The public health systems: the government’s role

Name:
Tutor:
Course:
Date:
The public health systems: the government’s role
Public health is the art and science of protecting and improving the health of the population in an area through the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, education of the people on the importance of healthy living, tracking of the illness frequency of the population and the carrying out of research for the control of diseases and disease causing microorganisms, (Bernard 10). It could also involve the investigation of the frequency of the outbreak of infectious diseases among a population and the best control measures for such outbreaks. In countries that have public funding for the health policies, public health plays a big part in allocating the necessary resources to the health services and providing the health structure. Public health however, focuses mainly on the prevention of disease outbreak and the occurrence of diseases in a population rather than on the treatment of such diseases. It is therefore involved in activities like public education on methods of disease prevention such as washing the hands with soap, maintaining of clean environments and vaccination of the public against various infections with the aim of improving the lives of a population at large rather than an individual through the prevention methods. A public health system is a complex network of the organizations that work together with the aim of fulfilling the mission of the public health towards the achieving of a healthy population, (Robert wood)
In any given country the government plays a major role in the construction of public health policies and the funding of projects that aim at promoting the public health. The federal, local and state governments in the USA play a key role in the public health matters through ensuring that the key elements of the public health are in place and that the mission of the public health is achieved. The government policies on public health systems have been changing ever since the great depression to the present, with the polices being made better than before and the government increasing its involvement in the public health matters. The government enforces the policies that are in place and also plays the role of a convener by identifying the health problems and prioritizing the problems that are to be addressed by the public resources. The government can also modify the public health policies with regard to their influence on social matters such as education employment and housing. The involvement of the government however, to the public health matters in the United States has led to the development of many structures according to Richard (181). Each city has its own public health system with some districts and territories having the power to make their own public health systems decisions.
Different bodies of the government have their roles on public health systems cut out clearly. The federal government role in the public health does not appear in the United States constitution although it still plays a role in such matters. The federal government’s role is played through the department of health and human services, (Jennie 55) and (national public health). The department plays a major role in research and the translation of the research results into clinical practice through the national institutes of health (NIH). Other bodies .............