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A career with Community and Public Health will see you working for an organisation committed to providing the best public health services possible. Opportunities exist for career development, with the chance to gain extensive experience in a public health related setting.
Community and Public Health has three distinct types of public health workers: Health Promoters, Health Protection Officers and Public Health Physicians
Other key people who make up the workforce include:
- Administration staff
- Drinking Water Assessors
- Information Analysts
- Health Information Co-ordinators
Focus of Health Promoters
Health Promoters plan, implement and evaluate activities that promote health and wellbeing in communities. Health promotion is about having better health and more control over wellbeing.
Most health promoters work on one or two key issues (e.g. nutrition, tobacco control, etc.) or work in settings such as schools or marae with a focus on a group, such as children. They seek evidence-based strategies to achieve change.
Health promoters need a wide range of skills and usually continue to train in specific areas dictated by the particular needs of their role.
Role of Health Protection Officers
 Health Protection Officers (HPOs) plan and implement activities that protect health and wellbeing in communities. They investigate public health concerns, provide advice and information to community leaders and the public as part of a public health enforcement team. They carry out a regulatory role on behalf of the Director-General of Health.
Areas of focus are environmental health and communicable diseases. In environmental health HPOs identify threats, quantify these and along with others, minimise them. Areas include bio-security and quarantine, drinking water quality, hazardous substances, resource management issues, amongst many others.
Health protection officers undertake surveillance and investigation of communicable disease. They prevent diseases spreading by food and water and enforce effective waste disposal. They also contribute to the management of sustainable environments.
Medical Expertise in Public Health
Public Health Physicians are qualified medical doctors who choose to specialise in the health of groups or whole communities rather than working on individual healthcare. They are involved in promoting health and preventing disease by assessing a community's health needs and by providing services to these communities.
Most public health physicians are involved in planning, funding and management of health services, the delivery of public health projects, communicable disease control. Some public health physicians might undertake specialisation as a Medical Officer of Health, with specific regulatory powers and responsibilities under the Health Act and other public health legislation.
Downloads
Order copies from the Community Health Information Centre.
Links
Ministry of Health Job Vacancies
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