Essay Public Health Ethics – Infectious Diseases – Essay Writing Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

Essay Topic 1: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health 

In this unit, you have briefly explored Australia’s colonial past and the impact of structural violence, transgenerational psychic trauma, and attempted erasure or sanitization of history on the mental and physical health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. You have also been exposed to Aboriginal ways of viewing the world through their connection to clan, culture and country, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander meanings of health informed by sociocultural norms that are often very different to Western sociocultural norms. 

In this essay, and in the context of what you have learned so far, we would like you to set out what you consider to be three primary barriers to closing the gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other Australians. We would then like you to propose potential solutions to these barriers. Please ensure you critically engage with the causes, contributing factors, and impacts of the barriers, propose evidence-based solutions and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. 

In so doing, consider the claims made by Colin Tatz (2017) in the following quote: 

‘Why no reparations [for the genocidal massacres, removal of children, and inhumanities of the protection/segregation eras], no attempt at making good again by our nation’s governments? The truth, I believe, lies in two propositions: one, the reality that we still regard Aborigines as unworthy people, unworthy of that kind of expenditure; and two, hand in hand, we don’t want to travel down that roadmap of history, preferring incantations of having ‘clean [human rights] records’, ‘moving on’ and ‘getting over it’. 

IMPORTANT! Please refer to the ‘Task 5 Essay instructions and marking guidelines’ on Canvas. 

Essay Topic 2: Public Health Ethics 

In this unit, you have been provided with a background to the nature of ethics in general and how certain ethical concepts are central to work in public health. Ethics explores what we should do and the reasons and arguments that justify the views that we wish to defend. Public health is an activity or practice that can be seen to be animated by strong ethical and political commitments. It is important that we recognise this, make such assumptions explicit, and have the ability to defend them when they are challenged. 

In this essay, and in the context of what you have learned so far, we would like you to choose one of the public health challenges we have discussed in this unit (e.g. climate change, mental health, alcohol, obesity, antimicrobial resistance etc.). Using that example, state clearly your preferred view about how we should respond and explain how you can use ethical concepts and arguments to support your view. What are the objections to your approach and how can you overcome them? 

IMPORTANT! Please refer to the ‘Task 5 Essay instructions and marking guidelines’ on Canvas. 

Essay Topic 3: Infectious Diseases 

One Health is the idea that we explore issues in health, particularly those of infectious disease, in a coordinated way. Through this approach, we can explore and explain how interactions between the environment, animals and humans influence each other. Health is not simply the biological state of an individual’s body, but something that must be seen in the context of economic, social and political forces and how they impact on health and wellbeing. 

In this essay, and in the context of what you have learned so far, we would like you to respond to the following: How should we define ‘One Health’? Using an example, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of such an approach. Is One Health the approach we should use to address all issues in public health policy and practice? 

IMPORTANT! Please refer to the ‘Task 5 Essay instructions and marking guidelines’ on Canvas. 

Essay Topic 4: Chronic Conditions 

All across the world and not just in high income countries, the burden of chronic disease is growing. We can explore the distribution within and between societies through the use of epidemiology. This allows us to seek to identify differences between groups in society, explain why they might have different health profiles, and hypothesise how we might formulate interventions to improve a population’s health. The focus is often on socioeconomic determinants of health. 

Health promotion, by contrast, is commonly seen as seeking to empower people to make their own health choices. 

In this essay, and in the context of what you have learned so far, we would like you to respond to the following questions: is there an inevitable and fundamental tension between empowering individuals and improving the population’s health? If not, why not? If there is, which approach is most important?