Response Post:
When crafting your responses, reflect on any challenges for influencing policy uncovered by your peers that you may not have considered. How do you think the challenges for influencing policy can be overcome? Compare the advances toward goal attainment made for the MDG you investigated to the advancements made toward the MDGs investigated by your peers.

Post #1

Carolyn Nelson 

Health promotion can be defined as giving people the knowledge and tools to help gain control and improve their health. Health promotion can be used to notice behavior trends, but can be used as a tool to educate, support and provide tools for communities to live a healthier lifestyle. Education is a very powerful tool and providing outreach programs or tools to populations who don’t have access to health information can be very beneficial in ensuring a healthier lifestyle for those patients. Community health and health promotion can work together in providing health promotion to a population or community. Health policies are used in helping a community achieve a health related goal. The CDC has a step by step process on how to ensure a health policy, problem analysis, policy analysis, strategy development, policy enactment, and policy implementation. (CDC Policy Process, 2015) The CDC works together with the World Health Organization by creating policy prevention programs. The CDC also creates a team of healthcare workers when a crisis is going on and disperses them throughout the world to help the situation at hand. For example, when the Ebola epidemic started in 2014 both organizations worked together to find out where the source of the disease was coming from and they also worked together ensuring no additional exposure was obtained in other countries by travel restrictions. They worked together in handling this epidemic outbreak and containing it in a short period of time. The CDC helps to address Millennium Development Goals by allowing research to be done in prevention and treatment of diseases like HIV/AIDs and Malaria. They also partner up with different companies in finding new medications for treatment methods for diseases. The Millennium Development Goal I was given was Global Partnership for Development. Many people in low and middle income countries face high pharmaceutical costs of medications. Therefore many people go without treatment even low priced generic medications may be priced substantially high for low income in developing countries. The purpose of the developing a global partnership for development is to partner up with pharmaceutical companies to provide affordable medications and make them accessible to these developing countries. (WHO, 2018) 

References

CDC Policy Process. (2015) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/policy/analysis/process/index.html

WHO. (2018). Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/millennium-development-goals-(mdgs) 

Post #2

Sheryl Russell 

Hi all,

           Health promotion, community health, and prevention are critical aspects of the healthcare industry due to their focus of keeping and maintaining a healthy population. These aspects take care of different determinants of health exceptionally social. The health promotion programs are relevant because it is directly addressing the health problems that the general public are facing. The health promotion programs are aiming to educate the community on how to select healthy behaviors and lifestyles that will reduce the risk factors of emerging communicable or non-communicable diseases (Kumar & Preetha, 2012). Community health is essential because individuals within the community participate in activities by working together to promote healthy lifestyles, which will prevent diseases. Working together will also reduce “health gaps caused by differences in income, education, race and ethnicity, location and other factors that can affect health,” (Blog Administrator, 2015, para. 2).  Lastly, disease prevention is recognizing to be worthwhile due to its cost-effective approaches to protect individuals from any health threats (Kumar & Preetha, 2012).

            National Organizations like the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plays an essential role in influencing and supporting health policy-making. Although the CDC is prohibited from any activities relating to lobbying at the federal, state, and local level, they have a significant role in identifying health issues and its solutions by collecting and analyzing data. The CDC provides health statistics/evidence to assist policymakers in determining which policy options will best address the issue in the most effective way that could help the most significant number of people (“CDC Policy Process,” 2015). CDC is considered the backbone in making policy-making and in health promotion in the United States. The Millennium Development Goals were created by the United Nations to end human suffering around the world.  The CDC is using its platform to spread awareness of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) as well as the WHO. The CDC and the WHO work together to help stop and solve global health threats before it spreads in addition to increase its awareness (Blog Administrator, 2015). 

My MDG is Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger: Millennium Development Goals or MDG’s and Healthy People 2020 are similar yet different in many ways. They are both focused on helping individual populations and have a specific time frame in mind. Healthy People has a 10 year national objective for improving the health of all Americans (Healthy People, n.d.). MDG’s focus on helping those worldwide who suffer from poverty, hunger and inequality with a 15 year agenda (United Nations, n.d.). Healthy People’s objectives are more prevention based compared to MDG’s objectives lean more towards working on fixing what damage has already been done. While both have intentions of improving the lives of people, Healthy People is trying to create a society in which all people live long, healthy, prosperous lives (Healthy People, n.d.). MDG’s intentions are striving to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, prevent deadly but treatable disease, and expand educational opportunities to all children, among other development imperatives (United Nations, n.d.). While MDG’s promote peaceful and inclusive societies, create better jobs and tackle the environmental challenges, Healthy People are identifying health improvement priorities, increasing public awareness of health, disease, and disabilities (Healthy People, n.d.). Both have the same end result of improving lives via either prevention or assistance while managing a struggle in life.

