Question

Give a few sentences about public health advocacy and ethics.

Answer 1

Public health advocacy :

- The term “public health advocacy” refers to educating, organizing, and mobilizing for systems change in population health.

-Current and future threats to the health of the community are identified and public health advocates work to inform, create, and influence legislation and change the environment in order to create circumstances in which optimal health is possible.

- Public health advocacy occurs through media, legislative, and grassroots efforts. Although individual health advocacy for patient and client can be practiced, it should be stressed that public health advocacy, like the core discipline of public health, is undertaken to enhance the health of communities through improved health policies and programs.

Public health ethics :

- Public health ethics involves a systematic process to clarify, prioritize and justify possible courses of public health action based on ethical principles, values and beliefs of stakeholders, and scientific and other information.

- Public health ethics can be subdivided into a field of study and a field of practice. As a field of study, public health ethics seeks to understand and clarify principles and values which guide public health actions.

- Principles and values provide a framework for decision making and a means of justifying decisions. Because public health actions are often undertaken by governments and are directed at the population level, the principles and values which guide public health can differ from those which guide actions in biology and clinical medicine (bioethics and medical ethics) which are more patient or individual-centered.