Policy integration for complex environmental †myassintment.com

Question: 1. Why is a policy cycle an appropriate tool for developing a new policy? 2. How is a health policy different to a government policy document? 3. How does the new public health differ from the old public health approach? 4. What are key sociological issues and how do they determine a persons state of health? 5. What policy considerations should be included in a national obesity health campaign? Answer: Answer 1 Policy cycle refers to the tool, which is used to analyse all the development that take place within the elements in policies (Vedung, 2017). It is also known as stage approach. This tool allows forecasting all the changes as well as events that are going to take place in near future. Along with this, the cycle involves many stages, which enable the organisation to perform multiple tasks under one single process. Further, this helps all the policymakers in sensing continuous flow among all the elements of the policy-making cycle. However, it neither describes what is happening during the policy-making process nor it tells the future events but it provides hints about these events, which is helpful for the government to develop an action plan. It includes all the steps that the policy makers will take in order to overcome upcoming vibes that have negative impact over them. Stages that are involved in policy cycle are its major strength. Every stage helps in identification of problems, identification and evaluation of alternative plans and upon its basis, most appropriate evaluation approach is selected. A comprehensive policy cycle comprises of problem identification, implementation and evaluation (Althaus, Bridgman Davis, 2013). The fundamental of all the policy theories comprises of two major elements. Firstly, limits of the people and secondly, different ways used by the policymakers to overcome all the limits which can be used to take appropriate policy decisions (Wallace, Pollack Young, 2015). This cycle also helps in taking rational decisions. The process of making policy involves interaction among different individuals, parties, researchers, government and many more people. As different people possess different views on the issues that arise at the time of policy formulation, there are chances of conflicts between them; however, if they use policy cycle, then all these problems can be easily be solved as the cycle provides the chance to analyse views of all the different people in order to develop the best strategy. Due to all the above reasons, government use policy cycle as an appropriate tool for developing new policies. Answer 2 According to WHO, health policy refers to decisions, plans and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific health care goals within the society. On the other hand, government policy can be defined as all the public and social policy, actions, plans, as well as interventions designed by the government, which includes different aspects of population (Briassoulis, 2017). In some nations, health policy announced by the minsters and they refer to the system, which involves principles that helps in taking decisions in order to attain rational outcomes. Therefore, it can be stated that both are very different from one another. The health policies involves all the decisions as well as actions that are taken in order to attain a specific health goal. It also enables the organisation in establishing targets and roles that different individuals have to play in order to attain different health care targets. However, the policies that are made related to health are quite complex; therefore, many countries have included human rights in health care policies. According to the WHO, in every country minimum one right is related to health. All these policies are developing with the motive of improving health (Blank, Burau Kuhlmann, 2017). However, all the government policy documents are officially published by the government agencies and include rules, regulation and code of conduct. These documents enable the government in identifying all the areas in health sector where improvement is necessary. Wide range of topics are covered under health policy such as finance, mental health and quality of attention paid by the health care organisation over their patients, health equity, availability of health services, safety standards and specific disease control programmes. Considering the fact that countries find it difficult in managing all these things, which is difficult to measure, policy makers and the members of states have become more and more aware in keeping records of available resources. However, government policies are the kind of statements, which are developed, with an objective of identifying all the threats to health of individuals. Further, government in order to overcome all the threats establish goals for the nation (Briassoulis, 2017). Some major examples of government policy include education and training, social service, employment, immigration, health, foreign policy and economic policy. Economic policies are developed with the motive to keep record of all the taxes levied by the government on the citizens. These policies can also be divided into two major parts: fiscal and monetary policy. Government use such policies in order to control the situation of inflation or recession in the country. However, health policies may include distributors and regulators. Considering the fact that there are still few countries where people have to face the problem of discrimination, government should safeguard the public from the same. The government develops such policies so that equal health care is provided to all the people. Answer 3 New public health is the integrative approach, which aims to protect and promote the health status of an individual and the society. The old public health paradigm is focused on the biological determinants of health. It encompasses clinical treatment and direct methods of treating community diseases. Old public health approach focuses on sanitation and waste management It aims to provide clean water and sanitation It focuses on large population area, implementation of infrastructure, sanitation