Unit 2 Public Health in Health and Social Care Assignment

Introduction

This Unit 2 public health in health and social care assignment explains about the role of different agencies in determining the level of health and diseases in the community. The discussion is supported by the data and figures and the epidemiology of one infectious and one non-infectious disease in UK. This unit not only talks about the diseases but also provides knowledge of causes and effects of the diseases.

Learners will further learn about the health care service providers in the country and the strategies that have been used by them in order to prevent the society from the hazardous diseases.

This unit further argues about the impact of changing lifestyle on the health of the people and the effectiveness of the strategies that have been implemented by the social health care system for protecting the society.

Task 1

1.1 Explain the roles of different agencies in identifying levels of health and disease in communities.

Many organizations provide services for health and social care in UK and to the whole world. There are three organizations that are discussed below which provides health care services.

• World Health organization
• National Health Service
• General Medical Council

The aim of above three organisations is providing services of health care to the people. They may have different specific objectives, but the main goal of the organisations is same.

World Health Organisation does not provide direct services to the citizens, but aids the private organisations that are working for the same purpose. They serve the health organizations on the country basis. They specially provide services to the health care systems that are at introductory stage or the organisations that are not performing well in this sector. They become more active at the time of calamities, natural disasters etc.(Boys and Michie, 2007) WHO try their best in generating the worldwide investigation system in order to identify the level of the heath and diseases persisting in the community. It includes the research laboratories and health centres from nation, local and provincial level and forms a network in order to work effectively. UK community health centre services is one of laboratories that contributes for this cause of investigating the levels of health and diseases.

Another organisation that helps in identifying level of health and disease in communities is General Medical Council. This council works for protection of patients by improving the medical education and practices in UK. They do the same by setting standards for the doctors and the services provided by them. They believe in providing the best services to the patients. GMC not only set standards for doctors but also take care of the training and education part of doctors as well as medical students. They contribute in identifying the level of health and diseases by conducting surveys and setting the standards for doctors in such a way so that they can bring down the level of the current diseases down.

National Health Services is the biggest single player in the field. NHS provides its services free of cost to the citizens of the country at the service point. NHS commissioning is another process that deals with providing effective services that meet the needs of the population. NHS is a patient led organisation as they provide the list of services to the patients and the final decision is made by consulting the patient. (Jones-Devitt and Smith, 2007) NHS collaborates with WHO in its activities of identifying the levels of health and diseases.

1.2 Explain, using statistical data, the epidemiology of one infectious and one non-infectious disease that is widespread in their own country.

Epidemiology is the study of patterns, distribution and incidence of the diseases in the community. It deals with all the factors associated with cause and effect of the disease in the environment. The study can be done on non-infectious as well as infectious diseases.

Infectious diseases are the communicable diseases that be communicated with any infectious agent, but non-infectious diseases are caused by the mutations that are inherited from the prior generation. (Bu?ttner and Muller, 2011)

Infectious disease: food borne diseases (FBD)
Microbestransmitted: campylobacter, salmonella, E. Coli and many more
Carrier: food products

FBD are the diseases that are caused by intake of food. The microbes that are present in the food enter our body and grow there if they get favourable conditions for their growth. Not all microbes present in the food are harmful. Growth of harmful microbes in our body led to illness and diseases.

Epidemiology of Food Borne Diseases

• Geographical distribution: Food borne diseases are very common in all the geographic regions of UK. A million people in whole UK suffer from the FBD illness. Usually most of the cases of FBD’s are mild that can be cured by taking anti- biotic medicines. Some of the cases that reach to severe condition need hospital care and long-term treatment. The food that mostly cause FBD are fish, meat and dairy products because there types of food provide favourable conditions to the microbes for their growth.(Medlock and Leach, 2015)
• Incidence rates: Incidence rates is the determination of the proportion of population who are affected by that particular disease.

