Public Health Policy and Society Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Public Health Policy and Society. Answer: Introduction A brief introduction to public health policy and society Public health policies are those policies that intend to define procedures and guidelines that are used to govern or allocate resources towards attainment a particular goal in health. Public health policy is the interplay of factors such as politics, power and public interest that influence government allocation of resources to the public. Public policy is a normal product of government strategic goal intended to better health care with Australia or to a specific community. Health policies are always intended to a particular society, for instance, indigenous communities living in Australia. Since coming into office the government of Australia through the ministry of health has developed many health policies that aim to better service provision, improve healthcare or target specific disadvantage group of people within Australia. For instance, one of the public health policies developed through the ministry of health is rural healthcare policy with focus on indigenous marginal communit ies such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The following essay seeks to explore the importance of policy for health and example of health policies within Australia. Rural And Remote Healthcare Policy One of the government of Australian health priority include focusing on rural healthcare initiative that concentrate on marginalized communities such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities (Rickards, 2011). This is due to poor health conditions that these communities lives in yet currently the government through various healthcare initiative has been reaching these people in their rural areas. Rural and remote healthcare policy has been the key pillar for Shed initiative at Mt Druitt and healthcare promotions that are seen across the country. Statistics show that there is improvement since the inception of rural and remote healthcare policy in Australia through the ministry of health (Britnell, 2015). Rural and remote healthcare policy ensures those communities living within remote areas are reached for the purpose of better healthcare. What is health Health refers to the state of competency within the physical, mental and social wellness without infirmity or disease. According to WHO, health is dynamic conditions arising from body adaptation and adjusting to the changing environment and stress through maintenance of equilibrium. This definition gives the relationship between human body and the environment through interaction. Adapting to changes may be due to challenging physical, mental or social challenges which in a broad sense leading to health challenges. In this sense, environmental and body interaction play a critical role in the health status of an individual since the two are related to socio-economic conditions a phenomenon called Salutogenesis. In addition, dynamic conditions people live in may include social and economic conditions such as housing, employment status and access to food or education (Golembiewski, 2012). Health interaction with the environment Salutogenesis refers to those factors that encourage or foster wellness and health in an individual. Salutogenesis may include interacting with things that are part of environment people live in and highly require proper handling to turn them into good healthy things. For instance, the way an individual reacts to various factors in the environment one lives in will determines the wellness and the health status of that individual. This association particularly called health environment interaction. In addition, health interaction with environment allows those people especially men to draw nourishing for life from activities they do and the environment they lives in (Lindmark, Wagman, Whlin Rolander, 2016). Salutogenesis approach is used to address social determinant of the health of Aboriginal men in Mt Druitt. Within this community, the environment that these men live has a direct influence on the health status especially depression leading to death. The characteristic of environment that Aboriginal men live in has massive cultural influence and this is connected to the health status of these marginalized men. The cultural influence as an environment interacts with the living conditions of men leading to health status. The pride that forms the basis of the culture of Aboriginal men is highly affected by racism, incarceration, job, economic and housing insecurity leading to depression among men hence increasing the number of suicide (Lindmark, Wagman, Whlin Rolander, 2016). Social determinants of health According to WHO social determinants of health refer to life conditions under which people are born, grow, work or life and contributes to the conditions of their daily life. Some of the common determinants of health include economic policies and systems, social norms, development agendas, social policies and political systems. To make it more understandable WHO further categories this determinant into five categories that include economic stability, education, social and community context, health and healthcare and neighborhood and built environment (Pega Veale, 2015). Firstly, economic stability determines some social conditions that may include the employment of citizens, housing instability, food insecurity and poverty level within the society. Secondly, education as a social determinant of health determines the language literacy, early childhood education, the number of those people enrolling for higher education. Thirdly, social community context as number three determinant en tails discrimination, civic participation, incarceration and social cohesion within the society (Pega et al, 2017). Fourthly, health and healthcare as a social determinant of health include access to healthcare, health literacy and above all access to primary care. Finally, neighborhood and built environment is listed as the final social determinant and composes of crime and violence, environmental conditions, quality housing and access to food that support healthy eating patterns (Bahrer-Kohler, 2012). Life course perspective Life course perspective is the strategy that studies the effect of life experience on the health status of the individual in the society. Life course approach aims at the distribution of health experience across the lifespan as a way of maintains healthy conditions. Under this initiative, two factors are focused that include economic and social conditions of life that are key social determinants of health. Studies of economic and social conditions effect on health show the correlation of these life factors to certain health disorders witnessed in society today. For instance, childhood and adulthood economic or social conditions are directly related to some disorders such as diabetes, especially in adult life. Cumulative effects of course life experience at particular life stage, for instance, early childhood experience has a high effect on the later date health status (Raphael, 2010). What is policy and what is health policy What is the policy? Policy can broadly be defined as the principle of action proposed or adopted by the organization or individuals. The policy is associated with power, politics and public benefits during resources allocation or decision making. The policy is part of governance and assists in objective decision making in terms of procedure and protocols used within public organizations. In this sense, the policy does not restrict behaviors as laws yet policies guide the decision making and give the direction for implementation of procedures or protocols. The impact of policy can be felt in two different ways and these are intended effect and unintended effects. Firstly, intended effects refer to the positive intention that leads to formulate the policy. For instance, free health policies intend to better healthcare and this is the intended effect once implemented. Secondly, unintended effects refer to the negative effects of a policy that may arise from complexity with the area of implementations. For instance, the negative effect of free maternity policies for the country may lead to a reduction of cost related to maternity within the country (Raphael, 2014). What is health policy? Health policy generally refers to decisions, actions, and plans that are carried out to achieve healthcare goals within the community. Health policy can be viewed in terms of roles played by politics and power. Health policy interacts with numerous factors to contribute to success or failure of health system within the country. Politics as an ingredient for health policy massively influence the design, emergence, execution, and evaluation of health policy (Cummins, 2011). Firstly, politics and power determine processes in health governance of healthcare facilities. Secondly, politics play a critical role in the development of health policies within the country. Thirdly, politics also contribute to the evaluation of the health policies and this is also part of healthcare governance (Kajang, 2015). What can policy do improve healthcare The role of policy is inevitable within the healthcare of the country contribute greatly to improve or diminish healthcare. A major focus is based on the role of policy in improving healthcare. Firstly, policy help aligns healthcare at the top of the priority and this highly contributes to the improvement of healthcare in terms of resource allocation. Favorable healthcare policies improve the health of the country (Garathy, Stuart McNally, 2016). For instance, government policy that gives health priority to the indigenous communities such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander improves health among these marginalized communities. Secondly, policies streamline the resource use within the healthcare leading to proper utilization of available resources for the improvement of healthcare. Thirdly, policies determine the health assessment criteria that is key to improving the effectiveness of healthcare in Australia (Buse, Mays Walt, 2012). Aboriginal Health by Mr. Shed Shed focus on the health status of marginalized or disadvantage men that include men from indigenous community of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men. In addition, the community initiative also considers unemployed men, new dads, separated men, incarcerated men and those men who are at the risk due to stress in life. These factors highly contribute to mens poor health status with others reportedly commit suicide due to stress and depression. Sheds identify some of the other factors that affect the indigenous mens health such as contemporary structural and social factors education, employment, access to service, a social network connection with land, racism and increasing imprisonment of men from these communities (Macdonald Welsh, 2012). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander are selected since they form part of marginalized men and studies show that among those men committing suicide, indigenous men from these communities form the largest number. More specifically, Shed tries to address social determinants of male suicide and these include physical health, mental health, socio-economic factors, oral health, housing and cultural wellbeing. Firstly, mental health highly contributes to a large number of depression witnessed in indigenous men leading to suicide. Secondly, housing is another negative determinant of health among men since indecency housing highly results in poor health of men in this area (Hicks Maldonado, 2016). Cultural wellbeing positively affects mens life and is associated feeling connected to cultural practices of these indigenous people. Oral health is another health issue that is addressed in Shed since poor oral health is connected to discomfort and this makes many men feel stressed up (Australia n Indigenous HealthInfoNet 2012). However, some of the social determinants that lead to better life among those male include love, meaningful work, and position in society, religious faith and belonging (Berkman Kawachi, 2014). Love is one of the ingredients that better the lives of these indigenous particularly the feeling of being loved and cared for. Position in the society is another element that highly contributes to the wellness of among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men. The sense of belonging is another critical aspect of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander more so feeling of being part of their culture. In addition, forming part their religious faith is connected to the health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men. Finally, meaningful work is also factors that are lifeline making the life of indigenous men's life better (Macdonald, 2010). Social Gradient: a basic social determinant of health Social determinants refer to those economic and social conditions and the impact of these factors in determining an individual or group of individuals health status. Social determinants are associated with health outcome and public policy. Some of the basic social determinants of health are a social gradient, stress, education, early life, social inclusion/exclusion, employment, income, social support, addiction, transport, and race. Education is a social determinant of health since education affects the knowledge about health and poor education is associated with poor health conditions. Secondly, early life and all the challenges that affect the early life of an individual affect their adult life. Early life determines the emotional health of the adult. Unemployment is associated with poor health and premature death since these individuals are unable to resist mental stress connected with unemployment (Braveman Gottlieb, 2014). Income or earning is another social indicator for health since income is correlated to health status and socio-economic status of an individual in the society they live in. Food and nutrition is an important social determinant of health since malnutrition is connected to poor health while good nutrition attracts good health. Addition to alcohol and other drugs affected health greatly; these results in poor health of an addict and results in health inequalities as compared to those do not take illicit drugs. Social exclusion is connected to poverty in the society and this is due to exclusion in the community resulting in premature death of many excluded individuals. Stress is another important social determinant of health since long-term stress is connected to psychological and mental problems that also result in premature death or poor health in general (Knaus, 2016). Social gradient The social gradient is the inequalities in social status that arise for the social status difference in the population. According to Braverman, Egerter, and William (2011), an individuals social and economic status highly influences their health status in the society. Social gradient cut across the society and can be classified as most and the list disadvantage in the health ladder. Health disadvantages are classified as an upper middle disadvantage and lower middle disadvantage health gradient. Firstly, upper middle disadvantage includes those highly disadvantage in health throughout the society. The lower disadvantage is individuals that least disadvantage in health as compared to other grouped within the health social gradient (Simandan, 2018). Social gradient health disadvantage can also be classified as either absolute or relative in the society. Firstly, absolute health disadvantage is where individuals have no access to health education; there is unemployment and poor living condition that contribute to poor health conditions in the society. Secondly, relative health disadvantage in the society is where an individuals has access to poor education, insecure employment, and relatively poor health conditions. The disadvantage in life may moves according to transition in life gradient within the society and people are influenced by their past health disadvantage (Council of Civil Service Union, 2004). For instance, poor childhood economic and social conditions are often associated with late adulthood health disorders. Conclusion In conclusion, policy plays an important role in governance and resource allocation within every sector to the government or organization. Health policies are, therefore, statements of intends that aim at directing the resource allocation and definition of procedures or protocols used in healthcare provision. There are social determinants of health that are directly or indirectly related to the health conditions of an individual or a group of individuals. Social and economic conditions of life are an aspect of life course perspective approach that is used to determine life disorders. One example of public health policy is rural and remote healthcare service focusing on marginalized communities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. The environment these people live in determines the health status of these people a phenomenon called Salutogenesis. References Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet (2012). Overview of Australian Indigenous Health status, 2013 (pp 1-15) Available at: Braverman, P., Egerter, S. William, D.R. (2011). 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