What is the Alma-Ata Declaration? The Alma-Ata Declaration was made in 1978 at an international conference on primary health care. It saw primary care as the key to getting to the goal of “health for all.” WHO says that health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing, not just the lack of illness or disease. (WHO, 1978) The conference makes it clear that health is one of the most important human rights. “The conference says that the huge differences in people’s health status between developed and developing countries and within countries are unacceptable on political, social, and economic levels.” (WHO, 1978) It says that people have the right and the duty to get involved. show more stuff…
(WHO, 1978) Primary health care is based on putting the results of social, biomedical, and health services research, as well as public health experience, to good use. (WHO, 1978) Primary health care has at least the following parts: health education, promoting food availability and good nutrition, caring for mothers and children, making sure there is enough clean water, immunizing against major diseases and giving essential drugs, and preventing and treating diseases. (WHO,1978) The goal of the Alma-Ata Declaration was to improve and support primary health care in many ways. One of the best things about PHC is that it looks at all aspects of health care. This makes sure that resources are shared fairly and that the state is responsible for the health of its people. PHC has some problems, such as the fact that it costs more to set up and takes a long time to process. With this new declaration, you can see how the new health challenge of adapting may cause people to be less prepared and take longer to act. Also, because of this new health problem It would be hard to keep track of and evaluate how the PHC parts change over time. It would also be harder to keep an eye on things in rural areas, and it might be hard to get people to work on this. show more stuff…
Most governments put their political and economic views ahead of giving money to the Global Fund. They spend billions of dollars on wars and other military actions, which are where they spend most of their time. I agree that PHC should come back into the world because of this. It should send a clear message, and a PHC representative should always be working to get the national and global levels to join in. Even though Alma-Ata practice was not done very much,
Introduction
People think that the statements made at the Alma-Ata conference were the most important of the 20th century. The claims were based on research about the availability and quality of primary health care around the world. The goals of the statements made at this conference were to improve the health of people all over the world. During the conference, health workers, governments, communities, and people who work on development were all urged to do more to improve health care. This was a big step forward for public health.
During this conference, it became clear that primary health care is an important idea if global health care is to be achieved (Cueto, 2004; Hope, Nicholson, & Baguley, 2008). Such a goal can only be reached with help from many different social and economic sectors. By giving money, the above-mentioned organizations were supposed to keep primary health care going. Everyone was supposed to get the same amount of health care. Ten declarations were made at the end of the conference. This paper looks at the main ideas in these declarations, what they say, and the problems that come up when trying to put them into action on a global scale.
Health is a basic human right that can’t be taken away.
The conference agreed that everyone has the right to be healthy. In this idea, “health” meant a full sense of well-being. This definition took into account the physical, mental, and social realms (World Health Organisation, 2006). For them, not having a disease does not always mean that they are healthy. So, it was important and important to always be in this state. For this to happen, it was also necessary to work with other groups.
The fact that health is now seen as a basic and inalienable human right shows how important this idea is. Health care is not just a need, it seems. It is a goal, like life or freedom. The conference also saw that the word “health” can be hard to understand, so they tried to define it more clearly (Declaration of Alma- Ata, 1978). In this declaration, there was also the idea that global health would not be possible without other sectors besides health. These groups will help a lot when it comes to restoring, keeping up, and protecting the right in question.
Two: Equal and fair treatment in health care
This declaration said that health care around the world is not the same. This means that not everyone has the same amount of health. The differences between the developed and developing countries were especially clear. Also, the way health care was provided in different countries was very different. By the standards of human rights, this is wrong. The article talked about how health care needs to be more fair and equal. This will make sure that people who need it have access to medical care. Also, everyone with the right skills will have an equal chance of helping to reach this goal (Declaration of Alma- Ata, 1978).
Third Declaration: How the economic and social sectors help
The most important thing to take away from this statement is how important the economic and social sectors are to health care. It looks like health care would be in trouble if these two areas failed. On the other hand, economic and social growth will help a lot in reaching the health care goals set out at this conference. The health sector needs the economic sector to give it money and help with money matters. These funds will be used to make sure that everyone gets the same health services (Declaration of Alma- Ata, 1978).
In the often stressful world of health care, the social sector can help people get to know each other. It also improves relationships between people and between countries, which is good for world peace. Health care is still the most important thing here (Declaration of Alma- Ata, 1978). In short, the economic and social sectors are both necessary for health care protection. This is important for long-term economic growth because a healthy country is a productive country.
