A History of Public Health in Post-War Britain (FutureLearn)

A History of Public Health in Post-War Britain (FutureLearn)

Understand where public health has come from, why it looks the way it does today and where it might go next. History can offer us a unique insight into the public health problems, policies, and practices of the past, and is of critical importance to our understanding of healthcare in the contemporary world. This online course will offer you an opportunity to bring the past into conversation with the present, enabling you to set the changing nature of public health in post-war Britain in context with changes seen today.

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What topics will you cover?

  • How the meaning and scope of public health has changed in Britain over the last 70 years
  • The nature of public health services and their shifting relationship to local government and the National Health Service
  • Individual responsibility for public health
  • How chronic disease became a key challenge for public health
  • The persistence of infectious disease and the appearance of new conditions like HIV/AIDS
  • Socioeconomic status and its impact on public health
  • Health education techniques, tactics and effectiveness
  • Attempts to use regulations to improve public health
  • The limits of public health, its successes and failures over time.

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

  • Explore the different definitions of public health and describe how these developed over the post-war period
  • Identify the structures, organisations and individuals that put public health into practice
  • Reflect on the challenges faced by public health in post-war Britain
  • Evaluate the different solutions put forward to address public health problems in post-war Britain
  • Interpret contemporary public health structures, challenges and solutions alongside their historical context
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