Functions of public

health
Core functions and essential services of
public health

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Core function of public health #1

1. Assessment
• Monitor health status to identify
community health problems.
• Diagnose and investigate health problems and
health hazards in the community.
• Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and
quality

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Core function of public health #2
2. Policy development
• Mobilize community partnerships to identify and
solve health problems.
• Develop policies and plans that support
individual and community health efforts.
• Enforce laws and regulations that protect health
and ensure safety.

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Core function of public health #3
3. Assurance
• 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.
• Inform, educate, and empower people about
health issues.
• Mobilize community partnership

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Essential public health services #1

The ten essential public health services

1. Monitor health status to identify community
problems
• Ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, and
interpretation of health related data,
• Identification of threats to health and
assessment of health service needs;

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Essential public health services #2

• 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;
• Collaboration to manage integrated
information systems with private providers
and health benefit plans.
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Essential public health services #3

2. Diagnose and investigate health hazards in

the community
• 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

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Essential public health services #4

• Technical capacity for epidemiologic

investigation of disease outbreaks and
patterns of chronic disease and injury.

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Essential public health services #5
3. 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).

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Essential public health services #6
• 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).

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Essential public health services #7
4. 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.

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Essential public health services #8
5. 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.

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Essential public health services #9

• 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.

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Essential public health services #10
• 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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Essential public health services #11
6. 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.

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Essential public health services #12

• 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.

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Essential public health services #13

• Advocacy for needed new health and

safety laws and regulations.

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Essential public health services #14
7. Link people to needed health services
and assure the provision of health care
•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.

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Essential public health services #15
• 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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Essential public health services #16

8. 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.

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Essential public health services #17

• 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.

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Essential public health services #18

9. 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.

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Essential public health services #19

• 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.

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Essential public health services #20

10. 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).

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Essential public health services #21

• Conduct needed health services research (e.g.,

survey design; conducting interviews and
facilitating focus groups; conducting clinical
trials; and accessing and using public records).

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Essential public health services #22

• 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.

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Remark

•“Why we treat people and

send them back to the
conditions that made them
sick?” Michael Marmont

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Public health……..

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