What Is Community Health And What Are Its Varied Aspects?

Health efforts take shape faster when we apply them to the mass such as community health. In recent decades, the importance of this aspect has emerged considerably. From international organizations like UNESCO to non-profit organizations, we can see thorough efforts in this direction all across the world.

However, there are still many people who are not even aware of the concept of community health and its facets. This blog is dedicated to delivering the same concept in a simple manner.

What is community health?

Community health focuses on the mental and physical well-being of a community living in a particular region. It is a section of public health that aims to support community members to work on preventive measures against the spread of infectious diseases. Great importance is of the literacy about varied diseases and their available solutions. It also delivers the right medical aid to a community in need of health support due to ignorance. It also aims to help those who are in isolation away from mainstream development.

Why is community health important?

It is helpful for a specific community under focus and for some reasons that apply to a bigger picture in a country. Here are several reasons that justify the significance of community health. You can realize that the points below relate to all humans as we all belong to the same species.

• Educates about health concerns – It is perhaps the essential concern of community health. The reason is that majorly those communities get under scrutiny according to this concept that lives in ignorance. The people in it usually do not know even the basic things about the health prevention measures. The organizations help them get an understanding of health-related issues and preventive measures. They also aim to develop the proper aim towards the issues and avoid a careless attitude. 
• Provides access to health facilities – People and organizations in the effort to help communities also ensure health facilities. It is another big aim. Just imagine a community living in remote areas in the wild locations of a country. Can they get immediate help in case of an emergency? No, certainly not. Community health workers carry the necessary health facilities. A recent example is the delivery of covid-19 vaccines to remote areas. Also, they inform the people in the rural areas about financial options in case of a medical emergency. The workers were informed about the possibilities available medical loans online on instant approval in Ireland that can be obtained even from a rural area. 
• Minimizes the cost of health care facilities – With the help of advanced medical facilities such as telemedicine, community health works to reduce costs. It works to reduce the number of visits to the health centres with timely support in case of a health issue. Before a condition gets severe, the community members get timely medication and consultation. It helps create a real difference in their circumstances.

How is community health different from public health?

It is not surprising that many people consider community health and public health as similar things. After all, both talks about people, but there is a difference between these two. The difference here is about the significant points of dissimilarities because you can also find a big similarity between the two. Both work for the exact cause that is a healthy world.

  Community health  

• Community health works at a smaller scale only for a particular community as a section of public health.
• Community health workers work in the local areas such as local hospitals, health centres etc., under the local administration.
• Community health policies are always affected by the public health policies of a country, as the latter is the policymaker.

Public health

• Public health works for a huge mass, and that also includes working for the communities. It has to take care of the international concerns on health.
• Public health serves a bigger size of the mass. It is as big as a nation as it is about the public. The large scale includes a bigger scale of responsibilities.
• Public health workers work directly under the central administration or government. They work in laboratories and with state health departments.

What can be the drawbacks of avoiding community health?

Communities make the society, which is why it can never be wise to avoid the aspects of community health. It may have some immediate and long-term effects on the well-being of people’s mental and physical health.

Unhealthy communities may have to struggle with chronic health issues such as – heart diseases, cancer, diabetes etc. This may have a long-term impact on the coming generations if not treated at the right time.

Communities with health issues can never contribute to the development of a country and, in turn, the world. Today, we live in a global village. It has become essential to take care of each other because we all work together.

Life expectancy reduces considerable if we forget to work on human communities that are important for us all. The world has struggled a lot with low life expectancy issues, a lot in part. Now we have advanced medical facilities, and we should exploit them.

Infectious diseases can spread at a faster pace due to the communities that do not get access to necessary health caser facilities. Didn’t we see in recent days how covid-19 grabbed many lives? We all felt the need to provide the required vaccine and medication to every single person to prevent the spread.

Conclusion

We live in a world where humans have to work for mutual concerns for safe survival. Community health works on those concerns appropriately. It understands that to serve a bigger mass, we have to serve the smaller units of society. Community health is a vital part of human society, and we cannot afford to avoid it at any cost.

If we want to grow and develop globally and nationally, we have to work on mutual health concerns. There is already so much going on in this field, and all countries are working in this direction. It essential is to understand the importance of community health and speed up the efforts for a healthier planet.