Assessment Description
Public health professionals must work across different sectors and collaborate with other professionals and community groups to improve health outcomes. Often, these stakeholders have competing interests as well as conflicting ideas about health and how to meet public health needs and outcomes. Stakeholders may not even share the same values related to improving public health. In some cases, using a systems thinking or intersectoral approach may pose many challenges for implementation.
To prepare for this assessment, choose one public health issue (e.g. obesity, a chronic disease) in a country of your choice for which it is obvious that a systems thinking approach has not been, or is not being, applied. Then in approximately 1000 words:
Describe the public health issue.
Explain the roles of stakeholders, both within the health system and in other sectors in addressing this issue.
Drawing on research and media reports, explain the obstacles that prevent the application of a systems thinking approach to this issue.
Based on the literature, offer suggestions (e.g. new governance a
angements) for how a systems thinking approach could be applied to this issue.
XXXXXXXXXXAssessment Sample
Introduction
Obesity is a problem faced due to excess weight to the extent that it ends up affecting the health of a person adversely. It is a problem that is being faced by any person who loves to eat too much, beyond what the required levels are. This report aims to na
ow down the study of obesity to Australia and inspect the amount of problems people in Australia experience due to obesity. It also describes the impacts of obesity and the role-play of the statutory bodies with regard to obesity in Australia and also explains the methods or processes which may be influential in reducing the impact of obesity among the common people of Australia.
Section 1: Addressing Obesity and its impact in Australia
Obesity is a phenomenon or body issue that occurs in human beings who tend to consume a lot of food, junk food or supplementary food. It creates problems like High blood pressure due to rise in cholesterol levels and
eathing problems. The Body Mass Index is the tool or index which describes the obesity of a person. The index takes into account, the height, weight and age of a person and calculates an index figure. A person with BMI range of 18 to 25 is considered normal while a person in the range above 30 are determined as obese people. In Australia, about two-third or 67 per cent of the adults are obese. The rising levels of obesity are creating a concern for the nation as it reduces the fit and working force that Australia needs and also increases the risk of several diseases like Osteoarthritis, fatty liver disease and kidney diseases among obese people. The Australian adults are very attracted to fast and junk food and they consume them without taking into account the nutritional demerits. Obesity in Australia has created a mass problem with Katherine recording to be the highest region consisting of obese people (77 per cent approximately).
Section 2: Role of stakeholders in addressing Obesity
Stakeholders are defined to be individuals or a group who are affected by or have the ability to influence a decision or a guideline meant for the improvement of healthcare facilities in a nation. Australia has a number of healthcare stakeholders in the form of AOD workers, police, residents of an area, drug users and their representatives, lawyers, local government officers, pharmacists and school teachers. The basic role-play of the stakeholders is to view the cost and benefits of running specialised training programs to combat health or health-related social issue. The Australian Medical Association, Australian Private Hospitals Association, Australian Health Insurance Association have addressed obesity with a strict notion and have initiated a national need for obesity to be controlled. They have started organising campaigns and rallies urging people to take care of their fooding habits. They are also a
anging free check-up facilities for adults who are obese and are suffering through various body problems like sleep disorder and
eathlessness. These associations have also urged the Government of Australia to set rewards for those who would be able to come out of obesity. Furthermore, they are actively checking the nutritional quality of the food that is consumed by the general public and advise the food making industries to reduce the levels of fat and ca
ohydrate content in the food.
Section 3: Obstacles to a system thinking approach to obesity
System thinking approach is a method that critically analyses the problem existing within a system as well as the elements that su
ound the system and interact with the problem directly or indirectly. In healthcare, the use of this method is known as system-based practice. Application of this method can solve most of the problems related to obesity in Australia with effectiveness but it is facing ba
iers in lack of participation from the civilians, lack of data collection of the numbers of obese people, lack of proper data analysis and surveys. Among the ba
iers that create a major disruption in the application of system-based practice is the lack of interest from civilians . In some states like Queensland and Virginia parents think that their child can eat as much as they are earning and that keeps them happy. What they miss out on is that obesity is maximum in young children and adults (65 per cent). They do not willingly participate in seminars and workshops organised to make the people understand the negative impacts and the health disorders that obesity
ings to them. Lack of data collection and analysis is also a major ba
ier as it does not allow organisations like Australian Medical Association to have a clear picture regarding the number of obese people living in Australia. Also, the surveys are seldom being conducted fruitfully, partly due to the reluctance of the civilians to answer the question or the reluctance of the officials who are bestowed with the duty to extract information.
Section 4: Methods for application of systems thinking approach to obesity
There are methods by which obesity can be still controlled in Australia by that would require the cooperation of all the government associations along with the civilians. The first step is to collect data. This step would require government officials from the medical association of Australia to survey areas on a home to home basis and collect data on the number of obese people in the region. The civilians have to cooperate in furnishing the co
ect details. After data collection, data sampling is done. Data sampling allows organisations to address the possible food items or energy drinks, which contain more amount of fats or ca
ohydrates in their composition. An administration of the nutritional values would allow the local or nationwide food industries in Australia to manufacture food with the required nutritional values so that obesity can be stopped right from a child. These methods will only be functional if proper awareness is created within the civilians and letting people know about the negative impacts of obesity. A system thinking approach is the only way that obesity can be eliminated from the history of Australia.
Conclusion
The report addresses obesity which is tuning out to be a major social and health problem in Australia. The obnoxious weed of overweight problems is reducing the nation's working potential and the report has aimed to describe the ill effects of obesity at length. The introduction and approach of application of system-based thinking in healthcare is made in the report. Along with this, the need for awareness and help from government and public organisations like Australian Medical Association for the removal of obesity from Australia has been highlighted in the report with efficiency.
 
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