HLTH 8031 Public Health Administration and Leadership- Policy Development
- A description of the public health leadership problem and why it is a problem.
- An identification of how the problem relates to the Healthy People 2020 priority areas.
- A list of potential resources for data.
Answer
Public health care delivery revolves around improvement and protection of communities through disease prevention, policy development and education. Since public health care delivery is multifaceted, it is crucial for leaders in public health to work in collaboration and continuously appreciate the fact that there is crossover within the different domains of public health (Baum, 2016). A public health leader is expected to demonstrate excellent leadership skills in that they must be focused on bringing a positive change within a short
span of time. Leaders can successfully develop public policies that bring resolution to key challenges of public health.
A key pressing public health issue is obesity, and it is a serious concern since more than one-third of U.S. adults have obesity. The age-adjusted prevalence of obesity in the year 2013-2014 was 40.4% among women and 35% among men. On an average, $147 billion is spent every year in added medical expenses for diabetes within the country. It is expected that the number would go up to $1.24 billion until the year 2030. The country was marked to have the highest rate of obesity in the OECD countries until 2013 (Ogden et al., 2015). Obesity in the US, like many other developed countries, has drawn the attention of the concerned authorities. There is an immediate need of intervening at an early stage for combating this health condition. The factors that drive this increasing prevalence of the disease are to be well understood for coming up with suitable interventional strategies. Thre is an evident crisis in public health and has constantly been crying out for strong leadership (Ogden et al., 2014).
The chosen health issue of obesity relates to the Healthy People 2020 Priority Area of ‘Nutrition and Weight Status’. The goal is the promotion of heath through consumption of healthy diets and achievement of healthy body weights. The objectives reflect the importance of health benefits gained by healthy eating. The rationale behind this objective is that Americans are at high risk of being obese and overweight. Behaviour change is to be brought about mong the public so that the ultimate results can be achieved (Koh et al., 2014).
At present, there is a lack of leadership exercised by the public health leaders, leading to poor outcomes of the initiatives taken in this regard. The influence to drive a rapid change is missing from their end. They are failing to communicate the vision they have, and followers are not motivated to embrace the interventions being given out (Jebb, 2014). Progress is emerging in relation to reducing the burden of obesity from the communities. Healthcare leaders are left behind in developing programs that can ensure coordination and collaboration. Leaders are to become health educators so that empowering and engaging health education programs can come up. Heath support and coaching is imperative. Industry and community partnership is to be held up so that health plans create centres of excellence. Since leadership is facing a challenge to express itself at present, complete achievement of the goals of reduction of obesity prevalence is still far behind (Issel & Wells, 2017).
References
Baum, F. (2016). The new public health (No. Ed. 4). Oxford University Press.
Brownson, R. C., Baker, E. A., Deshpande, A. D., & Gillespie, K. N. (2017). Evidence-based public health. Oxford University Press.
Cunningham, S. A., Kramer, M. R., & Narayan, K. V. (2014). Incidence of childhood obesity in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 370(5), 403-411.
Flegal, K. M., Kruszon-Moran, D., Carroll, M. D., Fryar, C. D., & Ogden, C. L. (2016). Trends in obesity among adults in the United States, 2005 to 2014. Jama, 315(21), 2284-2291.
Issel, L. M., & Wells, R. (2017). Health program planning and evaluation. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Jebb, S. A. (2014). Government Action to Tackle Obesity. In Controversies in Obesity (pp. 17-22). Springer London.
Koh, H. K., Blakey, C. R., & Roper, A. Y. (2014). Healthy People 2020: a report card on the health of the nation. Jama, 311(24), 2475-2476.
Lovejoy, J. (2011). Five steps healthcare leaders can take to address childhood obesity. American health & drug benefits, 4(1), 50.
May, A. L., Freedman, D., Sherry, B., & Blanck, H. M. (2013). Obesity—United States, 1999–2010. MMWR Surveill Summ, 62(Suppl 3), 120-128.
Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., Fryar, C. D., & Flegal, K. M. (2015). Prevalence of obesity among adults and youth: United States, 2011-2014 (pp. 1-8). US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics.
Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., Kit, B. K., & Flegal, K. M. (2014). Prevalence of childhood and adult obesity in the United States, 2011-2012. Jama, 311(8), 806-814.
