My Healthy People 2020 Agenda

Quality and health of life depend on various factors and systems, mostly on well-functioning health and medical care system. However, making developments within existing systems, such as improving policies and programs effectively enhances the health of many individuals in the community. This why my Healthy People 2020 agenda will focus mainly on strategies for improving public health by educating the community on various diseases and determining important programs that can be implemented to improve public health. Prybil et al., (2014) points out that for the community to perform well in the health sector, its members must change aspects of the social, physical, political and organizational environments. Changes may involve developing policies, programs, and practices, changing aspects of the organizational and physical infrastructure and changing community beliefs, attitude, or social norms. In situations where community promotions activities are developed by organizations or public health departments, organizers have the task of engaging the community. The vision of healthy individuals in health communities is attainable only if the community, in its full social, economic and cultural diversity, is an official partner in developing the conditions of health (Bellamy, Bolin & Gamm, 2011).

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My top ten most important Public Health Objectives

My first objective is to promote the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including harmful alcohol use as well as narcotic drug abuse. I chose this objective due to the current which indicates that most youth in the society indulge in drug abuse which deteriorates their health. Drugs such as cocaine and heroin can result in mental diseases as well as other systemic diseases such as cardiac failure. Therefore, urgent interventions such as educating the youth on the consequences of substance abuse and creating rehabilitation and recreational centers for drug addicts.

My other goal will be to support research and development of medicines and vaccines for both communicable and non-communicable diseases that affect. I opted for this goal because I believe research is an important venture in clinical practice since it results in development of more effective drugs and vaccines which improve patient outcomes once administered.

I would also like to see a significant reduction in the number of illnesses and deaths incurred from hazardous chemicals or from polluted water, soil or air. Pollution stands out as one of the major risk factors towards existence of human beings on earth this is what made me choose this goal.

My plan will also be geared towards substantively reducing the number of deaths and injuries incurred through road accidents. Road accidents claim several lives annually, and therefore, it is noble for healthcare reformers and policy makers should focus on designing reforms aimed at reducing incidents of road carnage.

Another important objective that my agenda will concentrate on is to ensure that people have adequate access to reproductive and sexual health services such as family planning. I chose this objective because I believe that provision of comprehensive reproductive and sexual knowledge is one of the ways of ensuring people have a high life expectancy.

Increasing health financing, training, and recruitment and retention of healthcare workers is also a vital goal that my agenda will strive to achieve. Andersen, Davidson & Baumeister, (2013) posit that for a country to have quality care and record low mortality rates, its citizens should have access to affordable care and be attended to by qualified, adequate practitioners. This is what made me choose this objective.

Strengthening the capacity of the public to identify early health care warnings and empowering them with risk reduction and management procedures is an essential pillar towards having healthy people is an objective that I find to be equally important. It has always been my belief that improved public health should start with individuals. This goal will be therefore be driven towards enlightening the general public on common diseases and disasters and equipping them with necessary skills on how to avoid or manage the events.

My agenda will also be driven towards reducing the rate of maternal health deaths from 216 to less than 70 deaths for every 100, 000 births (Liu et al., 2015). A report by Alkema et al., (2016) outlines that one of the biggest triumphs in public health is the significant decrease that has been recorded in recent years. I therefore believe this is an important endeavor whose course should be followed and maintained.

The agenda will also strive to put an end to epidemics of sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis and reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. I found this objective to be very crucial because these diseases have resulted in an increase in morbidity and mortality hence they ought to be controlled through proper public education and provision of quality health care services.

My other goal will be to reduce premature mortality through prevention and treatment of mental health and promotion of general well-being. This is a game changer in public health in since several children die of avoidable causes such as pneumonia. This goal will put in place proper channels such as educating pregnant women about common causes of premature deaths and how they can be evaded.

References

Alkema, L., Chou, D., Hogan, D., Zhang, S., Moller, A. B., Gemmill, A., ... & Say, L. (2016). Global, regional, and national levels and trends in maternal mortality between 1990 and 2015, with scenario-based projections to 2030: a systematic analysis by the UN Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group. The Lancet, 387(10017), 462-474.

Andersen, R. M., Davidson, P. L., & Baumeister, S. E. (2013). Improving access to care. Changing the US health care system: Key issues in health services policy and management, 33-69.

Bellamy, G. R., Bolin, J. N., & Gamm, L. D. (2011). Rural Healthy People 2010, 2020, and Beyond. Family & Community Health, 34(2), 182-188. doi:10.1097/fch.0b013e31820dea1c

Liu, L., Oza, S., Hogan, D., Perin, J., Rudan, I., Lawn, J. E., ... & Black, R. E. (2015). Global, regional, and national causes of child mortality in 200013, with projections to inform post-2015 priorities: an updated systematic analysis. The Lancet, 385(9966), 430-440.

Prybil, L., Scutchfield, F. D., Killian, R., Kelly, A., Mays, G. P., Carman, A., ... & Fardo, D. W. (2014). Improving community health through hospital-public health collaboration: Insights and lessons learned from successful partnerships.