Slide: Health Presentation Topic: Health Services and Their Activities

  • In this presentation about health services and their activities, I will explain various terms that we often hear in recent discussions about COVID-19.

    • Keywords: Health Administration, Health Services, Public Health Office, Health Center, Health Checkup, Health Consultation, Health Education, Vaccination, Health Information

    • Lastly, I will introduce the role of health administration during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with recent news.

  • First of all, let’s understand what health administration is. As the name suggests, it refers to the activities carried out by the government to protect public health.

  • These activities, which individuals cannot do on their own, include disease prevention and promotion of health, and are organized by the government, both at the national and local levels.

  • These activities can be classified into four categories, as shown below:

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    • The first three categories are distinguished by their target audience:
    • General health administration focuses on the health and well-being of residents.
    • (The others are explained in a similar manner, using a textbook as a reference.)
    • Another unique category is environmental administration, which refers to measures against pollution and environmental conservation.
  • In terms of actual health administration, various “health services” are provided to the public.

    • Since there are many different services, I will explain five major ones.
    • The first one is health checkups, commonly referred to as “kenken.” It provides an opportunity to have a doctor check for things that cannot be known without a medical examination, such as a comprehensive health checkup or cancer screening.
    • The second one is health consultation, where you can receive counseling from a specialized health nurse. You can discuss your health concerns, and nowadays, it can even be done remotely.
    • Health education is another service provided to promote understanding and knowledge of preventive measures and coping strategies for health issues.
    • The fourth service is vaccination, which provides opportunities for annual vaccinations against influenza and early vaccination against serious diseases such as polio and Japanese encephalitis.
    • Lastly, the fifth service is the provision of health information, which includes useful information and materials for promoting health. These are provided through the internet, television, etc. Recently, there is a lot of information related to COVID-19, such as data and preventive measures. It is important to critically evaluate not only government information but also information from private sources and actively utilize them.
    • In addition, various other services such as HIV antibody testing and prevention of lifestyle-related diseases are also provided. If you are interested, I recommend visiting the public health office’s website to see what services are available.
    • (Returning to the slide)
    • These services are provided by different branches of health administration. For example, regarding health checkups, those conducted at hospitals fall under general health administration, while those conducted at schools are part of school health administration.
    • In this way, various information and opportunities are provided as “health services.”
  • Now, let me explain how these various services are implemented.

    • There are mainly two main facilities: public health offices and health centers.
      • Public health offices serve as the base for the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and they have various professionals such as doctors, dentists, health nurses, and nutritionists.
        • They are responsible for disease prevention, information gathering, and inspection of restaurants, among other tasks.
      • There are also health centers established in each city and town, which- We provide more familiar services such as lectures on preventing lifestyle-related diseases and parenting exchange meetings.
  • These two may seem similar, but there is a difference: while health centers provide more familiar health services, health departments provide comprehensive and specialized services.

  • In addition, these insurance administrations are naturally helpful even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • https://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sougou/202012/0013933559.shtml

    • This news is an article from the Kobe Shimbun about health departments raising concerns during the third wave of COVID-19.
    • Health departments prevent the spread of infection through “epidemiological investigations” to track the movement of the virus.
    • I quoted a relevant part that connects to the previous content.