"Because in many areas . . . education is limited and
modern facilities which simplify health promotion and
maintenance e.g. garbage disposal facilities, sewage
sytems, public water treatment, and distribution
systems are not available, it is not always easy for
indidivuals to assume responsibility for their own
health. It is the purpose of health education to give
information to the community and individual families
which explains the relationship between personal
habits and health/illness and demonstrates accessible
and culturally acceptable methods
for
altering
lifestyle in order to enhance health.
It is the
purpose of environmental health (and other preventive
health methods) to design and assist individuals to
make use of appropriate facilities
and practices in
order to implement the knowledge given them by health
educators. Likewise, community nutrition programs are
designed to demonstrate and assist people to put their
knowledge into practice."
Recently the World Health Organization has set as its target that all
people of the world would have access to better health care “by the year
2000", and it specified that the method would be through "primary health
care."
In the Marshall Islands, as in many developing countries, the health
worker at the "primary" (usually rural) level must integrate both "curative
and
preventive/promotive"
recommended here as well.
health
care
into
his
practice.
This
is
By combining the Primary Care (curative) clinical
services, and the Public Health (preventive) services under one department
this goal will be easier to accomplish.
The existing primary care workers in the M.I. at the dispensary/clinic
level are generally under-utilized (most see an average of only 3-5 patients
a day).
Due to lack of supervision, education, and material support their
ability to function as “community/family health" educators has been minimal
to non-existent.
In many developing countries of the world integration of
the "curative" and "preventive" role in one person is being utilized.
Two
factors make this integrated approach logical in the Marshall Islands - the
generally small curative work load and the impossibility of public health
personnel being able to visit the outlying islands on any regular schedule.
The following public health components will be approached from this
perspective.