With an emphasis on equity, accessibility and providing everyone with a high quality of life, public health serves a critical role in today’s modern and complex world. Public health officials rely on scientific, evidence-based strategies to ensure that specific populations receive the information and health services that they need to live full and productive lives.
Understanding the three core functions of public health is essential, particularly if you intend to pursue a career in this field.
What Are the Core Functions of Public Health?
Identified by the Institute of Medicine, or IOM, in 1988, the core functions of public health are assessment, policy development and assurance. These three functions work together to allow public health officials to take a comprehensive approach to public health, ensuring that populations of all sizes and demographics have access to the care they need to live healthy and fulfilling lives.
According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, there are ten public health care services included within the three core functions of public health.
Assessment
To provide a specific community or population with the public health services it needs, public health officials must assess and analyze the community to provide a strategic and personalized plan of action. As the first core function of public health, assessment requires public health officials to collect, analyze and interpret data from the community.
In the digital age, data collection has never been easier, and the high-quality data that is available can provide public health professionals with detailed insight into the current state of the community and the needs of its population. Proper assessment is crucial to identifying the needs and priorities of the community.
Policy Development
Once assessment has taken place, public health officials must begin to take action. In some cases, this means offering additional services, but often, it requires public health professionals to focus on policy development. Policy development is one of the core functions of public health, and it requires professionals to collect scientific evidence as well as community input to advocate for policies and interventions that promote health and prevent disease. Policy development can be a lengthy process, and it requires effective collaboration between public health officials, community stakeholders and policy developers, highlighting the importance of developing strong interpersonal skills if you plan to pursue a career in public health.
Assurance
Once expert assessment and effective policy development have taken place, public health officials must focus on assurance. Assurance is the final core function of public health, and it requires public health officials to ensure that the right services are available and accessible to a specific population. In addition to developing and implementing strategic public health plans that improve health services for a community, public health officials also must complete ongoing monitoring and evaluation to verify that these services remain effective over time. In many cases, the types of services available will have to be adapted to continue meeting the changing and growing needs of the population within a community.
Assessment: Identifying and Understanding Community Health Needs
As a core function of public health, assessment is necessary to adequately provide a community with the specific services it needs to thrive. Public health professionals must be familiar with the best assessment methods and technological tools, allowing them to gather and analyze health data within a specific community.
These are the core components of assessment within the field of public health:
Data Collection and Surveillance
Effective data collection and surveillance is required to adequately understand the current health status of a community and its specific needs. Public health professionals must collect data on health behaviors, disease prevalence and environmental factors by using data collection tools such as surveys, surveillance systems and other methods.
Two important tools for assessment include community health assessments and community health improvement plans. A community health assessment, or CHA, requires systematic data collection and analysis, allowing public health professionals to better understand the needs of a community. A community health improvement plan, or CHIP, is a strategic plan that is developed based on the results of the CHA and is designed to bolster the health and well-being of all members of a community population.
Data Analysis and Interpretation
At its core, public health is a scientific field. Public health professionals cannot begin to serve a community until they have an accurate understanding of the true needs of the community, and to develop that understanding, they must have scientific data and evidence. Biostatistical and epidemiological methods are used to analyze and interpret health data, allowing public health professionals to identify current health trends in the community, risk factors faced by the population and health disparities that exist.
Community Health Needs Assessments
Once data has been collected and public health professionals have an in-depth understanding of the current state of the community, they can begin assessing the specific needs of that population. Within any given population, the health needs and priorities will be different, and may be influenced by socioeconomic, environmental, cultural and religious factors. Public health professionals must be able to consider all of the factors that may impact the health needs of a community to accurately assess the community’s needs and priorities.
Policy Development: Creating Solutions to Address Health Challenges
Within the field of public health, policy development is one of the most critical core functions. Public health professionals need to do more than just understand the needs of a community. They must be able to advocate on behalf of the community, ensuring that policies are in place that will benefit the population both in the short- and long-term. Policy development relies heavily on having access to accurate scientific evidence as well as community input, and public health professionals must be able to use both evidence and information to create effective public health policies and interventions.
