A healthy lifestyle is more than just controlling your eating habits or staying active. Numerous other aspects tend to get overlooked, and to ensure good public health, awareness is a crucial element.
Only a healthy community can prosper, and the public health sector must work towards bringing about a positive change in this respect.
Particularly for developing communities, such focus is important because a range of problems might result without it. Neglecting community health can lead to widespread disease outbreaks and waves of crime.
To work towards this end, public health workers, volunteers, local government officials, and citizens need to work together to increase public awareness and introduce services that support public health.
Despite the latest medical technologies, chronic disease is a significant problem affecting many developing communities.
With the current pandemic situation, in particular, public health is under even greater threat, and it has become all the more important for various sectors of society to unite.
Let us discuss several ways you can contribute to promoting good community health in developing communities;
Establish strong leadership
Only with good governance can the health sector make a concerted effort to improve public health. Education, individual income, personal lifestyle, and many other factors are beyond the health sector’s direct control and bring positive change in all these aspects.
Success is only possible if the health sector can effectively join hands with other segments.
For those hoping to join the health sector and contribute to community health, a masters in public health online no gre degree can equip you with effective policy management skills and general health knowledge.
With a degree in public health, you can then join the public, corporate, government, or private sectors.
Redirect attention to preventative healthcare
There is a need for communities to reorient their health services to emphasize health promotion and prevention of health problems.
The healthcare sector’s responsibility is more than just clinical or curative services. Reorienting healthcare requires a greater emphasis on health research, training, and public education.
Community campaigns focused on preventative care can be launched to increase public awareness.
Improve health literacy
Health literacy refers to someone’s ability to comprehend basic health information to make beneficial health decisions.
Governments across the globe are working towards improving community health literacy. People must access healthcare knowledge before they can benefit from new advances in this sector.
One main aspect of health literacy is making such knowledge available to everyone regardless of their culture, background, socioeconomic status, etc.
Public health experts need to realize their role in achieving this; this can be done by making health information available to people on those modes of communication that they tend to use frequently.
Mobile apps, patient portals, consent forms, and instructions for prescription drugs can be used to improve public health knowledge.
Research has shown that community awareness about medical issues can impact how patients access information and react to diagnosis. Unfortunately, 90% of patients don’t know how to respond if their healthcare providers give detailed health information.
For this reason, health literacy cannot be neglected.
Emphasize joint community efforts
Community health is a joint concern that should ideally engage all the members of society. Combined effort on behalf of the community can be of tremendous help.
Citizens can play a role by volunteering at clinics, medical centers, or children’s hospitals, raising funds for local health assistance, donating to food banks, arranging blood drives, and launching disease awareness campaigns.
After all, every drop counts in making an ocean.
The healthcare sector should call for such a united effort but for that, spreading public awareness is the first step.
Target health of school students
Public health education starts at the school level and with young children. Policies focusing on health at the school level should educate students about mental, social, and physical health issues.
Other more sensitive topics like violence prevention and sexual health concerns can be addressed in classes with adolescents.
Forming a strong foundation at this point in life will strengthen healthy attitudes, practices, and beliefs in the general public for the future as well.
Conduct public health fairs
One way to engage the community is to host public health fairs. These events are community health plans where locals are educated about health-related concerns.
Many health fairs also provide the public free screening opportunities for diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol, vision, hearing, etc., and direct those in need to reliable healthcare service providers.
Since these health fairs are non-medical settings, many citizens find it convenient and actively participate to get necessary health information about themselves.
To educate the public, many health fairs also include fitness demonstrations, health resources, and healthy food samples.
Many insurance agencies, local gyms, organizations like Red Cross, and other important service providers contribute to these health fairs.
Strengthen your public health policy
The healthcare sector has to focus on more than simply healthcare service providers to the public. Policymaking is one of the major responsibilities in this sector.
A strong health promotion policy would focus on bringing about legislation, taxation, and fiscal measures to improve public health.
Policymakers also need to identify obstacles to public well-being and address these adequately.
Target specific health-related issues facing your community
Developing communities are likely to have many demons to fight off regarding healthcare. Common problems include drug and tobacco use, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, etc.
To counter such problems, launch mass-reach interventions to spread awareness, provide incentives (like incentivizing drug or cigarette cessation), and use technology to communicate with the public.
Launch mobile-based campaigns to educate the public about specific concerns like heart disease. Target-based interventions like these will allow you to deal with one problem at a time and take small but effective steps in improving overall public health.
Final words
The healthcare sector is an indispensable component in any society; all other sectors cannot progress without a healthy community.
However, the healthcare sector does not stand alone in working towards a healthier community. The role of this sector is to unite the government, private organizations, and the locals in a joint effort.
Every member of society plays an equally important role, and every drop contributes to making an ocean.