Personal health care is the fourth
The World Health Organization also used the idea that this declaration was based on. The idea was that everyone should be responsible for and have the right to health care (Declaration of Alma- Ata, 1978). This brings up the fact that people look for health. So, they are the most important source of health. People own and care for their health. They will be able to take care of and make decisions about their own health.
People should be able to take care of their own health and have the power to do so. Because of this, they should be given information that will help them plan and carry out things that have to do with their own health care. People can get this kind of information from health workers, who can then use it to help people (Cuerto, 2004).
Fifth Declaration: The state’s job
The main point of this declaration is about the role of the government in health care. During the conference, it was made clear that the government has a duty to make sure that everyone has access to health care. By the year 2000, all governments should have reached a point called “health for all” (Streefland & Chabot, 1994). In this case, the phrase “health for all” meant that everyone is healthy enough to be able to do well in their social and economic lives.
All international groups and governments were told to focus on basic health care. This was the only way to get to a place where everyone was healthy. It’s important to remember that a healthy country is a productive country. Health, economic, and social productivity are so linked that it is almost impossible to separate them (World Health Organisation, 2006).
Sixth Declaration: Primary health care is necessary and its parts make it up
From this statement, you can get a few different ideas. First, everyone needs primary health care to stay alive. It focuses on the most important part of any society, which is the community. Second, for this kind of health care to be given, the whole community needs to be involved, but the family is the most basic unit (Declaration of Alma Ata, 1978). Also, this kind of health care is given in a way that is scientifically, socially, and technologically acceptable.
People have also said that primary health care is important by saying that it is a part of every society. So that there is less confusion about how primary health care is given, it was said that this is the beginning of this part of health care. All of the goals for getting health care should start from that point.
Statement: There are seven parts of primary health care
This statement listed everything that has to do with health care. First, the country’s government, economy, and culture all have an effect on healthcare. It is also affected by the way biomedical and social research is put into practice. By looking at all of the above, you can learn about the differences in how primary health care is provided (World Health Organisation, 2006).
The second thing to know about primary health care is what it covers. This type of health care seems to offer preventive, curative, and rehabilitative care to the whole community and to families (Anderson, 2008). It was said again how important education is. Primary health and education are connected in a clear and close way. Education should teach people about things like sanitation, nutrition, family planning, immunization, and diseases that are common in their area.
Primary health care also includes areas like agriculture, animal husbandry, public works, communication, and others that help the community grow. Also, primary health care gives people the ability to take care of themselves. It should be able to teach people how to get involved, organize, and take charge of primary health care (Streefland & Chabot, 1994).
Referral systems are another part of primary health care that should be in place. This is the only way for this type of health care to get better and be available to people who need it. Lastly, the conference stressed again how important community health workers and traditional practitioners are to primary health care. In general, this declaration looked at and went beyond the definition of primary health care as a whole (Anderson, 2008).
Declaration 8: Making policies for the country
The idea behind this declaration is that the government should make plans that make primary health care possible (Declaration of Alma Ata, 1978). These policies should be made with the help of other stakeholders who help make sure everyone is healthy. If the health for all policy was to be realized, all resources and work had to go toward primary health care.
Declaration No. 9: The spirit of cooperation
This tenet talks about how important a spirit of partnership is for getting primary health care. This was meant to back up the claim that other sectors need to be involved in this effort. Health for all and primary health care can’t be reached without the help of these other areas (World Health Organisation, 2006).
Declaration Ten: Use of resources in a sustainable way
This was the last thing that was said as the Alma Ata conference came to an end. It seems that if a country wants to have health care for everyone by a certain date, it needs to think about how its resources will be used to get there. The resources are used for things that are not as important, such as the military. This is why primary health care isn’t given to everyone in the same way. Instead of getting more weapons, people should work on making peace. Then, the limited and available resources should be used to make sure everyone is healthy (Streefland & Chabot, 1994).
The ideas above came about because of what was said at the Alma Ata conference. All countries agreed with the statements that were made (Anderson, 2008). This conference was held because people realized that health is a very important part of any country’s growth. Also, getting good health in a whole-person way is possible because resources come from many different areas. The goal of the conference was to reach this goal. But when the declarations were put into action, there were a few problems. This was because of different budgets and cultures, among other things. Some of the problems are talked about below.
