Chapter One Reflection/Summary

After individually reading the chapters, Jennifer, Chelsea and I briefly compared our summaries on chapter one. We did this to ensure that we all picked up on the key points in the Chapter. Chapter One starts out with a brief introduction and some important definitions. The Definitions given were for the terms Health, Community, Public Health, Public Health Systems, Community Health, and Population Health. We discussed why we thought the text gave so many definitions in the first chapter. It was decided that to understand the nature of Health and role the government and people play in health care, one must understand terms commonly used.
Following the definitions, many factors that affect the health of a community were discussed. The factors were broken down into Physical factors, Social and Cultural factors, Community Organizing, and Individual Behaviors.
The next sections are about the History of Community and Public Health. The earliest civilizations, before 500 AD, had drainage systems and practiced basic cleanliness. By the middle ages, 500-1500 AD, much culture and sanitation was lost as the church gained power. During the renaissance, 1500 -1700 AD, disease and exploration were steadily growing. By the 18th century, the industrial revolution was in full spring and many people had moved to the city from the country. This lead to much crowding and very dirty and poor living condition, which breed disease.
During this time, Dr. Jenner found a vaccine for smallpox. The bacteriological period of public health was during the 19th century.The 20th century was broken into 4 major sectors, Reform phase, the 1920's, the great depression and world war two, and the postwar years. The period of social engineering was from 1960 to 1973. Medicare and Medicaid were also created. The History was a very interesting part of the chapter. It was mentioned during reflection, that the section on history really flowed and was held the readers attention. It helped to show how recent many developments in the health field are.
Ten years into the 21st Century and we are facing a multitude of health concerns. These issues include Health Care Delivery, Environmental Problems, Lifestyle Diseases, Communicable Diseases, Alcohol and other drug abuse, and disasters. All of which are growing issues. The chapter continues to discuss what the World and the USA are doing to acheive improvements in Community Health Care. For the United States, this includes Healthy People 2020.
Our group spent some time discussing Healthy People 2010 because we were all conscious of it, but each of us also had further questions on what exactly it was. Between the three of us we came to a good understanding of what Healthy People 2020 is all about. We then discussed Bioterrorism. Bioterrorism was an issue that Jenny, Chelsea and I all brought up in our reflections because it seems as though we understand the threat as a nation, yet no one really understands how much Bioterrorism could really affect us. This lead into another point that was raised in reflection. How prepared are we as a society? If there was a major Bioterrorist attack how many people would servive? We all agreed that we could be doing more to prepare.