Evaluating a Public health program using ethical decision making.

For your group assignment you will be evaluating a public health program using ethical decision making.When thinking about implementing a new project, there are a few things that we always need to know that help shape our understanding of the ethical dimension in decision making.

We need to know: the health effects of the targeted public health problem, best prevention that currently exists, guidelines and best practices, and regulatory environment. Most of this information is available in the literature. In addition to this, we also need to pay attention to the direct and indirect effects that our decisions have on communities, groups, individuals, and ourselves.

We need to recognize the values that are being promoted and those that are being diminished. Finally, we need to be able to deliberate about the options, make decisions, and justify them. While these answers may not necessarily be as readily available in the literature, they are important questions to think about in any program planning.Ethics Frameworks for Public Health can help answer some of these questions by guiding critical thinking and decision making.

They act as a guide that can help professionals consider the ethical implications of proposed interventions, policy proposals, research initiatives or programs. While many frameworks exist, we are going to focus on a framework created by Nancy Kass (2001) that outlines six questions that should be answered when evaluating the ethics of a proposed program.

These six questions are as follows:1. What are the public health goals of the proposed program?a. These should be expressed in terms of health outcomes – health improvement, reduced morbidity and/or mortality, etc. Hint: For this project, you will want to think about the health outcomes/health goals of the proposed program.2. How effective is the program in achieving its stated goals?a. Policies and programs should be based on the best evidence available about effectiveness.

Look at available evidence in the literature (what data exists? Were there any parallel studies?) that would support that your program will actually be effective in achieving your goal.b. The “greater the burdens proposed by a program” (liberty, costs, etc) the stronger the evidence should be that your program will achieve your goal.3. What are the known or potential burdens of the program? a.What are the risks?i To privacy and confidentiality?ii.To liberty and self determination? ili. To justice? iv. To individuals health?4. Can burdens be minimized? Are there alternative approaches?”[We) are required, ethically, to choose the approach that poses