What is Public Health?
Overview
Public health focuses on improving and protecting community health and well-being, with an emphasis on prevention among large groups of people. It promotes and protects the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work and play.
With public health, we are preventing people from getting sick or injured in the first place. We also promote wellness by encouraging healthy behaviors.
The goal is to improve health outcomes for everyone and for all populations. Public health professionals keeps our communities healthy through child wellness, clean water, disaster relief, disease prevention, education, healthcare access, management and leadership, policy change, and much more.
What is the Impact of Public Health?
In the medical field, clinicians treat diseases and injuries one patient at a time, but only a small amount of what affects our health happens in the doctor’s office. In public health, researchers, practitioners, and educators prevent disease and injury at the community and population level. We identify the causes of disease and disability, and we implement large-scale solutions. In fact, our health is mostly determined by the environments in which we live, learn, work, and play. Public health is working together to make sure our communities are safe, prevent disease and injury, and give everyone the opportunity for good health.
What Can I Do in Public Health?
The role of public health is to prevent, promote, and to protect populations. What one public health professional does will differ from another’s day-to-day tasks. However, all public health professionals have a common objective: to ensure that healthcare is accessible to all segments of society. They work to limit health disparities and promote healthcare equity, quality, and accessibility for all. Here are some examples of what public health professionals will tackle on a daily basis:
Prevent
- Examine the dangers of secondhand tobacco smoke exposure.
- Develop strategies to stop bullying in schools.
- Develop reproductive health programs to prevent infant mortality and disease.
- Research potential causes to prevent cancer.
Protect
- Develop vaccines for disease.
- Implement safety standards in organizations to protect workers.
- Ensure distant communities have access to quality healthcare and services.
- Develop nutrition programs in schools to ensure children eat healthy.
Promote
- Promote sustainable habits to protect the greater environment.
- Educate people about the effects of drugs and alcohol to prevent addiction.
- Policies and health services interventions to address mental health and substance abuse
Why Public Health in Kentucky?
In 2004, the University of Kentucky established the College of Public Health to develop transformative solutions to health challenges through teaching, research and service efforts. Located in Lexington, Kentucky, we take seriously our public health responsibility to all communities and individuals in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and beyond.
Our state is at the epicenter in some of the major public health challenges in the areas of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, among others. With that in mind, we are dedicated to transforming and assisting in the creation of a healthier community, state, and world - for everyone. At the UK College of Public Health, we are committed to building health champions in Kentucky and beyond.