Promoting and Protecting Public Health

– Evaluate the effectiveness of promoting and protecting public health . Lung Cancer [pic] One of the campaigns is lung cancer campaign ‘got a cough, get a check! ’ it shows the symptoms of lung cancer, saying that if you are coughing a lot or if you cough up blood, neck pain and shortness of breath to see your doctor. This will mean that people can be checked earlier than leaving it for it to just get worse.

Lung cancer is the most common cause of death ‘’it is known that smokers and ex-smokers have a particularly high risk of developing the disease: although most lung cancers are related to smoking, 10% of people with lung cancer have never smoked. ’’ (http://lungcancercampaign. org/patient-information/). Which links to the smoking campaigns, in 2013 the department of health launches new anti-smoking campaign which highlights cancer risks. ‘’ The campaign has been developed on the back of research which shoes that more than a third of smokers still believe that the health risks associated with smoking are “greatly exaggerated”. ’ (http://www. guardian. co. uk/media/2012/dec/28/new-year-anti-smoking-campaign-cancer-risks). This campaign will be advertised on the TV and also on billboards; I think that this campaign unlike other will be a lot more effective as the images I feel are disturbing. The campaign advert shows that when you smoke the chemicals you inhale cause mutations in your body, a mutation are how cancer starts. Every 15 cigarettes you smoke will cause a mutation. If you could see the damage you’d stop! [pic]

After the advert it shows you were to go to quit smoking, by getting help and get the quit packages. Which is free from the NHS (one of the socio economic factors), the national no smoking day proves that ‘’helping over 1. 5 million smokers quit for good since 1984. And around three quarters of a million people make a quit attempt each No Smoking Day’’(http://www. nosmokingday. org. uk). Which shows that smoking campaigns are working as more people are trying to quit and lot of them are succeeding.

Quitting smoking will be a big help on the amount of people who are being diagnosed with lung cancer. Another lung cancer campaign is the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, they have a website which shows people about lung cancer and then how to get in contact for help; they have supporting group to find out how to cope and understanding lung cancer will help the individual find what they need. They have many fundraising and events to help raise money for treatments and to make more campaigns on risks of lung cancer and symptoms of lung cancer.

The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation have many campaigns, one of them being supporting the plain packs on cigarettes as ‘’every year, another 340 000 children in the UK are tempted to try smoking’’ (http://www. roycastle. org/news-and-campaigning). [pic] ‘November is lung cancer awareness month’ and ‘Women against lung cancer’ is some of the campaigns that they run. They also have a campaign aimed at young people who smoke which is known as the Anti-Tobacco Youth Campaign, it is a campaign to make younger people stop smoking at a younger age as the longer a person smokes the higher the risk of cancer is.

It aims at making youngsters feel strong enough not be influenced to smoke by social factors. This foundation also wrote to the prime minister, to explain the statistics that they have found about the amount of people dying each year due to lung cancer and smoking. It also says what they want the government to take action on – continue to support work raising awareness of lung cancer signs and symptoms, protect lung cancer clinical nurse specialist posts, ensure continuation of national lung cancer audit and continue to support investment in stop smoking service provision.

This is the link to the letter they send to the prime minister —- http://www. roycastle. org/news-and-campaigning/Campaigns/Open-Letter-to-the-Prime-Minister. [pic] The graph above shows that the amount of deaths from lung cancer related to smoking is dropping after in 1964 it was at its highest rates, but the rate for women dying from smoking related deaths/lung cancer is increasing whereas for men it is decreasing. For lung cancer I feel like there is a lot of campaigns that are helping to minimise cancer for example the national none smoking day ‘’ helping over 1. million smokers quit for good since 1984. And around three quarters of a million people make a quit attempt each No Smoking Day’’. (http://www. nosmokingday. org. uk/). However although all these campaigns and advertising are helping, what happens if people don’t watch the TV much as they are working most of the day then have children, they don’t pay attention to the adverts and also don’t have time to go to different events like the national no smoking day holds.

Therefore I think for the future the government should have more advertising on the risks of smoking around the public for example on the windows of the local shops, so when people go in to buy their packs of cigarettes they notice the warning. Also the price of cigarettes should continue to go up, with less jobs these days if people are having to pull out more and more money they may realise cigarettes are too much and they need to spend the money on supporting their family. Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Unfortunately there are not many campaigns for sexually transmitted diseases; one of the most popular ones that people know about is about chlamydia. The chlamydia campaign is the chlamydia screening campaign; it is encouraging people the age of 16-24 to get tested for chlamydia as there are no obvious symptoms for this STI. [pic] There is also a TV advert, from the health protection agency saying that how many people do you need to sleep with before you get chlamydia. I think this campaign is affective as it is confidential, all you need to do it test a number to get a test send out then you post it in – no one needs to know hat you have taken one. Because it is confidential I think more and more people will feel confident to take the test after having sex with someone. However, because this is only for 16-24 year olds this is the bad point that if you are over 24 then you cannot take the test? So what happens if someone is over the age of 24 and think they have chlamydia, how do they get tested and treated? And the age of woman who are catching STIs are rising as there are more divorces these days, so this means they are finding more sexual partners. pic] ‘’Data from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) indicates a worrying increase in sexually transmitted infections with sexual health clinics reporting 482,700 new cases in 2009, which is an increase of around 12,000 on the previous year’’ (http://www. guardian. co. uk/society/2010/aug/25/sexually-transmitted-infections-hit-record-high). The government issuing C cards which is free condoms to attempt to address STI’s. However there are competencies around this, in this case it is called Gillick competencies i. e. he person needs to be assessed as capable and knowledgeable etc. Gillick competence is a term from the law to indicate if a child under the age of 16 is able to consent their own medical treatment. Relating to contraception the Gillick came up with the decision that the prescription of contraception was a matter for the doctor’s discretion, and that they could be prescribed to under sixteen’s without parental consent. This is good as many sixteen year olds or under who are sexually active, don’t want to inform their mam or dad that they are having sex.

So if they can go and get contraception without parental consent they it will be proven that more kids are having protected sex. [pic] The chart above shows that over the 4 years from 2006 to 2010 rates aren’t decreasing; in fact there are more people now with chlamydia. There also was a huge increase in those affected with syphilis; although it did decrease a little it isn’t totally decreased. This makes me believe that what the government is doing to prevent STIS and make more people have safe sex isn’t working. They need a different or bigger approach to it!

There aren’t enough campaigns on sexually transmitted infections the only one that people know of is the one on chlamydia, which is not linking with gonorrhoea as the test now covers both. I think that the government need to advertise more campaigns on the TV, as there isn’t many that is scaring people of what sleeping with many sexual partners is doing to them. I think it should be more disturbing, not just the symptoms advertised there should be adverts that show what it is doing to the body especially in the long run if the infection is not treated. Reference ttp://lungcancercampaign. org/patient-information/ (accessed 8. 3. 13) http://www. guardian. co. uk/media/2012/dec/28/new-year-anti-smoking-campaign-cancer-risks (accessed 8. 3. 13) http://www. nosmokingday. org. uk (accessed 8. 3. 13) http://www. roycastle. org/news-and-campaigning (accessed 8. 3. 13) http://www. roycastle. org/news-and-campaigning/Campaigns/Open-Letter-to-the-Prime-Minister (accessed 8. 3. 13) http://www. guardian. co. uk/society/2010/aug/25/sexually-transmitted-infections-hit-record-high (accessed 8. 3. 13) http://www. nosmokingday. org. uk/ (accessed 27. 3. 13)