Library Guides: What is Public Health?: This is Public Health

Definitions

What is Public Health from the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health:

"Public health protects and improves the health of individuals, communities, and populations, locally and globally."

This web site includes an Academic Program Finder.

What is Public Health from the American Public Health Association:

"Public health promotes and protects the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work and play."

"Public Health is the science and 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."

— From C E A Winslow, The Untilled Fields of Public Health (PDF), Science 51(1306): 23-33 (Jan. 9, 1920)

The mission of public health is "the fullfillment of society's interest in assuring the conditions in which people can be healthy."
The substance of public health is "organized community efforts aimed at the prevention of disease and the promotion of health."
The organizational framework of public health "encompasses both activities undertaken within the formal structure of government and the associated efforts of private and voluntary organizations and individuals."

— From The Future of Public Health, Institute of Medicine. National Academy Press, 1988.

"Together, the [Surgeon General's] reports of the past four decades have expanded the very meaning of public health. They show that the definition of public health is not fixed but has changed over time, and changed the practice of medicine, as well, to include areas such as human behavior and mental health. That fact has broad implications for our understanding of health and risk, personal pleasure and social norms, science and moral standards, and individual freedoms and public policy."

— From The Reports of the Surgeon General: Changing Conceptions of Public Health

This is Public Health

This is Public Health Logo The campaign, This Is Public Health, is a way for Public Health students to demonstrate all the ways in which Public Health improves our lives.

The Ten Essential Public Health Services

Equity is at the Heart of the 10 Essential Public Health Services (Revised, 2020)

Assess and monitor population health status, factors that influence health, and community needs and assets
Investigate, diagnose, and address health problems and hazards affecting the population
Communicate effectively to inform and educate people about health, factors that influence it, and how to improve it
Strengthen, support, and mobilize communities and partnerships to improve health
Create, champion, and implement policies, plans, and laws that impact health
Utilize legal and regulatory actions designed to improve and protect the public's health
Assure an effective system that enables equitable access to the individual services and care needed to be healthy
Build and support a diverse and skilled public health workforce
Improve and innovate public health functions through ongoing evaluation, research, and continuous quality improvement
Build and maintain a strong organizational infrastructure for public health

Public Health Workforce

Who Will Keep the Public Healthy? Educating Public Health Professionals for the 21st Century (2003, Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Institute of Medicine, National Academies of Science)

"The extent to which we are able to make additional improvements in the health of the public depends, in large part, upon the quality and preparednenss of the public health workforce, which is, in turn, dependent upon the relevance and quality of its education and training. This report examines an essential component of the public health workforce — public health professionals."

Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey: A Supplement to the Journal of Public Health Management & Practice
The Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) provides an important window into the governmental public health workforce as these agencies face critical transitions.
Social Determinants of Health-Related Competencies for the Health Workforce
This document includes a set of suggested competencies developed in collaboration with a diverse group of stakeholders from around the world who identified them as essential for the health workforce. SDoH contribute to 45–60 percent of the difference in health status among different populations.

Health Policy Advocacy: Organizations, Tools, etc.

AcademyHealth: Advocacy
As the professional society dedicated to the field of health services research and the professionals who produce and use this important work, AcademyHealth has a responsibility to promote the field and to help advance the interest of our broad membership. AcademyHealth monitors the environment year-round to identify legislation, regulations, guidance, and other trends in the public and private sectors that are important to its membership and/or stand to shape the field of health services research.
Advocacy Capacity Tool
Nonprofits can use the tool to benchmark their advocacy skills, identify specific gaps and opportunities in their advocacy strategies, determine how they want to strengthen their advocacy, and efficiently focus resources to get the best results. The tool can also be used as part of an evaluation process. From Bolder Advocacy.
Alliance for Health Reform
The Alliance for Health Reform is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping policymakers understand the foundations of health policy, the roots of the nation’s health care issues, and the trade-offs posed by various proposals for change. The Alliance has conducted hundreds of briefings on Capitol Hill and around the nation on timely and important health policy topics.
American Nurses Association: Policy & Advocacy
From state legislatures to the White House, nurses have a unique opportunity to lend their expertise in influencing policy at all levels of government. The American Nurses Association ensures all 3.6 million nurses are represented across the board and that nurses interests are not ignored by bureaucrats who lack true knowledge of the issues at the bedside.
Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum: Policy & Advocacy
APIAHF works with community advocates, public health leaders and policymakers to generate policy and systems changes that benefit our communities at the national, state and local levels. As part of an ambitious framework for change in policies, in systems, and in the fundamental ways that we address health for our communities, APIAHF policy work focuses on expanding access to health care; improving the quality of health care through cultural competency, language access and diverse workforce; increasing research and improving data collection about health issues faced by our communities
California Pan-Ethnic Health Network: Policy Center
In our fight to achieve health equity CPEHN is engaged in a number of policy campaigns:
California legislation; Affordable Care Act; state budget; prevention; and cultural and linguistic competency.
Children Now: Issue Areas
Serves as the hub for all of the key children's issues, supporting and connecting thousands of groups in California to create an unprecedented power base for kids. To accomplish this, Children Now employs the top three strategies that all of the country’s strongest interest groups have in common and, for the first time, applies those to kids: umbrella coverage; deep inside expertise; and outside pressure.
Families USA: Issues
Families USA, a leading national voice for health care consumers, is dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health care and improved health for all. We advance our mission through public policy analysis, advocacy, and collaboration with partners to promote a patient-and community-centered health system.
Finding Commonalities and Solutions With Decision-Makers
Finding common ground and win-win solutions in policy negotiation is an art that blends close listening, two-way conversations and meaningful relationships of trust built over time. This guide includes tools and techniques for advancing conversation with decision-makers on any policy.
Justice Action Toolkit
This toolkit provides resources to support community members working against injustice in its many forms. Includes: Seeking Enforcement of Existing Laws or Policies; Organizing Public Demonstrations; Organizing a Boycott; and much more. From Community Tool Box.
National Association of County and City Health Officials: Advocacy
As the national voice for Local Health Departments, NACCHO serves a critical role in Washington. All of NACCHO’s advocacy efforts focus on informing policymakers of the critical role that local health departments play in keeping our communities healthy and safe.
National Physicians Alliance: Action & Advocacy
The NPA is mobilizing physicians locally and nationally in the fight for a just, equitable, caring, and effective health care system. The NPA is actively working to ensure that these protections and coverage expansions guaranteed through the ACA are built upon, not dismantled.
National Rural Health Association: Advocacy
Using the association’s legislative and regulatory policies and positions, NRHA advocates before Congress, the White House and federal agencies. The association serves as a primary rural resource to elected officials, policy leaders and other organizations on rural health initiatives and programs. Site includes advocacy documents/cases, tools,and more.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Focus Areas
We are working to help achieve health equity and expand opportunity to pursue the best health possible, through investments in four broad areas: Healthy Communities; Healthy Children, Healthy Weight; Health Leadership; Health Systems.
Taking Action to End Gun Violence: Our Top Tools, Resources, Stories, and Data
A collection of resources that offers context for addressing gun violence as a systemic public health crisis, and houses some of Community Commons’ best tools, toolkits, resources, datasets, maps, policy briefs, and stories related to ending, preventing, and healing from gun violence.

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What is Public Health?: This is Public Health

Definitions

This is Public Health

The Ten Essential Public Health Services

Public Health Workforce

Health Policy Advocacy: Organizations, Tools, etc.