References

A Healthy Community is a Prepared Community. (2015, September 18). Retrieved fromhttps://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2015/09/a-healthy-community-is-a-prepared-community/

CDC Policy Process. (2015, May 29). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/policy/analysis/process/index.html

Healthy People 2020. (n.d.)  About Healthy People. Retrieved from: https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/About-Healthy-People

Kumar, S., & Preetha, G. (2012). Health promotion: an effective tool for global health. Indian 

journal of community medicine: official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine, 37(1), 5–12. doi:10.4103/0970-0218.94009

United Nations Millennium Development Goals. (n.d.). Retrieved fromhttps://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

United Nations. (n.d.). Sustainable development goals. Retrieved from:https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/#

** My post for reference **

Hello everyone,

Health promotion, community health, and prevention are crucial elements that emphasize on keeping people healthy. Health promotion is vital because it ensures people are empowered to enhance control over their health via relevant literacy efforts. It covers various behavioral risk factors like physical inactivity, poor diet, and smoking to reduce negative health outcomes and promote healthy behaviors (WHO, 2020). Community health entails implementing certain initiatives that require community members to collectively work on improving their health outcomes and prevent the spread of diseases among them (Kreuter & Lezin, 2003). Prevention entails using various interventions to facilitate the early detection of diseases, deterrence of diseases, and minimization of the risks associated with certain diseases (WHO, 2020). The objective is to prevent diseases from manifesting in the first place, for instance, through immunization.

Organizations such as the CDC support and greatly influence policymaking through the specific tasks they carry out. For example, the CDC identifies various health problems in society and actively keeps surveillance of various diseases. Additionally, it monitors and acts on how infectious diseases are spread (CDC, n.d.). The data the CDC gathers in this regard is crucial in informing good policy formulation and implementation. Their role in health promotion is to advise people on the best practices they can engage in to prevent contracting or spreading certain diseases, for instance, using vaccines to prevent diseases. 

            Currently, the CDC is tackling Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by using its collected data to inform good health practices. By shedding light on how diseases are spread and prevented, it has enabled health promotion. For instance, it has directly aided in the reduction of child mortality rates, increased immunization rates, and effective combating of diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS (WHO, 2018). Organizations like WHO and the CDC collaborate to impact healthcare delivery and health by making recommendations to relevant stakeholders on the basis of expert advice.

Section 2

            The assigned MDG is “Ensure Environmental Sustainability.” There are four targets and indicators linked to this MDG. First, “the MDG calls for the integration of sustainable development elements into the policies of a country” while simultaneously minimizing the eradication of environmental resources (UN, 2020). Second, the MDG works to lower the loss of biodiversity. Third, the MDG aims to lower the population that lacks sustainable access to basic sanitation and drinking water (UN, 2020). Finally, the MDG aims to “enhance the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers” (UN, 2020).

            The progress made so far in attaining this MDG is impressive. For instance, ozone-depleting elements have been eliminated since “1990 and the ozone layer is likely to be in good shape in the foreseeable future” (MDG Monitor, 2016). Also, there has been a significant rise in the number of individuals with access to good drinking water (MDG Monitor, 2016). Finally, an example of a policy that supports movement toward the MDG is the “1969 The National Environmental Policy Act,” which pushes the US to create conditions where nature and humans exist in harmony (EPA, 2020). This policy supports sustainability in a way that the future generations’’ economic, environmental, and social needs can be met satisfactorily.

References

CDC. (n.d.). Centers for disease control and prevention (c). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/maso/pdf/cdcmiss.pdf

EPA. (2020). Learn about sustainability. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/sustainability/learn-about-sustainability

Kreuter, M. W., & Lezin, N. A. (2003). Community health promotion ideas that work. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

MDG Monitor. (2016). MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability. Retrieved from https://www.mdgmonitor.org/mdg-7-ensure-environmental-sustainability/

UN. (2020). Millennium development goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/sustainable-development-goals/mdg/goal-7/en/

WHO. (2018). Millennium development goals (MDGs). Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/millennium-development-goals-(mdgs)

WHO. (2020). Health promotion and disease prevention through population-based interventions, including action to address social determinants and health inequity. Retrieved from http://www.emro.who.int/about-who/public-health-functions/health-promotion-disease-prevention.html