Policy Making

Your introduction should set the scene and start to answer the question posed in your assignment title.  What topic are you addressing and why?  Why is it a public health issue?  Situate your issue within different national, cultural and global public health contexts.  What has past and current policy (specifically in the UK) stated about this issue and how has that affected the current status of this public health issue? Using evidence based research, discuss what the main determinants of ill health are in relation to this public health issue? Are they all applicable? Do they interact?  Social (e.g. social support networks, education)  Economic (e.g. Income and social status)  Biological (e.g. gender, genetics)  Technological (e.g. Digital technologies are increasingly important as ways to gain access to most of the important social determinants of health including employment, housing, education and social networks)  Environmental (e.g. safe water and clean air, healthy workplaces, safe houses, communities and roads all contribute to good health) Discussion point 2 (learning outcome 3) How has the public health issue you have chosen been addressed in the UK? Through:  Health protection (e.g. Ensuring the safety and quality of food, water, air and the general environment; Preventing the transmission of communicable diseases; Managing outbreaks and the other incidents which threaten the public health).  Health improvement (e.g. the work to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals or communities through enabling and encouraging healthy lifestyle choices as well as addressing underlying issues such as poverty, lack of educational opportunities and other such areas.)  Health care services (e.g. A wide range of public health activity takes place in NHS trusts – from setting up alcohol screening programmes to running sexual health services and developing trust-wide public health strategies.)