Public Health & Nutrition

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HISTORY OF HEALING SOCH111 ASSIGNMENT 2 PUBLIC HEALTH & NUTRITION Danielle Gardner 239134 Word Count 693 ASSIGNMENT 2 Public Health is concerned with the health of the population as a whole, preventing disease and epidemics, promoting healthy behaviours, and designing public policy so risks and priorities can be addressed in a coordinated way. The “Memorandum of Understanding; to establish a National Public Health Partnership for Australia” defines Public Health as “the organised response by society to protect and promote health, and to prevent illness, injury and disability” (National Public Health Partnership 2010). Federal, state and local governments contribute to public health initiatives. For example the ‘2007 Australian National Children's Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey’ was jointly funded by the Department of Health & Aging, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and the Australian Food and Grocery Council (Department of Health and Ageing 2013). Other entities that contribute to public health include; community centres, the business community, schools, doctors, dentists and complimentary and alternative medicine practitioners (Harding 2003). For example businesses are required to provide smoke free environments, and doctors identify when patients require referral to a nutritionist. The role of a nutritionist, as highlighted by the Nutrition Society of Australia (NSA) is to extract propagate and apply scientific knowledge drawn from the relevant sciences to promote health and prevent diet-related illness in the population (Nutrition Society of Australia 2013). As in public health, nutritionists are concerned with the prevention of disease. Lifestyle diseases such as obesity, type II diabetes and heart disease are the biggest threat to the population today. Nutritionists are a valuable resource in Public

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