Improving the Health of Populations: The Core Public Health Functions in Canada (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781550599787)

Improving Outcomes Through Public Health Action

Public health strives to improve the health of populations. How does it go about that? The answer lies in the core functions of public health and how they get traction in the real world.

This book guides students and emerging public health practitioners through Canada's breakdown of core functions in the real world:

• Population health assessment
• Population health surveillance
• Health protection
• Health promotion
• Disease and injury prevention and control
• Emergency preparedness and response

Traction in the real world comes from identifying actions that may work and vigilant attention to what actually works. It involves rounds of problem-solving that cycle through understanding, planning, implementing, and measuring--followed by more rounds of problem-solving based on lessons learned. It requires an open mind that questions assumptions as data become available and as circumstances change.

Improving the health of populations is always both work and work in progress.

Key features include:

• Scenarios on problem-solving in public health practice
• Concise chapters that deliver a broad perspective and specific real-world examples
• Focus questions at the end of each chapter to apply key concepts
• Further reading recommendations to guide deeper learning