Time Limits
Socrates (2002) says that the time limit is one of the biggest problems with putting the Alma Ata conference’s decisions into action. It looks like it took eight years for the conference to make its final decisions. Socrates (2002) says that many other things had also changed in that time. For example, other diseases had begun to spread. This problem was made worse by the fact that people from many countries were at the conference. Several countries seemed to have lost their cool before the end of the conference. This almost made it impossible to put the declarations into action.
Problems with Moving Policies
There is a big difference between developed countries and countries that are still getting started (Marmot, 2004). This is especially true when it comes to money and resources in the two dimensions. Developed countries are much better off in almost every way. So, it was hard for both countries to have policies that were the same. A common example is when it is required that the economic sector be included in the health for all goal. In developed countries, this kind of sector makes a much bigger difference. So, it’s almost impossible for developing countries to reach “health for all” status by the deadline.
Marmot (2004) also says that developed countries focus on getting better treatments and don’t pay attention to prevention. This means that diseases and other problems with health will always come back. Developing countries have the money to do research and put the ideas that come out of this research into action. Also, the cost of maintaining some of the technology used in developed countries may be a bit too high. This problem is also made worse by the lack of trained workers. Because of this, developing countries don’t like to use them. Since this is the case, there will always be differences between the two countries. Getting everyone healthy is almost an impossible goal to reach.
Not enough doctors
The Alma Ata conference said that primary health care was a success on all levels. Even though this seems possible and doable, Streefland and Chabot (1994) said that there wouldn’t be enough doctors to do it. It is thought that there were only 1,000 doctors in the world in 1978. In remote villages and some developing countries, the problem was worse. At this time, there were also not many people who worked in health care. This means that one doctor took care of about a thousand people. Even now, the situation has not changed much. During the Alma Ata conference, this problem was brought up. They tried to fix this by making primary health care only for people in the immediate area. There were still some problems, though, because some places had more people than others. In order to do this, it was hard to put the declaration of holistic primary health care into action.
Developing countries have a lot of people who can’t read or write.
In order to get health care for everyone, people had to be educated. This kind of education would teach about things that affect health (Blakey, 2008). The education would teach people about safety, nutrition, cleanliness, and many other things. Still, it’s important to note that in some places, even today, basic education has never been required.
Since there were and still are a lot of people who couldn’t read or write, it was hard to put this idea into practice. This is true in most developed countries, especially. In most places, it would be impossible to explain how important these health-related factors are. Also, it was clear that educating people in remote communities was hard because of language barriers.
Financial Difficulties
All of the declarations would need a lot of money to be put into action (Socrates, 2002: Marmot, 2004; Streefland & Chabot, 1994). Most developing countries don’t have enough money to make health care for everyone a reality. People said that Alma-Ata made a lot of assumptions about how to solve problems as a group. In fact, many authors say that if these kinds of declarations are to be met, it will be necessary to find a way to help poor countries. Most of the evaluations of the conference were based on small things, like pointing out the problems in the health sector (Socrates, 2002). But the conference’s flaws were just a starting point for future conferences that would look deeper into the problems in the health sector and how to fix them.
References
Anderson, M. (June 11, 2008). “Former WHO director Haldan Mahler on Alma Ata, May 2008.” The site for social medicine. Taken from http://www.socialmedicine.org/2008/06/11/globalization-and-health on May 11, 2013.
Blakely T. (2008). Researching health inequalities in Aotearoa from the point of view of a Pakeha from the middle class. The University of Otago is in Wellington.
Cueto, M. (2004). The history of primary health care and selective primary health care.
Alma-Ata Declaration (1978). Conference on Primary Health Care from all over the world. Held from September 6-12, 1978, in Alma-Ata, USSR. Done by the agency for public health.
Hope, R., Baguley, D., and Nicholson, B. (2008). Setting up a health care workforce that is aware of the world Alma Ata and Alma Mata Global Health Network. Global Social Policy, 8(2), 161-164.
M. Marmot (2004). The “status quo” problem. Times Books is in New York.
P. Streefland and J. Chabot (1994). Putting primary health care into place: lessons learned since Alma Ata. Chicago: Voor De Tropen.
Socrates, L. (2002). A personal look back at the long and hard way to Alma Ata. 32(4), 709–732 in the International Journal of Health Services.
Organization for World Health (2006). “What the WHO Constitution says about health. The Alma Ata Declaration says the same thing again.” From http://www.who.int/governance/eb/who constitution en.pdf: World Health Organization
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