It was the upstream/downstream story, sometimes known as the
public health parable that sold public health to me. I was familiar, as we all are, with the old
adage ‘prevention is better than cure’ but this story really brought home to
me what this meant.There are many versions of the story but it goes something
like this:
“Imagine a large river with a high
waterfall. At the bottom of the waterfall hundreds of people are working
frantically trying to save those who have fallen into the river and have fallen
down the waterfall, many of them drowning. As the people along the shore are
trying to rescue as many as possible one person looks up and sees people keep falling
into the water and tumbling down the waterfall and begins to run to where they
are falling in. One of other rescuers shouts, "Where are you going? There
are so many people that need help here." To which the man replied,
"I'm going upstream to find out why so many people are falling into the
river.”
It just makes perfect sense and so began my passion for public health. Why spend the largest proportion of health service money on building and staffing vast
hospitals in order to treat the causes of ill health when preventing that ill
health is so much cheaper for the state and better for the individual?
But, advances in medical science
are so much sexier than persuading people to stop smoking, drink less, eat
sensibly and have sex safely. And, as my grandfather (himself a doctor) used to say: "Commonsense is not common".
So this blog will aim to share with you some of my passion for public health. It will explore some of the stories in the headlines and aim to provide context and background. It will link to those who know better and more but will generally be a place for enthusiasts to comment and share. Please do join in.
