For families, societies, and communities, the approach to the preferences and the needs of these groups is usually the heart of primary health care. This is a societal approach to health care that looks into the wider determinants of health and the outcomes which then aims at the general as well as connected aspects of mental, physical and social well-being and health. It then gives the holistic person care for the entire life for all diseases and not just a small section of the illnesses. With primary health care, there is an emphasis on the receiving of comprehensive care that spans from treatment, prevention, and promotion. Additionally, it provides palliative care and rehabilitation services. It does this by ensuring that these services are provided to people as close as possible to their environment. This is one of the ways of ensuring social justice and equality and in the appreciation of the basic rights to the access of the highest attainable health services.
Over the years, however, the concept of primary health care has been redefined and reinterpreted. For some scenarios, it has been defined as the provision very high class of health services. For some other texts, it has been defined as a given combination of health interventions for the populations who are categorized as low-income. For some people still, this is seen as a vital part of the development of the human species whose main interest is the social, economic and political aspects. According to WHO, primary health care can be defined as the use of protective, curative, preventive, palliative and rehabilitative care to meet the health needs of individuals in the course of their lives whose main interest is individuals at the household level. In the process, there is empowering people, communities, and families for the optimization of their health.
Some things make this form of health care very beneficial. It is one of the ways that the system puts in place to adapt to the ever-changing technological, economic and demographic space. These are factors which in the end have a bearing on the well-being and the health of individuals. In the past, for example, there has been a lot of efforts in the reduction of child mortality rates. For a good percentage of the gains, it has been seen that they have come away from the health sector. The reason is that with primary health care, a lot of stakeholders from across many fields are brought together to look into policies and change them if need be to keep up to date with the demands of the communities.
Evidence also points to this form of health care to be one of the most efficient and effective ways of addressing the risks as well as the etiology of the undesirable well-being and health in the current world. It is also the perfect way of taking care of some of the new challenges which pose a threat to the wellbeing and the health of people now and in the future. In the end, it reduces the total cost of health making it a good investment.