[Prevention of diseases and health monitoring by the local public health services. Tasks and prospects].
For many years prevention of disease and health promotion have been central activities of the public health services in Germany. But especially within these areas of activity there have been difficulties in understanding "old"versus"new"in relation to public health. Previously it was not possible to generate common standards for the public health service for prevention, health promotion and health monitoring due to the regional diversity of legislation within the single provinces. However, these activities could demonstrate the strength of public health services in these fields. The forthcoming law on prevention provides a framework for strengthening the public health services through defining qualitative standards for eligible preventive measures and at the same time making clear the competences of public health services that should be available. Thus public health services could become one of the central players at the local level in the strengthening of prevention and health promotion in the future. The quality of planning and outcome of eligible preventive measures will strongly depend on the local health monitoring system. If the forthcoming law does not make use of the competence of public health services in identifying healthy and socially disadvantaged settings, a white-collar orientation of preventive and health promotion activities may be expected.
Szagun
B
B
Hochschule Ravenburg-Weingarten. bertram@szagun.de
Starke
D
D
D005858:Germany; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D011634:Public Health / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D015980:Public Health Practice