Public health policies and interventions frequently appear to be complicated, programmatic, and context-dependent. However, they are an essential tool for every countries safety regulation. The government has to take action on specific issues and intervene in citizens’ lives by implementing public health policies. Its primary goal is to prevent any diseases from appearing or spreading. Though some forms of prevention might be controversial or not comfortable for some, they are aimed for the safety of the community. This essay will address the issue of health policies and interventions effect on the daily life of every person, as well as review examples of their implementation. Furthermore, various types of preventions for diseases will be discussed and analyzed.
Health policy regulations must exist, and their role in every country’s life is undebatable. Without health policies and interventions, many countries would be put at risk of epidemics and medical chaos. That is the reason many must take a particular test while applying to work or receive vaccinations at a young age, so one can avoid getting dangerous illnesses in the future. About one in five interventions directly targets the population, the most common ones being individual and group health promotion or disease prevention services (Litvak et al., 2019). Those policies are not aimed to harm, but to secure the life of every citizen.
The forms of health interventions can range widely and be applied in numerous ways, both positive and negative. Medical advice, reminders, restrictions, prohibitions, explicit orders, fines, penalties, etcetera represent just some examples of what can happen if a health policy is violated. Therefore, in some cases violating health policies may cause severe consequences for an individual citizen. Health interventions target severe problems concerning the lives of citizens. They are implemented to ensure the superb health of every civilian, maximize the prevention of critical illnesses, and minimize their impact on people’s lives. Although it is essential to consider whether they are politically viable and sufficient to the communities they most affect.
Every country regulates their health policies and interventions. A widespread health intervention is used surrounding the obesity issue. Health centers use a variety of methods for decreasing the number of obese people in their community. An excellent example of obesity health policy implementation happened in California. California Endowment created Healthy Eating, Active Communities (HEAC), with the aim to reduce obesity and diabetes in school-age children by improving their food and physical environment.
The HEAC model was designed to prevent childhood weight problems through collaborative action that transforms the local environment to make healthy living possible (HEAC, 2017). All school districts within HEAC were required to take action and radically change their physical education curriculum at school. In that way, students become more active throughout the day. Results demonstrate a significant improvement in health routine.
Children started to eat less junk food and prefer healthy food to junk chips as well as engage more in physical activities voluntarily. A very recent example of health intervention is currently happening in China, where the citizens of a few cities are prohibited from leaving or entering them in order not to spread the coronavirus. The authorities have conducted severe actions for the sake of their citizen’s health. The actions may be radical, but the government does as much as it can, so the dangerous virus affects no more people.
Different prevention methods are essential to the country’s safe public health programs. There are three types of disease prevention primary, secondary, and tertiary. Combined, these strategies not only aim to prevent the development of illness the reduction of its risk, but also avoid complications of certain disease. Children and adults are vaccinated to prevent acquiring a dangerous disease. An example of primary prevention is universal immunization. Children and adults are vaccinated to prevent acquiring a dangerous disease. Therefore, the risk of epidemic decreases to a minimum. Just like that, people get immunized from hepatitis B to terminate the chance of developing the illness.
Secondary prevention emphasizes the detection of disease in the early stages and targets the healthy-appearing people but with appearing forms of the illness. The subclinical disease can show in the way of pathologic changes, but no symptoms can be diagnosed with the doctor’s visit. Secondary prevention frequently occurs in the form of screenings. If an individual got hepatitis B and it progressed to the liver cancer like it commonly does, its secondary prevention is applied in the form of treatment by an antiviral agent, which refers to patients with chronic Hepatitis B infection. Antiviral agents have proven to prevent the disease from progression in the future.
Tertiary prevention is the most serious of all. It targets both the clinical and outcome disease stages. It is implemented for patients who need to reduce the severity of the illness. While secondary prevention aims to prevent the outbreak of illness, tertiary prevention is determined to maximize the reduction of the effects of the disease that has already progressed. Forms of tertiary prevention are commonly rehabilitation efforts. The patients with advanced liver cancer get tertiary prevention in the way of an antiviral agent, so the doctors can prevent illnesses recurrence for patients who were effectively treated from liver cancer (Chang, 2013).
In conclusion, health policy intervention is an essential tool of the government to secure its citizens from the risk of severe illnesses. Although it may contradict one’s beliefs, it is a necessary step on the way to a protected community. Intervention aims to minimize diseases on its first base. Primary prevention is the primary goal of authorities; there are three stages of disease prevention, together they can prevent the development of illness while reducing its risk and future appearance.
References
Chang, M.-H. (2013). Prevention of Hepatitis B Virus Infection and Liver Cancer. Viruses and Human Cancer Recent Results in Cancer Research (pp. 75–95). Web.
HEAC (Healthy Eating Active Communities). (2017). Web.
Litvak, E., Dufour, R., Leblanc, É., Kaiser, D., Mercure, S., Nguyen, C., & Thibeault, L. (2019). Making sense of what exactly public health does: a typology of public health interventions. Canadian Journal Of Public Health. Web.