[Delivery of public health services. Proposal for a frame of reference]

This article proposes a framework for the delivery of public health services by the health care system. Considering the many factors associated with a population's health status and well-being, health care systems must provide public health services in addition to clinical preventive health care services. Public health services are distinctive in that they are supplied in response to community as opposed to individual needs. The delivery of public health services is carried out, in partnership with groups and organizations, through the use of strategies that enable, advocate and educate. These strategies, taking place at the earliest possible moment in the natural history of problems, act as catalysts in the process of change towards health and well-being.