The overarching goals of a Population Health approach are to maintain and improve the health status of the entire population and to reduce inequities in health status in society. The Population Health approach is used in a number of well developed health systems throughout the world such as the Canadian health system.
The Population Health Approach is about:
- Planning for health and not just health services
- Equity as a strong value in the health system
- Not simply fairer access but also reducing the socio-economic gradient in health status
- Applying research evidence to improve health outcomes. This applies to planning, policy and clinical interventions
- Adopting a formal needs assessment approach to identify gaps in services and identifying the best balance of investment on the basis of anticipated outcomes and cost
- Reorientation from hospital to primary care, health promotion and self management
- Provision of services which are integrated within the health sector and with those of other sectors
- Working with other sectors to improve health
- Demonstrating a good social return for investment in health
A key role of the Population Health Directorate is the provision of knowledge, information and evidence to support corporate decision making and strategic planning in response to identified needs. Approximately 700 people are now working in Population Health.
While health status in Ireland is at an all time high with life expectancy for men at 75 years and for women at almost 81 serious inequalities remain. In addition to this, problems such as alcohol, tobacco and obesity present a major threat to future health.
How do we improve the health of the population?
- By improving outcomes of healthcare
- By influencing the wider determinants of health e.g. poverty, environmental factors. These are outside the traditional remit of the health service but should not be outside our sphere of influence.
The Directorate is supporting the reorganisation of service delivery so that its impact on health and social wellbeing will be increased.
Last updated on: 24 / 05 / 2012