The table below is showing the number of people affected by the Food Borne Diseases every year:

Condition	Region	Estimated number of affected people(2001-2011)
Primary immunodeficiency	UK	5000
Rheumatoid arthritis	UK	20,000 new cases per year
Crohn's disease	UK	60,000-80,000 (4000 new cases per year)
Cirrhosis	UK	>4000 deaths per year
Ulcerative colitis	UK	120,000-160,000

Estimated cases and deaths by the pathogen attacks:

Causes: Main causes of FBD, s are:

• Intake of contaminated food
• Unhygienic food habits

Vulnerable groups: People with all ages and both the sexes are vulnerable to FBD’s. In UK, the group that is most vulnerable to food borne diseases is children. Vulnerability for food borne diseases also depends on the immune system of an individual. People with damaged immune system are more vulnerable to the pathogen attacks.(Medlock and Leach, 2015)

Trends: UK-acquired cases of pathogens monitored by FSA

Non-infectious disease:obesity

Condition of accumulation of fat on the body more than an extent is called obesity. If the body mass index (BMI) of a person is more than or equal to 30, then he is said to be an obese. Obesity leads to many diseases like diabetes, weakening of bones etc.

Epidemiology of obesity

Incidence rates: The rate of increase in obese cases is at alarming stage in UK. In men, the percentage increased from 0.2% to 1.8% from 1993 to 2010. In women, the hike in percentage is more that is, from 1.4% to 3.6% in the same years as above.(Capehorn, Haslam and Welbourn, 2016)

Below figure shows the percentage of obese adults in different years:

Causes: many reasons can lead to increase in weight or accumulation fat in the body. Some of the causes are stated below:

• Imbalanced diet
• Genetic defects
• Damage to hypothalamus
• Intake of drugs
• Change in lifestyle

Obesity is the situation where accumulation of fat takes place in the body to such extent that it becomes the reason of many health problems. The people suffering from obesity are more susceptible to diabetes than the non-obese people are. Study reveals that 62% of adult population is suffering from obesity in England by 2012 and this percentage is rising day by day. (World Health Organization, 2016)

Below data is showing the percentage of obese, underweight and overweight people from overall diabetic patients.

Vulnerable groups: The most vulnerable group that is the victim of obesity is children under the age of 16. The figure below is showing the percentage of obese and overweight chidren: (World Health Organization, 2016)

Trends:

The below figure shows the trends in the prevalence of obesity in adults:

1.3 Evaluate the effectiveness of different approaches and strategies to control the incidence of disease in communities

Many approaches and strategiescan be used to control the incidence of disease in communities. These approaches help in prior targeting of the symptoms of diseases that are at the verge of causing ill effects to the society. Below are some of the approaches that aid the control of diseases in communities:

• Surveillance: Surveillance refers to observing the environment. Surveillance of diseases means keep a watch over the surroundings that give a prior notice of effects of the upcoming diseases. It acts as a tool to analyse and interpret the analysis in s form that helps in identifying the need to introduce different health programs for the population.(Carnwell, Buchanan and Carnwell, 2009)
• Screening: Screening is another strategy that can be used to control the diseases in the communities. Screening refers to prior medical testing for the disease without observing the symptoms of that disease. This prior testing helps in identification of occurrence of disease in an individual so that he can be treated before attainment of that disease. Screening can be done in two ways. Universal screening refers to screening of a particular group from the population. Another type of screening is case finding that refers to screening of the individuals who are assumed diseased.
• Immunisation: Immunisation is the technique by which an individual can be made immune of certain infections. It can be done by vaccination. Vaccine of a particular disease made an individual resistant to that disease. (Boys and Michie, 2007)
• Education and social welfare programs: Diseases can be controlled to some extent by educating the population about the prevention techniques and ill effects of the diseases that are found to be widespread in the community. Social welfare programs can be introduced to educate people and providing them free medicines and vaccines so that they can be protected from the diseases.(Nolan, 2010)
• Environmental control: Keeping the environment safe is not only the duty of the government, but is the responsibility of the population also. Environment safety and control aids in disruptions of many diseases.

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Task 2

2.1 Use relevant research to determine current priorities and approaches to the provision of services for people with disease or illness.

