Judy Stavisky – The Role of Public Health & Making a Difference in the Field

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How can you become a difference-maker through science? What is public health and why is it so important? Judith Stavisky, MPH, M.Ed. weighs in and shares insights into the public health industry. 

Stavisky is an adjunct professor in the Master’s of Public Health Program at Delaware Valley University. She is a Public health leader, educator and author with over 25 years of experience.

 

1. How does public health differ from individual healthcare?

Public health focuses on the health of the entire population. Those can be students on college campuses, residents of a region or state, or people in other countries. Public health is often invisible when it works! Restaurant, factory and farm inspections help reduce foodborne illness. Clean drinking-water systems protect entire communities. School vaccination requirements help prevent outbreaks. Safe-road and bicycle policies reduce injuries. Emergency alerts help people respond to severe weather and other threats.

Simply put: Public health is the “public’s health.”  Individualized healthcare typically takes place in a clinician’s office or during a virtual visit and generally focuses on one person. Public health focuses on improving health across populations.

 

2. What are some of the biggest public health issues in our community today?

  • Access to Health Care and Conditions That Shape Health: Affordability of care, insurance coverage, transportation, access to healthy foods, and the large disparities in health outcomes associated with income and geography are all important issues. Being off campus doesn’t eliminate basic-needs challenges; in some respects, it can make institutional resources harder to reach.
  • Isolation & Emotional Well-Being: Students, whether they study online or on campus, may be balancing school with jobs, caregiving, tight finances, and other responsibilities. They often have fewer opportunities to social connection and support. Limited social connections can affect a student’s sense of belonging, academic success and ability to seek help.
  • Climate Change: Extreme heat, rising sea levels, changing patterns of infectious disease, threats to food and water supplies.

 

 

3. How does public health identify and respond to emerging health threats?

  • Continuous Surveillance: Public health conducts ongoing data collection and analysis as an early-warning system for outbreaks. Identifying foodborne illness (a recent example involving lettuce) or tracking extreme heat effects.
  • Investigation: Those who study patterns of disease (epidemiologists) identify affected populations, minimize risk and intervene.
  • Risk Communications: Clear and understandable public communications guide behavior during a threat. Examples include social media updates, press briefings, and multilingual guidance related to severe storms, flooding or disease outbreaks.

 

4. How important are prevention and education in your work?

Public health tries to stop disease or injury before they happen by addressing root cause. That includes policies that make healthy choices more realistic. Maternal and child health, health insurance coverage, injury prevention, and racial and economic disparities are essential components of education and prevention. Preventing outbreaks and promoting resilience reduce the burden on emergency response systems when threats emerge.

 

5. What role does community involvement play in your work?

Community involvement is the engine that should drive the work. When residents help shape public health programs and policies, those communities will be more invested in the outcome. Programs co-designed with the community are more relevant and more likely to succeed.

 

6. What advice would you give to someone considering a career in public health?

  • Explore the vast opportunities in public health and ask yourself which mix of people, data or systems appeals to you. 
  • If you love numbers, biostatistics and epidemiology might be of interest.
  • If you want to work directly with people and communities, then health education, community health, health policy or health administration could be a good fit.
  • Whatever your interests, public health offers many ways to become a difference-maker through science, education, advocacy, policy nand community partnership.
  • Public health needs people who can analyze, organize, think creatively, advocate and listen.