Free Essay About What Is Public Health?

John Doe

A health issue in my community is alcoholism. There are risk factors that come with alcoholism but there are also certain programs within the community that try to prevent, mitigate, and resolve alcoholism issues in the community. This topic is important to Public Health because it is a leading cause of death and family dysfunction in the United States as well as the world. Alcoholism has effects that go beyond the individual and has the ability to disrupt families and communities as a whole. I selected this topic because I feel it is a preventable problem in our society and is important because it is so far reaching. There are many online resources that are available to help people and communities.
The risk factors associated with alcoholism are numerous. The physical risk factors are liver damage, pancreatitis, epilepsy, and alcoholic dementia. Furthermore, damage of the central nervous system can occur. Not only are these physical factors damaging to the individual but they cause a strain on the health care system and the taxpayer.
Psychiatric factors include problems such as dementia, social skills are lowered, and major depressive disorders can also occur. This can turn an individual into an anti-social, unproductive member of society.
Possible intervention that the community has that may alleviate the problem are prevention, education, treatment, and outright banning. Prevention and education problems on the effects of alcoholism on the individual and the community can stop many problems before they fester. These measures can be taken when the child is at a young age and early in the education system to have the most effect. Treatment is also another measure that may help but ultimately will not decrease the problem. Counselling, medication, and support groups will help with alcoholism in the community. Finally, outright banning, a more extreme measure can also help alleviate alcoholism in a community, but it may cause more problems than allowing alcohol does. This can be seen by the prohibition in the United States in the past.

References

"Diagnostic Criteria for Alcohol Abuse and Dependence - Alcohol Alert No. 30-1995." Diagnostic Criteria for Alcohol Abuse and Dependence - Alcohol Alert No. 30-1995. NIH, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2015.
"Drug Abuse Prevention." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2015.
Kahan, M. "Identifying and Managing Problem Drinkers." Canadian Family Physician. College of Family Physicians of Canada, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2015.