There are some of the chronic diseases that need to be prevented as a priority. Those diseases are obesity, cancer, diabetes, CVC etc. It is very important to find the priority in the diseases so that preventive measures can be taken up to control the spread of disease.
Below diagram shows the ratio of diseases that are becoming the cause of death for the world population:

HIV is one of the diseases that have severe effects on the population of world as well as on the population of UK. HIV prevention should be a priority for the social care settings so that they can safeguard people from the disease. Prevention of the diseases is divided into the following steps:

• Primary prevention: Primary prevention refers to the foremost preventive measures that have been used to prevent the population from the disease by educating them about the diseases and their causes. If we talk about UK, the country has made efforts in concern with prevention of HIV. Two of the HIV prevention programs have been introduced.
  • CHAPS: This was the main HIV prevention program introduced to prevent transmission of HIV among MSM (men sex with men). This program focuses on educating the population regarding the preventive measures that can be used while having sex.
  • NAHIP: It is another program that was introduced mainly for the African communities in England. Besides encouraging the use of condoms, this program encourages safer sex culture among black Africans in England.(Nhs.uk, 2016)
• Secondary prevention: Secondary prevention refers to the screening and detection of the pathogens that are acting as the carrier for the particular disease. In UK, NHS has introduced a health care program of testing the blood of every pregnant woman. If the woman found to be infected with HIV virus, she needs to be treated so that virus does not transfer to the offspring. Some of the diseases cannot be cured, but can only be treated lifelong to live a healthy life. HIV is one of them. In UK, the medication technique known as post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is used to treat HIV within 72 hours of infection. Many sexual health clinics and genitourinary clinics provide PEP.
• Tertiary prevention: This is the last step of prevention that aims at taking care of the patients who are suffering from the chronic diseases. In this step, palliative care is given to the patients. Palliative care is the medical as well as the emotional care given to the patient and his family to improve the quality of life. It does not cure the disease, but aims at providing relief from the illness. In UK, NHS has made efforts towards palliative care in the case of HIV and cancer. NHS invested a lot to train the palliative care centres so that services can be provided to the diseased people in UK.

2.2 Explain the relationship between the prevalence of disease and requirements of services to support individuals within the health and social care setting.

Prevalence of disease is the proportion of total population that is affected by that particular disease. Prevalence of disease provides the information about the number of people that are facing the illness from the total number of people who are studied. This information gives us the idea to plan about the services that needs to be given regarding the problem.

Determining prevalence rates supports individuals in health and social care settings to identify the health needs. This aids them to develop programs that can be implemented for prevention of disease. Other epidemiological tools provide information about the reach of the disease that helps in taking measures accordingly. For example, if the health care individuals have the knowledge about root cause of the disease and have the data regarding the areas where population is more prone to the disease then, they will definitely target that particular area first. (Henderson, 2011)

The data regarding the spread of diseases not only helps in planning the programs, but also helps in determining the needs of providing education to the population in order to prevent them from the diseases.

Prior knowledge of the cause and effect of the disease proves to very beneficial for the health care individuals in allocating the resources accordingly. It gives them the idea to prioritize the tasks and the resources. They can easily target the population with higher risk by studying the data regarding the cause and effect of the disease. For example, if a particular area in the country is found to be more susceptible to the Lyme disease, then more resources will be allocated to that area for early treatment of the disease.

2.3 Analyse the impact of current lifestyle choices on future needs for health and social care services.

Many factors influence the health of an individual such as eating habits, intake of substances, exercising, work culture etc. All the above factors somehow become the reason for illness of an individual. Many health problems may arise due to bad habits of taking drugs, alcohols and other harmful substances.

In UK, the two main health problems that are found to be severe and chronic are obesity and intake of drugs. Both the above stated problems have become the lifestyle of most of the UK population. (Wright, 2016)

Obesity: The main cause of being obese is the eating habits of the people. Wrong eating habits lead to accumulation of fat in the body that result in obesity. Data identifies that premature adult death rates can be reduced to 8%, if people maintain their weight. Survey suggests that the percentage of obese people increased by 13% in men and 10% in women from 1993 to 2010. This data gives the reason to worry.

Reasons of increase in the number of obese people in UK

• Poor diet: People in UK have very bad food habits of eating so much of fast food and taking so much of sugary substances in the diet. This results in increase of calories and hence leads to obesity.
• Lack of physical activity: Physical exercise is no more exists in the schedule of the people now days. Individuals having sitting jobs are more vulnerable to obesity as they eat and sit without doing any physical work the whole day. This develops a fat on their body and hence they suffer from obesity.

Department of health recommended that one should do physical exercise 150 minutes a week. That should not be done in one go but can be broken down into smaller period.

