Public Health Initiatives

There is a great debate raging into whether Public Health Initiatives actually do any good at all. Over the last few years there have been initiatives into things such as the increase in STI’s and Obesity and yet both are continuing to increase beyond all control. The question needs to be asked that if they are not working then why?

With STI’s the virtually all have been on the increase for years with many people being infected with the same disease within a year of being treated for it before. This would suggest that information is not being absorbed by people even after they have got an STI. For this the solution needs to be better education at an early age and there is also evidence that a person’s self worth needs to be looked at to find reasons why people seem to ignore these public health initiatives.

With Obesity the complexity of why someone is obese also needs to be looked at. To be obsess you are clearly eating too much of the wrong things and not getting enough exercise. This problem has so many levels but a person’s self worth also plays a part with many having low self esteems that aren’t dealt with in public health initiatives. There is then the physical addiction to things such as chocolate that is another factor not to mention teaching people about the joy of exercise.

It seems that public health initiatives while well intentioned are sometimes not having the impact they should. For these initiatives to work the problem and issues need to be fully understood to be able to target the people concerned in the most effective way making sure they work first time.