Ten Essential Public Health

Services

Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas

 What is public health?

• Public health is the part of the civic infrastructure

that keeps communities safe and healthy.
• The current generally accepted mission of public
health is:
• “Promote physical and mental health, and prevent
disease, injury, and disability.”

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Who are public health professionals?
• Nurses
• Physicians
• Laboratory technicians.
• Educators
• Nutritionists
• Social workers.
• Biostatisticians
• Epidemiologists.
• Economists
• Lawyers.
• Community-based or “grassroots” workers might include concerned
parents, grandparents, or civic leaders who volunteer their time.

Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas

 What are the Ten Essential Public
Health Services?
• The core functions of public health are divided
into.
• Assessment.
• Policy Development.
• Assurance.

• The Ten Essential Public Health Services fall into

these three categories.

Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas

Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas
Assessment:
• Monitor health status to identify community health problems.
• Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in
the community.
Policy Development:
•Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues.
•Mobilize community partnerships to identify and solve health
problems.
•Develop policies and plans that support individual and community
health efforts.

Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas

Assurance:
• Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure
safety.
• Link people to needed personal health services and assure
the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable.
• Assure a competent public health and personal health care
workforce.
• Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of
personal and population-based health services.
• Research for new insights and innovative solutions to health
problems.

Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas

 Public Health versus Medical
Models of Professional Training
Public Health Model
• Primary focus on population.
• Public service ethic, tempered by
concerns for the individual.
• Emphasis on prevention and
health promotion for the whole
community.
• Paradigm employs a spectrum of
interventions aimed at the
environment, human behavior
and lifestyle, and medical care.
Medical Model
• Primary focus on the individual.
• Personal service ethic,
conditioned by awareness of
social responsibilities.
• Emphasis on diagnosis,
treatment, and care for the
whole patient.
• Paradigm places predominant
emphasis on medical care.
Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas
How do you use the Ten Essential Public
Health Services in Community Practice?
Monitor health status to identify community problems.
This service comprises the ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, and
interpretation of health related data, including:
•Identification of threats to health and assessment of health service
needs;
•Timely collection, analysis, and publication of information on access,
utilization, costs, and outcomes of personal health services;
•Attention to the vital statistics and health status of specific groups that
are at higher risk than the total population; and
•Collaboration to manage integrated information systems with private
providers and health benefit plans.

Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas

• To monitor community health status, you can use federal,
state, and community-level information, such as:
• Census data.
• Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data, including the National Vital
Statistics System, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System,
the National Health Interview Survey, and the Cancer Registries.
• State-level “report cards” on maternal and child health and other
areas, as well as reports and statistics from the state public health
agency.
• School health reports.
• Community surveys.
• Information about community-level indicators, such as drunk
driving arrests, feet of store shelf space devoted to healthy
products, and heart-related emergency room visits.

Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas

 Diagnose and investigate health
hazards in the community
• This service encompasses public health activities such as:
• Epidemiologic identification of emerging health threats;
• Public health laboratory capability using modern technology
to conduct rapid screening and high volume testing;
• Active infectious disease epidemiology programs; and
• Technical capacity for epidemiologic investigation of disease
outbreaks and patterns of chronic disease and injury.

Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas

 Inform, educate, and empower
people about health issues
• Social marketing and targeted media public communication
(e.g., Toll-free information lines).
• Providing accessible health information resources at
community levels (e.g., free, mobile health screening
initiatives).
• Active collaboration with personal health care providers to
reinforce health promotion messages and programs.
• Joint health education programs with schools, churches, and
worksites (e.g., stress reduction seminars; parenting support
groups for enhancing mental health; and health fairs).

Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas

 Mobilize community partnerships
to identify and solve health
problems.
• Convene and facilitate community groups and associations,
including those not typically considered to be health-
related, to undertake defined preventive, screening,
rehabilitation, and support programs.
• Build multi-sector community coalitions in order to draw
upon the full range of potential human and material
resources in the cause of community health.

Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas

 Develop policies and plans that
support individual and community
health efforts.
• Leadership development at all levels of public health.
• Systematic community-level and state-level planning for health
improvement in all jurisdictions.
• Development and tracking of measurable health objectives as a
part of continuous quality improvement strategies.
• Joint evaluation with the medical health care system to define
consistent policy regarding prevention and treatment services.
• Development of codes, regulations, and legislation to guide the
practice of public health.

Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas

Enforce laws and regulations that
protect health and ensure safety
• Full enforcement of sanitary codes, especially in the food industry.
• Full protection of drinking water supplies.
• Enforcement of clean air standards.
• Timely follow-up of hazards, preventable injuries, and exposure-
related diseases identified in occupational and community settings.
• Monitoring quality of medical services (e.g., laboratory, nursing
homes, and home health care).
• Timely review of new drug, biologic, and medical device application.
• Advocacy for needed new health and safety laws and regulations.

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 Link people to needed personal health
services and assure the provision of health
care when otherwise unavailable.
• Effective entry for socially disadvantaged people into a
coordinated system of clinical care.
• Culturally and linguistically appropriate materials and staff
to assure linkage to services for special population groups.
• Ongoing “care management.”
• Outreach and support to populations in need of government
services.
• Technical assistance for effective worksite health
promotion/disease prevention programs.
• Targeted health information to high risk population groups.
• Transportation services.

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 Assure a competent public health and
personal care workforce
• Education and training for personnel to meet the needs for
public and personal health service.
• Efficient processes for licensure of professionals and
certification of facilities, with regular verification and
inspection follow-up.
• Adoption of continuous quality improvement and life-long
learning within all licensure and certification programs.
• Active partnerships with professional training programs to
assure community-relevant learning experiences for all
students.
• Continuing education in management and leadership
development programs for those charged with administrative /
executive roles.

Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas

Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality
of personal and population-based health services

• Evaluation helps public health professionals continually

refine or revise program approaches in future years of
funding.
• Evaluation data provide information about the relative costs
and effort for tasks so activity and budget adjustments can
be made.
• To ensure useful results that lead to more effective services,
it is necessary to conduct ongoing evaluations of health
programs based on analysis of health status and service
utilization data, to assess program effectiveness and to
provide information necessary for allocating resources and
reshaping programs.

Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas

Research for new insights and innovative
solutions to health problems
• Link with appropriate institutes of higher learning and research.
• Mount timely epidemiologic (e.g., outbreak investigations) and economic
analyses (e.g., cost-benefit studies).
• Conduct needed health services research (e.g., survey design; conducting
interviews and facilitating focus groups; conducting clinical trials; and
accessing and using public records).
• Engage in collaborative research with other programs, and publicize your
results.
• Seek funding for both individual and collaborative research into health
problems.
• Publicize research results so others can use and build on them.

Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas