Essay – Scoping the Health Needs of a Local Authority in London

This summative assessment addresses the following learning outcome:

Analyse models of health and illness and critically discuss the impact of social, cultural, psychological, economic and lifestyle factors on the mental and physical health of populations and individuals.

Examine the complex role that paramedics play in a multi-agency approach to safeguarding, the prevention of ill health and the promotion of physical and mental wellbeing.

Evaluate the opportunities to provide health advice to service users and their families and integrate these in to care and treatment selecting appropriate approaches to modifying health behaviour and providing signposting to other agencies where appropriate.

Evaluate population behaviour as it impacts on the prioritisation of ambulance deployment

Assessment Brief

You will be required to write a 4000-word essay on population health and behavioural science in relation to your practice as a student paramedic through the paramedic role in public health and scoping the health needs of a local authority. The essay is broadly split into three parts.

Firstly, you will need to analyse models of health and illness and their use in episodic paramedic care (based on your Formative Assessment 1).

Secondly, you will select a Local Authority Health Profile, as defined by Public Health England, to use as the basis of the final two parts of your essay. Within the Local Authority Health Profile, you will be required to select 3 out of the 32 health indicators and evaluate the indicators through the interpretation of demographic and epidemiological fluctuations in population-based data and what impact they have on the social determinants of health and inequalities within the Local Authority population. The social determinants of health can be defined by the social cultural, psychological, economic and lifestyle factors on both mental and physical health of populations and individuals.

Evaluate population behaviours related to the 3 indicators as it impacts on the prioritisation of ambulance deployment. This evaluation of population behaviours related to the 3 indicators will include evaluating the complexity of paramedic opportunities to provide health advice and selecting appropriate approaches to modify health behaviour and provide signposting to other agencies where appropriate.

You will need to provide an introduction and conclusion within the essay.