1. Discussion 1
Topic: The Professional Community
Selection: American Public Health Association (APHA)
Modupe O Sarratt
HCAD 630 HCAD 630 9040
Posted Discussion: October 04, 2016

2. Discussion 2
American Public Health Association (APHA)
I selected American Public Health Association (APHA) for my research to answer the questions
and to include information that enables me to understand the organization. I like APHA for
science, for action, and for health. The history of the American Public Health Association
(APHA) started with control of communicable disease’s progress with making the connection for
health and continuing with the educational programs for improving health, wellness, medicines,
and communities to be the champion for public health.
APHA for champions; according to the organization website, their vision for the health is for all
people and communities, “We are the only organization that influences federal policy, has a 140-
plus year perspective and brings together members from all fields of health” to invite people to
become a member to donate to their course. The organization produce health newsletter to
symbolize having a clear vision for health that build on evidence and science to achieve and
advance health. I liked the organization because I see the potential to be effective with overall
health for the wellness of a nation. First, what role did American Public Health Association
(APHA) play in public health, what mechanisms do they use and why I joined the organization?
What role did APHA play in public health?
The organizational of the public health play the roles of generation for creating healthy
communities by promoting hygiene and protecting the health of people and the communities
where they live, learn, work and play. The APHA is special because they reach out to the people
and the communities to see how they can be of help for their health to prevent injury. They go
out of their ways to educate the people about health and safety for promoting wellness.
Their mechanism for preventing illness is by education and by intervention. Intervention such as
free vaccines to immunize the children from childhood diseases, provide flu shots and
pneumonia vaccines to vulnerable adults and communities, they encourage communities to
report the communicable disease to prevent the spreading of contagious diseases. Education
includes informing the people about the risks of alcohol and tobacco. Their role includes setting
safety standards to protect workers and develops school nutrition programs to ensure kids have
access to healthy food. They also involve in shaping the laws that promote seatbelt and giving
scientifically based advice to help with providing solutions to problems (APHA, 2016). Overall,
according to APHA website, the organization helps public health to prevent endemic, reduce
disease mortality, saves money, improves the quality of lives, helps the children to thrive and
reduces human suffering.
I joined the organization because my beliefs include prevention. I actually cherished the common
saying for “preventing an illness is better than curing a sickness” to think never to allow the bad
things to happen in the first place is the best defense. There is no harm in preventing an illness
besides to avoid a sickness. I think public health is the opposite of practicing medicine. I prefer
not to get sick to cherish preventing anything that will make me sick such as if washing my hand
to eliminate some germs is a good idea. Also, I joined the organization for impacting knowledge
for my beliefs that “knowledge is power” if we know what can make us sick I’m sure we would
try to avoid getting sick.

3. Discussion 3
Although I believe practicing medicine is trial and error for what we have no knowledge.
Practicing medicine is figuring out what would help to reduce mortality of a disease because
practicing medicine is after the fact that we have a disease that is making us sicker and practicing
of medicine is providing treatment to stop the sickness or minimize the effect of a sickness for a
scar. The good news is public health work with medical practice to eradicate some diseases.
Why did you select this article?
I selected the media files article fact sheet from APHA to learn about Public Health Funding for
CDC and HRSA. The article is very important for identifying the role of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) and the role of the Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA). This is the link to the journal article phpr-overview-fact-sheet-2016.pdf
What impact has it had or might it have?
The article provides in-depth information about Public Health, CDC, HRSA and the role that
each organization play to prevent diseases, to improve individual health, and to build healthy
communities.
CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
CDC is the source for translating research finding into effective intervention effort for
emergency, prevention and safety, and is the key source of funding for many states and local
programs that improve the health of communities as well as the overall health of the country.
The Impact of CDC on Public Health
CDC is the office of public health preparedness aimed for activities in response to emergencies
and preparing the communities for disease outbreaks and natural disasters. The roles of CDC
include providing “scientific and logistic expertise for deploying personnel and critical medical
assets to the site of an emergency to coordinate activities across state, local, tribal, territorial,
national and international public health partners to make significant contributions” for
emergency readiness to respond to save life and provide shelter (CDC, 2016). The goal of CDC
is about preparing to live to save others with day-to-day activities that influence the public
health. According to CDC, the public health system includes
 Public health agencies at state and local levels
 Healthcare providers
 Public safety agencies
 Human service and charity organizations
 Education and youth development organizations
 Recreation and arts-related organizations
 Economic and philanthropic organizations
 Environmental agencies and organizations

