Free Health Dissertations - Benzeval (1995) Describes Such Policies As Acting On Four Levels: Individual,
Benzeval (1995) describes such policies as acting on four levels:
Individual, targeting those most at risk, e.g. smoking cessation programmes.
Community e.g. social control of drug abuse.
Improving access to services e.g. housing, safe water, healthcare.
Encouraging economic and cultural changes e.g. economic changes to reduce poverty and promote equal opportunities.
Community development enables the community to work together to target health inequalities and collaborate with various agencies to maximise effect (Scally, 1997). Communities and professionals have collaborated to form Health Alliances. The community may be actually choosing the health area to target. A number of policies relevant to heath in the words of a Parliamentary Select Committee on Health create the problem that The multiplicity of initiatives is confusing. There are health action zones, employment action zones, health living centres, education action zones, health improvement programmes and community strategies.
It was once predicted that the problem of infectious disease would eventually be eliminated as a global health problem. Smallpox has been eliminated and vaccination programmes have made some inroads to other infectious diseases. However infectious disease remains a massive world health problem and is the main cause of death world wide (WHO, 1992). The reasons for this are complex. The main underlying cause of ill health on a global scale is poverty (Beaglehole and Bonita, 2004). Health care cannot be medical care in isolation but encompasses relief of poverty and enhanced political organisation.
AIDS has had a huge impact on global health. Quoted on the home page of the WHO Louis Michel, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid described The public health situation in many developing countries is outrageous. In many regions in Africa, a whole generation is at risk because of AIDS. In 2002 there were three million deaths from AIDS. In many Sub Saharan African countries AIDS is the commonest cause of death. In Botswana the prevalence of HIV infection in adults is 40%.
World Health Day is 7th April 2006 and the slogan is Working Together for Health (WHO). The World Health Report 2006 is due to be made available on World Health Day. It is already viewable in draft form on the WHO website. It emphasises the role of the health workforce and will launch the Health Workforce Decade. HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria are three current issues high on the global health agenda and receive concern by multiple bodies including recently the G8. Attempts to solve these problems have been thwarted by social and economic problems. Encouraging western values with regard to economic growth and development has in many respects hampered tackling these effects e.g. in South Africa migrant male workers have left their families behind and subsequently been infected heterosexually with HIV.
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