THE NEED FOR UPSTREAM THINKING

Abstract

It has been said that medical workers are like life‐savers standing beside a fast‐flowing river. Every so often a drowning person is swept down, the lifesaver jumps in rescues and rescusitates them. Just as he or she has finished another drowning person appears and the imperative of saving people is such that there is never time to go upstream and see who is pushing everybody in. In public health terms the task of refocussing upstream is in part that of reorientating the education, training and perspective of health workers so that, for instance, the consultant in charge of a coronary care unit becomes interested in coronary prevention or the accident and emergency surgeon becomes active in road safety and the fight against drunken driving. However, the task is also about refocussing the population as a whole away from victim‐blaming towards a rounded understanding of what needs to be done.

Citation

Ashton, J. (1987), "THE NEED FOR UPSTREAM THINKING", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 87 No. 5, pp. 8-9. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb059448