Evidence-Based Policy Making
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states that policy development in public health refers to the advancement and implementation of public health laws that will benefit the entire population of a specific community. To develop and implement actionable and effective policies, public health officials must prioritize evidence-based policy making. They need to be able to collect scientific evidence from a community to collaborate with community stakeholders and policymakers. This ultimately allows all parties to make informed decisions as they develop laws, regulations, programming and interventions.
Community Engagement and Participation
One of the easiest mistakes for public health professionals to make is to join a community population and begin assessing the needs of the community without involving residents and community stakeholders. Community engagement and participation is crucial to the policy development process, as these are the people who will be most impacted by the policies. By involving community members in the process, public health professionals can prove that they are truly invested in the community and that they genuinely want to meet the needs of that population. Community involvement also ensures that all policies are culturally relevant and responsive to the needs of the community.
Advocacy and Health Promotion
Through the policy development process, public health professionals have the opportunity to raise awareness about the needs of a community and advocate for the types of services that the community requires to thrive. Advocacy and health promotion can help mobilize support for policy change, particularly when anecdotal evidence is available that can help policy makers truly connect with the experiences, challenges and desires of a particular population.
Assurance: Ensuring Access to Essential Public Health Services
Assurance may be presented as the final core function of public health, but it’s perhaps the most vital and rewarding function. Assurance emphasizes the role that public health professionals play in guaranteeing that everyone within a population has access to the resources and services they need to live a healthy, fulfilling and productive life. Public health professionals often offer a wide range of public health services to a particular population in hopes of meeting the physical and emotional needs of community members of all ages and abilities.
Providing Essential Public Health Services
The ten essential public health services are:
- Assessing and monitoring the health of a population.
- Investigating the causes of public health hazards in a community.
- Communicating with the public to keep them informed and educated.
- Mobilizing communities and establishing partnerships to improve services.
- Advocating for improved policies and laws.
- Utilizing regulatory actions when needed.
- Ensuring equitable access for all members of a community.
- Developing a diverse and well-trained public health workforce.
- Improving offerings through ongoing evaluation and program development.
- Strengthening infrastructure for public health.
Within these essential services, public health professionals may implement a variety of programming based on the needs of their community, such as immunization campaigns, disease screening, health education and environmental protection efforts.
Monitoring and Evaluating Program Effectiveness
Implementing public health programs is not enough. Public health professionals must continue to conduct ongoing monitoring and evaluation to verify that all programs are achieving their targets and meeting the needs of the community. Most programs have short-term benchmarks as well as long-term goals, allowing public health professionals to evaluate the success of the program and adapt accordingly, if necessary. Ultimately, all programs should have a positive impact on the community, and if they are not meeting those targets, they should be changed.
Addressing Health Disparities and Inequities
The assurance function is critical to addressing health disparities and inequities that can exist within a community. Through assurance efforts, public health professionals can work to provide all members of the community with the quality healthcare services that they need to live healthy and fulfilling lives. The goal of public health programming is to ensure that all people have access to public health services, regardless of their socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, religion or other factors. When assurance efforts meet the needs of everyone in a community, public health programming is incredibly effective.
Learn More About the Core Functions of Public Health at Marymount University
At Marymount University, we offer a Master of Science in Public Health and Promotion degree that allows students to develop an expert understanding of the three core functions of public health all while honing the practical and technical skills needed to thrive in this dynamic field. Our curriculum focuses on behaviors, systems, environments and policies, allowing graduates to learn how to improve the lives of those who live in the communities they serve.
Request more information about our undergraduate and graduate degree programs today.
Sources
https://marymount.edu/academics/health-sciences/ms-in-public-health-education-and-promotion/
https://www.apha.org/what-is-public-health
http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/qiap/docs/CoreFunctions.pdf
https://www.cdc.gov/policy/paeo/process/docs/policydefinition.pdf
https://www.apha.org/what-is-public-health/10-essential-public-health-services
