/go/viewCourse/course/HistoryPublicHealth/cou

rsePage/index/

Public Health Ethics

http://ocw.jhsph.edu/index.cfm/go/viewCourse/course/EthicalIssuesPublicHeal

th/coursePage/index/

Public Health Leadership

Useful videos specifically on public health leadership and management, and

the difference between the two

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPCa19UnMNk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J5FEzUjrE4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA-dSo2qg6Y