Some of the key elements needed in the compilation of health related efforts include-health education, physical education, health y environment, psychological services, social services, nutrition services, staff health promotion, community involvement, counseling, and family involvement.
Different agencies have different programmes which aim at enhancing the quality of health services in the US. In all ministries or departments policies related to the formulation of health related course of actions are undertaken. The US Department of Health and Human Sciences have initiated a program called Medicare Open Enrolment Season where people with Medicare plans would pick the various health plans which are suited for them. The plans are supposed to insure them against health hazards. Each and every citizen is entitled to Medicare policies. The enrollment is open to all and the department is stressing for a great number of Americans to subscribe.
The program also has come up with Medical Assistance policy where the elderly are being taken care of. The vulnerable population will also benefit from these plans. The Minnesota Diabetes Prevention Project, which is under the department of health have enable the diabetes s patients to get access to high quality health services. The Million Hearts initiative has also reached the enter population suffering from heart related disorders to access quality health care (Turncock, 2011).
All departments must ensure that at east on of their agencies are dealing with policies of health promotion. Children and Family services department have ensured that children are protected against any mistreatment, that they should be cared and loved. It also regulates care providers, supervisors and helps women, infant and children get quality health care. The department ensures that children who have been abandoned are protected and provided with quality health care. It also ensures that children should be given a time-limited permanency plan.
The department of Consumer Product and Safety is one of the departments which is aggressive in their campaign to ensure that companies produce products which are healthy .It thrives to protect citizens against risks of injuries related with consumer products.lt ensures that all products manufactured or produced by companies comply with the required health standards. Under this department, agencies like Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fire Arms and Explosives are housed. Under this agency, the CPSC department has fought against sellers of chemicals which are used in manufacturing fireworks. This mission is fulfilled by removing all poisonous consumer products and studying possible health hazards associated with the products. This department also operates National Electronic Surveillance System (NEISS) which carries out the studies surveillance on products and their risks on consumers. The department have also issued a ban on phthalates in toys, and ensured that testing and certification of all products be made mandatory.
Veteran’s affair, Rehabilitations services, Nuclear Safety, Department of Treasury, Department of Interior, Department of Urban Housing, United Way of America, Professional regulation Agency, and State Fire Marshal somehow do not contribute much to the enhancement of health of health policies in the US. These associations or departments basically involve the issues of social wellbeing and protecting citizens against perils like fire and nuclear disasters. What is important however is the fact that the citizens’ concern of possible fire outbreaks will be curbed by the fire marshals. Any issue dealing with radioactive wastes will be handled by the nuclear safety.
The most important agencies which I would include when quantifying the scope of heath related prevention activities include-Department of Health and Human sciences, Department of Education, Environmental protection Agency, Children and Family Services, Health care costs Containment Agency, Health Planning board and Agency and several others. These departments act directly in improving the health standards of the American population.
The department of public health in US I s a combination of many forces and joined efforts of the various departments listed, but there are departments which directly affect health policies. The US constitution had no plan to deal directly with health, and for that matter legalized the formation of various departments which in a way, deal directly with health issues (Turncock, 2011). The State has authority to therefore create the subunits which provide various health services to residents in a particular area of jurisdiction. That is why under each department, for example the department of Health and Human Services has various agencies distributed in every state, city, county and townships to ensure that health policies benefit every citizen. The powers delegated to the departments I have listed to be actively involved in the provision of health related services are made by the state legislature. Though the city health departments were formed prior to the establishment of their state agencies, states have freedom to use the county form in subdividing the state (Skolnik, 2008).
The Public Health Sector plays the major role of health policy formulation in each state. Although recently there have been issues affecting the departmental structure of PHS, and its eventual placement in the Department of Human and Health Sciences, the overall restructuring was completed in 1996. In the restructuring, the chain of authority of the Assistant Secretary of Health over various agencies served by PHS was abolished, and the assistants now reporting to the Department Of Human and Health Sciences. Under this department, there are main agencies like- Health Resource and Services Administration, CDC, National Institute of Health, Food Drug Administration, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. This agency ensures that health policies are effectively implemented and that other agencies are made active in health service delivery (Turncock, 2011).
Beyond the DHHS, the responsibilities of health have been assigned to agencies or departments like Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Homeland Security, Defense, Veteran Affairs (though not active, and I removed it from the list), Transportation Department, Agriculture, Education, just to name but a few. The importance of these and other agencies should be ever underestimated in terms of level and size of the resources devoted to them in order to effectively implement health policies (Skolnik, 2008).
References
Skolnik, L. (2008). Essentials of global health. New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Turncock, B. (2011). Essentials of Public Health. New York: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
