Explain The Five Core Value Of Public Health

Public Health involves the improvement and advancement of health in populations and the prevention of infections and diseases. There are five core values that make up the Public Health Core Values. These functions cover every aspect of Public Health. The five core values are population-based, health promotion and disease prevention, evidence-based, the ecological perspective and health equity and social justice.
First of all, population-based is focused on the big picture. It is oriented for group and teamwork and gears its concerns to society as a whole. There are many benefits that can come from population-based approach of public health. Some of these benefits are that small changes have bigger impacts, the changes are more sustainable and that changes are more equitably distributed. Essentially, the population-based approach is geared towards the big

picture impact. An example of a population-based approach within a community would be surveillance of a disease or illness that is prevailing in a community where it normally would not.
Secondly, health promotion and disease prevention falls within public health because it helps promote health and prevention of diseases, rather than treatment of diseases.

The three P’s correlated with this category are Promotion, Protection and Prevention. Addressing the needs of the population as a whole is what is typically done promotional wise. Protection wise, there is an emphasis on actions taken to eliminate risk of health consequences. And finally prevention which is geared towards primary, secondary and tertiary prevention, (before, during and after the health issue respectively).
The third approach is evidence-based which works from proven strategies to combat prevalent diseases and health outcomes. Some benefits of evidence-based practice is that it is systematic, uses funding correctly and avoids reinventing the wheel. There is a four step process within the evidence-based approach that goes like this: 1) identify the problem, 2) identify risk factors, 3) compare and contrast, and 4) develop a strategy. Steps three and four of the four step process always seem to be the biggest

problem.
The ecological perspective is the fourth concept within the Public Health core values is the most complex. Like the population-based approach, the ecological perspective focuses on big picture thinking while targeting multiple influences, addressing the root causes of health outcomes and essentially expressing positive sustainable changes. The social-economic model within the ecological perspective goes from individual (the bottom) up through interpersonal, organizational, communal and finally to public policy (the top). Personal beliefs, attitudes, behaviors and personal knowledge are found at the individual level. The interpersonal level focuses on relationships between family, friends and peers. The organizational level focuses on the social aspect like schools, workplace and public facilities. The community level of the perspective looks at social media and cultural norms that shape our behaviors and beliefs. And finally, the top, the public policy area looks at local, state, and federal policies and recommendations.
The fifth and final aspect of the public health core functions is health equity and social justice. Health equity means health for all while social justice means that everyone gets the same opportunities and access to resources as everybody else. This area of public health is what America is currently dealing with and is one of the biggest rising issues in today’s society. There are clear enormous disparities in health status. These disparities can primarily be found in poorer people due to their status in the socio-economic realm. Public health has worked hard in the past to define the biggest predictor of one’s health which is wealth. Simply put, the wealthier you are, the healthier you are.
These five functions together make up the core values of public health. They all work with another to cover every aspect of health outcomes. They look at population- and evidence-based approaches as well as health promotion and prevention and using the ecological perspective to guide their efforts all while supporting and attempting to improve the nation’s health equity and advocating for social justice.