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Public health is about keeping people healthy and improving the health of populations rather than treating diseases, disorders and disabilities in individuals.

It uses a population health approach which involves taking into account all factors that determine health (such as shelter, education, food, sufficient income, a stable ecosystem, sustainable resource use, social justice, equity) and then planning how these factors can be tackled.

"The basis of effective public health action is not a single service or intervention, but the organised efforts of society itself."
Don Matheson, Deputy Director General, Ministry of Health

Essential components of public health practice include:

• a focus on whole populations and the risk factors that impact on the health of populations
• an emphasis on prevention, especially the population strategy for primary prevention
• a concern for the underlying socio-economic determinants of health and disease, as well as the more proximal risk factors
• partnership with the populations served - working "with" communities rather than "on" communities
• tackling inequalities
• engaging all stakeholders and working across sectors including local government
• working within the framework of the Treaty of Waitangi and the Ottawa Charter