The staff of a nonprofit health center in your community approach you about helping them develop an oral health program for the population they serve. Based on experiences of their patients and observations of the health providers employed by the health center, their initial interest is dental care for underserved low-income adults and older adults in the community.
-The community population includes a high rate of retired older adults; thus, the community has a higher rate of long-term care facilities than other communities of comparable size. Review of the state guidelines for long-term care facilities reveals inadequate requirements to ensure access to oral health care for their residents. Seeking to change these guidelines would address which core public health function?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

There are three core public health functions-assessment, assurance, and policy development. Policy development is taking the lead in developing comprehensive public health policies based on sound scientific knowledge to solve a public health problem. Although this activity involves advocacy, the core public health function addressed is policy development. Assessment includes systematically collecting, assembling, analyzing, and making available information on the health issue or condition in the community; an example is to conduct a survey. Assurance involves making sure that public health services or solutions are available to the community for the purpose of addressing public health problems. Ensuring the availability of services by addressing workforce and funding issues is an example of assurance. Although addressing related policies can ultimately affect assurance, the more specific answer to this question is policy development.

The Staff of a Nonprofit Health Center in Your Community