Weekly Assignments

Weekly Assignments

Reflection/Summary over Chapters 1 - 3

When we speak of "health" It can be thought of as being good health, one that does not mean being sick. According to this view, the promotion of health could be understood as an activity aimed at preventing of the disease. In fact, the efforts to prevent the disease are correctly defined as prevention. The concept of "prevention" was born in epidemiology and initiating prevention practices represented though a significant improvement over the simple concept of care. In fact, treatment is done only when it is too late and the disease has already occurred. Also in the care responsibility, it is not directly involved but that only specialists are able to cure (Bunton, Macdonald, 2002).

Prevention gives people an important part of responsibility in determining their state of health and a major factor preventing it is the responsibility of the individual and the community to conduct designed programs to prevent the disease. Over the years, the validity of the quote has been confirmed, and now we are all convinced that "prevention is better than cure". The various practices that aim to prevent the onset of the disease were classified as primary, secondary and tertiary education, according to the purposes and recipients (Bunton, Macdonald, 2002).

Primary prevention means the prevention of the occurrence of the event-level interventions in social communities and groups: training of key people, increasing their skills and enhancement of present resources. The target of these health intervention programs are healthy individuals (Bunton, Macdonald, 2002). Secondary prevention relates to the early detection of symptoms, as early detection and treatment hinder the course of a difficult situation. This implies early diagnosis and immediate intervention in crisis situations in order to prevent an aggravation and the target is the people at risk (Bunton, Macdonald, 2002).

Tertiary prevention treatment and rehabilitation measures are aimed at reducing the discomfort or disease and interventions for the social reintegration of persons. The target of Tertiary prevention treatment is people that are faced with problems (Bunton, Macdonald, 2002).

In recent years the concept of health has changed and we begin to consider health not as the absence of disease but a state of overall well-being of the person in its socio-ecological environment. To achieve the status of being an individual or group, we must be able to identify and realize aspirations, satisfy their needs, change the environment or be able to cope to them (Carl, Diane, 2010). It is no longer enough to talk about prevention; it has become a necessary evolution in the direction of health promotion and wellness. Interventions for health promotion can be of different types (Bunton, Macdonald, 2002). These might include, providing information to increase knowledge and implement a behavior change through the change of knowledge, increase in the empowerment of individual or group, and increase in the involvement of people in the design and implementation of interventions for improvement (Carl, Diane, 2010).

Among the new professions oriented toward health promotion, counseling, occupies a prominent place: one of the foundations ...