First Impressions

Hi everyone. My name is Michelle Perez and I am a senior public health and spanish major at Johns Hopkins University. This blog is an assignment for the course "Intro to Public Health." In this blog, I will tackle issues discussed weekly in class, as well as bring in my own opinions and political views. I hope this blog will tie in-class academic discussions to real issues in public health around the world.
Obviously, as a public health major, I am invested in public health issues. I will be attending medical school in the fall and feel that my public health background has made me a more well-rounded individual. Also, it is important to consider the health of the public as a whole when making individual patient-centered choices. Public health offers the unique opportunity to influence health on a population level and to work towards eliminating social injustices and health disparities.
Firstly, for those of you who are unfamiliar with public health, I'd like to explain exactly what it is. An important aspect of public health is that it is focused on the health of the population as a whole. Public health studies and initiatives are aimed at improving health at the macro level. Also, public health takes a proactive approach. Goals include preventing unhealthy conditions instead of just resolving issues after they occur. In summary, public health focuses on supporting the conditions which lead to good health on the population level.
Within public health, I find many areas very interesting. These include maternal and child health in developing nations, refugee health issues, and healthy policy issues (including issues surrounding the restructuring of the American health care system). I think that these three areas provide a good summary of the diverse array of issues public health can be used to address. The first, maternal and child health, can be seen as a fairly straightforward issue of health access and education in developing nations. The problem-solving methods employed by public health programists must focus both on developing access points, financing care, and building a structure that can be sustainable. The second issue, refugee health, combines a health problem with a political one. Refugees often suffer poor health as a result of being forced from an unstable political climate. Within public health, it is necessary to both identify the population and identify their specific health needs. Lastly, health policy issues tap the economic and political aspects of public health. In developing public health policy, experts must consider various stakeholders and attempt to make decisions that benefit the most people.
So far, class has been very interesting. The first day broke down the important parts of public health and explained each. One of the most interesting things about public health is the way natural science focused disciplines, such as epidemiology and biostatistics are blended with more social science focused disciplines such as law and politics. I also found it extremely interesting to note that public health changes in the areas of santitation, food and water quality, and urban overcrowding were the cause of the major mortality dip in the 1900s. I also enjoyed the analysis of what goes into a policy (science, culture, and politics). I think that people too often focus on only one of these and forget that policy is normally a conglomerate of these competing factors. I hope to learn more about these issues and much more throughout the course.
Thanks for reading! Until next time....