‘More preventive health needed’

Press, 17 February 1983, Page 13

‘More preventive health needed’

Nelson reporter

If New Zealand was to survive a host of “dis-eases," a much more aggressive role in preventive health would have to be adopted in health education and in the whole field of preventive health, said Mr R. N. Sharplin, president of the Institute of Health Inspectors, in his presidential address at Nelson recently. He was addressing the combined conference of his institute and the Royal Society of Health. Mr Sharplin is the Richmond Borough health inspector.

“We as health workers in preventive health — "by which I mean ‘pursuing standards in our environment which are salutory and conductive to good health and well-being of all members of our communities' — can well ask. ‘ls our society amenable to prevention measures?’ ” he said.

“Does our population enjoy life as a result of being in a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being as laid down by the World Health Organisation in its definition of health?” said Mr Sharplin.

It was obvious that "disease" was contrary to the condition of good health and

enjoyment. he said.

“So we have a valid cause if we play our part in the prevention of dis-ease and the promotion of health,” he said.

New Zealand had a health service which “sopped up” about 15 per cent of all Government expenditure ($1.5 billion annually) and to this could be added about another $5OO million which individuals paid for medical treatment below hospitalisation.

“How much is spent on prevention? Of a work-force in New Zealand of 1.3 million, 70,000-odd are employed in health services (about 6 per cent), but as we know, those employed in the truly preventive roles number only in the hundreds. “We should not stand by and let curative services continue to pre-empt prevention -services — the cost is too high even for an affluent democracy,” said Mr Sharplin.

Some of the areas of “disease” he listed included the 100,000 unemployed and their dependants, the work-force at large which became uneasy when under threat, and the 670 deaths and thousands of injuries from the road toll last year. “These are major causes

of dis-ease among our people,” he said. Other “dis-eases" arose from cigarette, alcohol and drug excesses, and the "diseases” of poor nutrition arising from the preponderant availability of highly refined foodstuffs “which the majority of our population feeds on and which will eventually rob us of our vitality and mentality,” said Mr Sharplin.

“Prize farm stock and the best racehorses are fed the most careful diets, but the run of the mill human has available the most appalling range of malnourishing foodstuffs which he is encouraged to eat as wholesome foods. So much of that advertising is lies,” he said.

Physical unfitness, stress in the work place brought about by noise, smell, glare and danger, too high an occupancy rate in a dwelling unit, noisy domestic machinery which manufacturers had not seen fit to design adequately for quiet operation — all were areas of “disease,” said Mr Sharplin.

Remedies, he felt, were a better-trained preventive health team something much better than health education, which at present he labelled as “grossly inadequate.”