Question

Briefly describe, in your own words, the four main categories of health care services: health promotion, disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment, and rehabilitation.

Answer 1

Health promotion according to the WHO, is the process for enabling people to increase control over, and for improving the health of people.

Disease prevention, a procedure for individuals, particularly at risk for a disease, to prevent a disease from occurring. This treatment normally begins, before signs and symptoms of the disease have started to occur, or shortly thereafter.

Diagnosis and treatment involve finding the cause of a symptom i.e. the ailment or disease a person is suffering based on evidence-based practice.

Treatment is the medical care that is given to a patient for an illness or injury in the form of medicine, surgery etc.

Rehabilitation is the process of helping a person, who has suffered a disease or injury in restoring the lost skills and so helping him to regain maximum self-sufficiency. For example, rehabilitation work after a stroke may help the patient speak clearly again and walk again.