4. Discussion 4
CDC chart illustrates the 10 essential public health systems
The 10 Essential Public Health Services
Figure 2: The 10 Essential Public Health Services
The 10 Essential Public Health Services describe the public health activities that all communities
should undertake and serve as the framework for the NPHPS instruments. Public health systems
should
1. Monitor health status to identify and solve community health problems.
2. Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community.
3. Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues.
4. Mobilize community partnerships and action to identify and solve health problems.
5. Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts.
6. Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety.
7. Link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health care when
otherwise unavailable.
8. Assure competent public and personal health care workforce.
9. Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health
services.
10. Research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems.
HRSA: Health Resources Service Administration
HRSA is the health workforce for innovative programs use to deliver quality health services to
people who live in medically underserved areas. HRSA helps to build healthy communities.
The impact of HRSA on Public Health
HRSA is the communities of practice to improve public health by providing the monasteries like
mother Theresa humanity services to “achieving health equity and improving health outcome
with links Primary Care and Public Health to improve individual health outcomes and the overall

5. Discussion 5
community health”. According to HRSA (2016) website; their five priorities include (1) health
equity, (2) primary care and public health, (3) research, evaluation, and data, (4) workforce
empowerment, and (5) collaboration of programs to achieve public health goals. The
organization goals are to advance health equity by means of eliminating disparities related to
social position such poverty, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, education, or other
factors to improving health outcomes for equal opportunity is access to health. (HRSA, 2016)
Summary
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are the hubs for public health readiness to respond to
health threats to the public to save lives at home, in a community or at abroad by providing
funding. CDC also regulates biological agents and toxin to protect health and safety of the
American people by offering technical assistance for monitoring and coordinating activities for
health emergency, disease outbreaks and natural disasters.
Health Resource and Service Administration focuses on strategies for reducing health disparities
to assess community health status of different groups of people, especially the minorities for
access to care and to provide the method of research for tracking rates of illness and chronic
conditions to determine the appropriate program for an intervention. For example, telemedicine
is a health program to underserved communities for long distance and without medical facility to
use the internet to access for care. Other strategies is facilitating of programs such as telehealth
for online evaluation of conditions to make a recommendation for medical intervention.
Public health focuses on safeguarding and improving the physical, mental, and social well-being
of the community through promotion of healthy lifestyles, research for preventing injury and
detection for control of infectious disease. Public health is the overall connection of art and
science of protecting and improving health of families and communities or in abroad.
From a personal perspective or viewpoint, Public Health is best define as actions that society
takes collectively to ensure that the conditions in which people live can be healthy due to
personal health activities that include eating and drinking wisely, wearing a safety belt, visiting a
physician for medical checkups and communicating about wellness within the community.

6. Discussion 6
References
APHA. (2016). American Public Health Association for Science, For action, For. Health.
Retrieved from http://www.apha.org/
CDC. (2016). Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response. Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/overview/ourrole.htm
CDC. (2016). Public Health System and the 10 Essential Public Health Services. Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/nphpsp/essentialServices.html
HRSA. (2016). Public Health Five Priorities. Retrieved from
http://www.hrsa.gov/publichealth/index.html
Public Health Fact Sheet. (2016). CDC and HRSA Fact Sheet (2016) Retrieved from
https://www.apha.org/publications-and-periodicals/fact-sheets
Links to the selected journals
 CDC-Public Health System.pdf(936.74 KB)
 Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response.pdf(320.85 KB)