Chapter 5 - Changes In Australia’s Health Status Flashcards
Categories of Disease
- Infectious and parasitic diseases
- Cancers
- Cardiovascular diseases
- Respiratory diseases
- Injury and poisoning
Public health
The ways in which governments monitor, regulate and promote health status and prevent disease.
Old public health
Government actions that focused on changing the physical environment to prevent the spread of disease, such as providing safe water, improved sanitation, improved nutrition, improved housing conditions and better work conditions.
Policies and practices associated with the old public health
- Improved water and sanitation
- Quarantine laws
- Better-quality housing and fewer slums
- Improved food and nutrition
- Improved working conditions
- More hygienic birthing practices
- Provision of antenatal and infant welfare services
- Mass immunisation programs
Health promotion
The process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health.
Biomedical approach to health
Focuses on the physical or biological aspects of disease and illness. It is a medical model practised by doctors and health professionals and is associated with the diagnosis, treatment and cure of disease.
Features of the biomedical approach
- Focuses on individuals who are ill
- Concerned with disease, illness and disability
- Relies on services provided by doctors, specialists and hospitals
- ‘Band aid’, ‘quick fix’ approach
- Relies on technology to diagnose, treat and cure
Advantages & Disadvantages of the biomedical approach to health
Advantages:
* Enables many illnesses and conditions to be effectively treated
* Extends life expectancy
* Improves quality of life and health adjusted life expectancy
Disadvantages:
* Relies on professional health workers and technology and is therefore costly
* Doesn’t always promote good health and wellbeing
* Not every condition can be treated
* Affordability
New public health
An approach that recognises improvements in health and wellbeing can only be achieved by directing effort towards addressing the physical, sociocultural and political environments of health that have an impact on individuals and population groups. Also referred to as the social model of health.
Principles of the social model of health
- Acts to enable access to healthcare
- Empowers individuals and communities
- Addresses the broader factors of health
- Involves intersectoral collaboration
- Acts to reduce social inequities
Advantages and Disadvantages of the social model of health
Advantages:
* Promotes good health and wellbeing and assists in preventing diseases from developing in the first place
* Takes a more holistic approach to health and wellbeing (promotes HB by focusing on all dimensions, not just diseases that are present)
* Less expensive than biomedical approach
* Focuses on vulnerable population groups (as it focuses on equity, many disadvantaged groups are the target of health promotion programs. E.g. Indigenous people)
Disadvantages:
* Not every illness or condition can be prevented
* Doesn’t promote the development of technology and medical knowledge
* Health promotion messages may be ignored
Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion
An approach to health developed by the World Health Organization that aims to reduce inequalities in health. It reflects the social model of health and provides five action areas that can be used as a basis for improving health status, all of which are centred around three strategies for health promotion which are advocate, enable and mediate.
Strategies for Health Promotion
- Advocate - refers to actions designed to gain support from governments and societies that are necessary to improve health and wellbeing for everyone.
- Enable - ensuring equal opportunities and resources are available to enable all people to achieve optimal health and wellbeing (equity).
- Mediate - relates to helping groups resolve conflict from health promtion changes and produce outcomes that promote health and wellbeing.
Action Areas of the Ottawa Charter
- Build healthy public policy
- Create supportive environments
- Strengthen community action
- Develop personal skills
- Reorient health services
