Assignment 3: The Complex Role of Government Agencies

State and local health agencies are not the only governmental organizations working to reduce the burden of disease and ill health in society. Federal, state, and local government all play important roles through agencies that are better known for other responsibilities, such as law enforcement and transportation. The complexities of government and its various agencies add an essential, but not necessarily the most important, dimension to public health practice. The prevention of motor vehicle-related injuries is a prime example of a situation in which multiple agencies, and not just those that are health related, have a shared responsibility.

Using the readings for the week, the South University online library, and the Internet, write a 3–5-page paper.

Cover the following:

For the prevention of motor vehicle-related injuries, provide an analysis of how responsibilities are assigned or delegated among the following:
- The three levels of government: federal, state, and local
- Various agencies of those levels of government

Submit your response in a Microsoft Word document

On a separate page, cite all sources using the APA format.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.