IPNEWS: In support of President Joseph Nyumah Boakai’s Annual Address to the nation, Health Promotion Expert and Chairman of the Undergraduate Public Health Department at the University of Liberia, Forkpah Pewee, is recommending the full utilization of the FOAP Concept of Vicious Circle of Health, a concept in the field of public health, which was developed by him.
The acronym FOAP is Field Observation for Accurate Practicum, which is the Field Observation for Accurate Practicum Concept of Vicious Circle of Ill-health.
According to Mr. Pewee, the phenomenological approach to the FOAP Concept is being researched to be published in 2024, which has four distinct stages that, when effectively utilized, can have a greater impact on safeguarding community dwellers from unhealthy environmental practices.
Pewee pressed that while sanitation facilities in actual terms, look at constructing toilets or public lavatories to progressively deal with the issue of open defecation, however, from the public health perspective, sanitation has to do with healthy measures that aim at keeping the streets and homes free of dirt and pathogens by properly disposing wastes or garbage, properly cleaning the streets and homes, and preventing open defecation.
Pewee noted that over the years, these unhealthy environmental practices have created scenes of the vicious circle of ill-health among Liberians and the utilization of the FOAP Concept would positively help improve health, sanitation, and hygiene.
Mr. Pewee references the FOAP Concept, which suggests that the issue of vicious circle of ill health is common among Liberians and presents the actual health behavior of citizens.
“Most Liberians look healthy in an unhealthy environment; they get sick from contracting preventable diseases from the unhealthy environment; they go to hospitals, clinics, pharmacies or medicine stores for treatment against preventable diseases caught from the unhealthy environment; and they return to the same unhealthy environment that made them sick in the first place,” Pewee stated.
He noted that these unhealthy environments respond to humans by releasing disease-causing microorganisms or substances that get them sick.
Therefore, he added that the Socio-Ecological complexities in breaking such barriers, most especially in an impoverished nation like Liberia, must consider the concept integrated Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Socio-Ecological Model (SEM) to its construct to enable public health professionals to address some of the critical health concerns that arise from poor sanitation practices.
However, Pewee maintained that the Health Belief Model appears to be an intimidating model whose constructs are designed to deter people from changing from unhealthy habits that can prevent them from catching diseases or give rise to them, by taking the right actions to protect their health and well-being.
On the other hand, he further bolstered that the Socio-Ecological Model is built on a framework of influence that promotes quality health by the inaction between individuals, families, organizations, communities, and policymakers.
In addition to the construct, he said the FOAP Concept also provided helpful information on the significance of maintaining a healthy environment.
“From a subjective standpoint, living in a clean and protective environment is a matter of choice. Be it as it may, that choice can become a matter of must when the uncleanliness of one person becomes a threat to others, more positively environment is a natural protector for humans to take good care of. When we take good care of the environment, the environment tends to respond to us in a more positive manner by providing healthy spaces.
On another hand, when we feed the environment with unnecessary dirt or garbage, the environment more positively causes microorganisms that can negatively impact the health and wellness of its inhabitants.”
Hence the Chairman of the University of Liberia Undergraduate Public Health Department emphasized the need to develop a clean collaborative-abiding policy that can exclusively deal with the issue of poor sanitation across the country.
The Health Promotion and Health Education Expert believes Liberians are law abiding citizens, as such, all they need are “no-nonsense policy enforcers.”
Pewee in the same way committing his willingness to help in the process said the undergraduate public health department at the University of Liberia is willing to collaborate with the Ministry of Health and the National Public Health Institute of Liberia in developing such a policy.
Forkpah Pewee is a Health Promotion and Health Education Expert who has written and published three health-related books and four peer-reviewed articles in international publishing houses and journals.