Some of the other health problems prevailing in UK are:

• Smoking: This is another reason of premature adult death in England. Data suggests that around 80,000 people die annually because of smoking habits. Social health clubs should be incorporated in the community to reduce the number of smokers by encouraging them to leave this habit. Government needs to implement educational programs to provide people with the knowledge of ill effects of smoking. This is a matter of high concern because smokers not only affecting their own selves, but also polluting the environment that causes harm to others. (Nhs.uk, 2016)
• Sexual health: Sexual health of the population is an important factor to be considered. It is very necessary for the people to know about the cause and effect of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD’s). The widespread disease among STD’s in UK is Chlamydia. Many programs were conducted by NHS UK to encourage safer sex in the community. Protection is very necessary in this case. Government and social health care providers need to promote programs that educate people about STD’s and the prevention methods for the same.
• Work culture: Flexi working hours and night shifts have immense effect on the health habits of the working population. The people have become so much work-oriented. They prioritize their work before health. Continuously working on laptops, long conversations on mobile phones and late night meetings have changed the daily schedules of working people. They are not getting time for taking care of their health. (Stretch, 2007)

All the above reasons suggest that the social health organisations need to pace up their activities in near future. They have to take steps according to the increase in health issues. As per the data, the main target of these organisations would be obesity and smoking because these two habits are greatly influencing the health of the people in UK.

Task 3:

3.1 Assess the health and wellbeing priorities for individuals in a particular health or social care setting.

Wellbeing is the condition in which an individual feels comfortable with his surroundings. This state of wellbeing can be achieved only when a person is healthy, happy and satisfied with the environment in which he is living. Wellbeing can be classified as social, physical, environmental, economical etc. Wellbeing of an individual is very much related with the health. Different people suffer from different types of diseases. The type of the disease and its effects decides the choice of wellbeing. Priorities should be made in accordance with the effects of the disease.

My patient is suffering from acute stress disorder, so he needs to be treated by social and environmental wellbeing. This is because my patient has to deal with the mental situation or trauma that has been caused due to some of the bad situations in his earlier life. To cope with that situation, he needs medical as well as social treatment. Social wellbeing can be attained by support of the society. Patients with stress disorder should be provided with emotional and social support by the friends, family and as well as by the people around them. (Wright, 2016)

Below are some of the factors that affect the wellbeing and health of an individual:

• Physical health: Physical health refers to the ability of the body to function. If an individual’s body is functioning perfectly then he is said to be physically healthy. If a person wants to be physically fit, he needs to obey some of the rules like exercise, intake of nutrition diet, proper management of weight, etc.
• Mental health: Mental health of a person deals with the state of being mentally sound. If a person remains in the state of stress ad trauma then he becomes mentally ill. Mental illness affects the functioning of brain of an individual.
• Social health: The social health issue generated due to bad social environment around the person. Being socially healthy means keeping yourself and community safe from the diseases. It includes social programs that educate people about the causes and effects of the prevailing diseases.

3.2 Evaluate the effectiveness of strategies, systems and policies in a health or social care setting.

Commonwealth fund has appreciated UK for the fact that UK invested a lot in health care of the population. Health care settings in UK have always come up with new strategies and policies to fight with the existing diseases in the community. If we take the example of HIV, many programs like CHAPS and NAHIP were implemented to encourage and educate people to have safe sex and use of protections while having sex. These programs were proved very beneficial for the reduction in STD transfer. (Ma, 2009)

Social care services and information:

Social care services are those services that are provided by the social health care systems. These departments assist the patients as well as their carers regarding the health issues. Social care health involves providing equipments, health care at home, and financial support to patients etc.

Information is an important factor that should be considered by social healthcare providers. Information regarding the diseases and health of the society helps the organisation to work towards the betterment of society. Information also helps in creating awareness to the people regarding the diseases prevailing in the community.

Policies of Care UK care home:

Care home in UK is one of the most efficient health care and safety providers. They believe in working according to the laws passed by the government regarding the health and safety care systems. One of the best policies of this care home is the complaint policy that is also the rights of the patients and the service recipients. According to this policy, the people or the customers who are unsatisfied with the services can make a formal complaint to the department and the management of the heath care facility will take action within three working days. They investigate the reason behind the dissatisfaction and try to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

If the management fails to resolve the issue than the service recipient can escalate it to the directors and even to the external facilities to resolve the issue.

