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HEALTH PROTECTION |
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Bottom Line |
“Health protection comprises legal or fiscal controls, other regulations and policies, and voluntary codes of practice, aimed at … the prevention of ill-health.” |
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Significance |
From a moral perspective this is the easiest part of Public Health practice. John Stewart Mill is famous for his Essay on Liberty still worth reading was very clear that the only justification for state intervention was to protect the citizen from harm by third parties. The role of the state in protecting the citizen from themselves was much less clear, an argument discussed over the years in relationship to, amongst other things, censorship and taxation of salted food. The need for health protection is not only because harm is caused by third parties but also that action is needed by society as a whole, remembering the definition of Public Health as “the organised efforts of society.” It is relatively straight forward for an individual to change their diet, of course, they are influenced by their social environment big business but it is very difficult for the individual to control a meningitis outbreak or pollution of the water supply. The term health protection indicates that the mission of the services to protect the citizen from environmental harms not all of which are true to the specific action of third parties. The legionnaires outbreak in Lothian, Scotland in 2012 for example was not the result of a specific move by a third party but it had to be managed by the party of the population. However some health problems are definitely caused by third parties and the citizen requires protection from an Agency with authority and knowledge that they cannot possess. Health protection therefore is the simplest from an ethical point of view and has direct links to the 19th Century moves to ensure every citizen has clean clear water. For some people this would extend to ensuring citizens received clean clear knowledge instead of the biased and misleading information they receive from Industry or from the Web |
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Examples of how the term is used; Extract from the Better Value Healthcare 21st Century Glossary |
“Health protection comprises legal or fiscal controls, other regulations and policies, and voluntary codes of practice, aimed at the enhancement of positive health and the prevention of ill-health.” |
