National Public Health Week takes place during the first full week of April, being hosted by the American Public Health Association (APHA), and not a lot of people know about it! As a Public Health major, myself, I hope to educate and spark interest in this important campaign of improving and bringing awareness to health related issues.
According to the APHA, public health promotes and protects the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work and play. It focuses on the prevention of disease and promotion of healthy behaviors, bringing population-based health care everywhere.
Public health gets to the bottom of disease outbreaks and sheds light on why some are more susceptible to experiencing poor health outcomes than others. But with the right advances, public health can help give scientific-based solutions to these issues.
The APHA takes this week to recognize and highlight the contributions of public health advances and issues that are in need of improvement in the US. The plan is to educate and bring awareness to the public, policymakers, and all about problems related to the year’s theme. This year’s 2022 theme is “Public Health is Where You Are.”
What does this mean? Well, if you look around at your surroundings, I’m sure that you could point out at least a handful of things that help enforce healthy behaviors in your life. From the seatbelt that you put on before driving in your car to the reusable water bottle on your desk that reminds you to drink water and helps reduce plastic waste, public health is anything and everything.
Why should you learn about Public Health in today’s society?
In today’s society it is easy to forget how everything and everyone is interconnected. Due to this, public health is an important part of this interconnection. It is diverse and takes into consideration the health of the whole population, not just focusing on health at an individual level.
Public health interventions are always on it to defy health inequalities between people, making equal opportunities for people of all ages, ethnicities, and genders – which are cornerstones of what is most important in today’s social economy.
It is an important asset to prolonging life by providing ways to prevent, detect, and get resources to those in need. Public health has helped bring people together. Through the creation of sewage treatments to safely manage waste and promote better hygiene to vaccines that help prevent diseases, and even alerts on your phone that tell us how long we’ve been staring at our screens – the world we know of today wouldn’t be the same without public health.
How many public health actions can you point out this week?
Happy National Public Health Week!