Quality of service provision: Healthcare providers check for the quality of services they are providing to the patients. They take feedback from the patients regarding the services. Quality of services can be checked by determining the effectiveness of the treatments and safety of the recipients. 

Rights of patients:

• Equality Act 2010: This act suggests that the healthcare providers should treat the patients equally. There should be no discrimination in terms of caste, race, status etc. This act protects patients from negligence and discrimination.
• Data Protection Act 1998: This act is effective in protecting the data of the patients. This act suggests that the medical data of the patients should be kept safely and not to be disclosed in front of everyone.
• Complaint procedure: UK care home provides patients to file complain if they have been suffered with any harm by the activities of health care providers.

It is found that the local authorities of health care in UK are doing very well in promoting the preventive measures of different diseases among people. These authorities collaborate with each other for big projects so that they can cover wider areas in less time. Some agencies that are working for child health care also found to be working together for a common goal these days. The structure of partnership in organisation is beneficial as it allows early incorporation of child health care services. Many modifications have been made in the health care services. These modifications led to improved policies and strategies that result in better services.

Although, organisations of UK are doing well in the health care service sector but there is always a needs to come up with modifications in the policies according to the change in the situation and the environment.

3.3 Discuss changes that could be made to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals in a health and social care setting.

The health care settings in UK are performing satisfactorily in the field but there is always a chance to improve. Modifications should always be made according to the demands. The policies and strategies that have been made for adults are not necessarily be successful in case of children. It is necessary to make the strategies according to the group that has been targeted. In case of children, involvement of parents is very necessary, as they are the first caretaker of children. The strategies that have been made for the children health care purpose should be such that educate parents about the diseases that can affect their child. Parents should be provided with the information regarding the cause and effect of the disease. They need to know about the preventive measures and cures so that it will be easy for them to treat their child at the time of infection.

If we take the case of adolescents, it is very necessary to keep in mind that the promotions about the preventive measures should be done by the same age group people. This is because youngsters are very much influenced by peer pressure.

The health care centres that are providing remedial care to the patients should focus on the surroundings as well. It is their duty to take care of the patient as well as the environment around him.(Gordis, 2009)

Changes that could be made in UK care home:

All the above discussion was subjected to almost all of the health care system. As discussed, UK care homes have the policy of complaint through which the service recipients can file a complaint if they are unsatisfied with the services. This policy is very beneficial for the people. As the service providers are providing a resident like care and atmosphere in their care homes, involvement of family members can be more beneficial to treat the patients in such case. The family members can tell the carer about the habits and the type of food that needs o be provided to the patients. This help the carers to know about the things and mould the activities in such a way that makes the patients feel better.

3.4 Evaluate an activity that has been implemented to encourage behaviour change for maximising health for individuals in a health and social care setting.

Behaviour change of an individual can be done by incorporating a good habit in his lifestyle. Physical exercise is one of the good habits that can be practiced by the people of every age to be fit. Inculcating this habit from the childhood days is even more beneficial as children are very much active and can adapt things easily rather than adults. As stated above, that the most widespread disease in UK among all the ages is obesity. Therefore, physical movement of body is the best remedy that may have its effect on reduction in number of obese people in the society. (Rowland, 2012)

Social health care systems should come up with the health care clubs that allows people from same age group to come and do exercise together. Organising family sports fest every month or once in 6 months will be very beneficial as it provides the chance for the whole family to take part in it. The social care settings should focus on the daily schedules of the people and should implement programs accordingly. (Jones-Devitt and Smith, 2007)

Conclusion

It is necessary to study the epidemiology of the diseases as it provides the information about the incidence rates, prevalence rates and the geographic distribution of the disease in the community. The health care units to come up with the preventive measures of such diseases use this information. UK health care providers are providing very fine services to the people by educating them regarding the cause and effects of the diseases that are widespread in the society.

The lifestyle of the people is also responsible for many health issues like obesity in the society. The changes should be made in the lifestyle of the people by providing them with the facilities that help them to attain good health.

References

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Gordis, L. (2009). Epidemiology. Philadelphia: Elsevier/Saunders.
Jones-Devitt, S. and Smith, L. (2007). Critical thinking in health and social care. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.
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