Chapter 2 consists of general information about different health agencies and organizations, both governmental and nongovernmental. The reason health agencies/organizations exist is to respond to community health issues that cannot be taken care of by society alone. There are three basic types of organizations: governmental, nongovernmental, and quasi-governmental. All contribute to the promotion, protection, and maintenance of community health. Health agencies are a little different in that they have three levels (nations, state and federal) and are funded through tax dollars. The largest international government agency is the World Health Organization (WHO), while the Department of Health and Human Services is the largest health governmental health agency in the United States. As far as quasi-governmental organizations in the US are concerned, the two most prominent are the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Nongovernmental health agencies consist mostly of voluntary health services, such as the March of Dimes. These agencies were created by citizens who felt that a certain issue was not being dealt with by the governmental agencies. These agencies usually fundraise and send most of the money to their national office, where the money is then used for research purposes.
Questions:
1) What are the main differences between a governmental and nongovernmental health agency?
2) What is the World Health Organization (WHO) and what does it do?
Today, we now have a variety of health agencies and organizations to respond to community health issues that cannot be taken care of within a society alone (as stated in the summary). We have these types of plans in order because the world as a whole is more advanced than ten, twenty, or thirty years ago. I can't imagine what it must have been like to not know what was rapidly killing close family members or friends when medicine and efficient health organizations were not available. As a nation, we have come a long way but, I believe we still have improvements to make.
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