and biological causes of diseases New public health approach More environmental and social approach to treat disease It emphasize the complexity of public health by elaborating on environmental and social factors such as education, employment, environment and accessibility Under this approach main focus was laid on cleanliness consideration the fact that clean surrounding will promote good health. (Baum, 2008, p.37) This approach involved contemporary presentation of wider range of evidences commonly based on scientific, mechanical as well as proper management system used for improving health of the people. In old health care policy many communities were set up by for providing and generating awareness related to primary health care. So, that people living within the society can understand that they should keep their surrounding clean in order to safeguard themselves from cholera which arises because of the waste generated by the industries. New health approach was adopted with the aim of improving overall health as well as wellbeing of different individuals despite of discriminating people on the basis of caste, colour or sex. In order to increase awareness among the people many programmes have been introduced by the government in schools apart from this special focus is laid on the proper availability of resources whenever the need arise (Brownson et.al. 2017). In the earlier times people do not get sick because of the food they intake or their way of life styles but only due to the waste material in their surroundings. In order to overcome this problem sanitation problem was started in Europe in year 1820s (Blank, Burau Kuhlmann, 2017). In this new health system approach focuses on providing facilities for different type of patients. Major focus is laid on problems caused due to smoking, inadequate diet, cholesterol and many others as, they give rise to serious health problems like stoke, kidney and heart diseases. However, it can be said that with the passage of time many things got change due to change in lifestyle as well as edible habits of the people. Therefore government had introduced many policies along with some interventions to encourage health living among people (Paton Johnston, 2017). Answer 4 Social determinants of health, refers to all the economic and social conditions and different ways in which they affect individuals on a group of people who may differ in their health status. A social issue involves all those problems that are affecting the people living within the society. These includes only those issues that are being faced by particular group. These problems affect personnel life (Best, 2017). Sometimes, community may also have impact on the health. Evidences have shown that in some communities, people have built belief that no doctor can improve their current situation and such orthodox views lead give rise to major health issues. Social determinants given by Wilkinson Marmot may include poverty, childhood, education, social mobility, overall working condition of different individuals, unemployment level and many more (Berkman, Kawachi and Glymour, 2014). Among all poverty and lack of education are the key factors among that determine persons state of health (Charter Tischner, 2017). Although the government has made many laws and policies order to improve overall health of the people living within the society, only those people can avail the medical benefits that have knowledge related to the government interventions. Therefore, maximum of the time it happens that all those who actually need care remains deprived of the benefits. Apart from this, poverty also determine state of heath. Evidence have shown that in countries like India, which are facing the problem of unemployment due to the lack of money is unable to provide proper amenities to common man. These countries are unable to provide good food, which is essential to stay healthy apart from this if they get ill these people do not have enough money to get good treatment, which results in more health issues (Cockerham, 2014). The global hunger index (2016) states hat about 795 million people still face hunger. Several regions in Latin America and Caribbean shows high level of hunger (Westcott, 2016). As most of the people are actively involved in business expansion; therefore, it can be said that migration also influences health. Facts derived from the researched shows that more than 14% of population face health issues because of migration (Berkman, Kawachi Glymour, 2014). Answer 5 Obesity refers to the situation, in which a person gets over weight due to excess intake of fast food, lack of exercise, tension and many more things. It has become one of the major problems in teenagers ,because of which they have to face many health issues. Special plans as well as campaigns are started by the government, which include given to medical industry, free education to family members so that they at the initial stage control the situation (Malik Hu, 2017). National obesity health campaigns are necessary because of the rising figure of the obese people all across the globe. It provides people as well as seniors, access to obesity therapeutic tools, which can help them loose and manage weight ad provide counselling to the trained health care professionals. These tools include, but are not limited to diet, exercise, and surgery (Walls et al., 2011). The government is implementing several strategies such as social media campaigns and broadcast marketing. However, the efficacy of these campaigns is doubtful as they focus on the ability of the public to understand the harmful effects of obesity. However, a better way of intervention is the enactment of high-level policy and legislative changes, which increase the healthy food and increase in physical activity (Walls et al., 2011). Policy considerations that should be included in a national obesity health campaign may include- establishing balance in quality care services as well as efficacy is essential in order to overcome many problems that are likely to be faced by health care department due to the problem of inequality being practised in many parts of the world. Many people face problems due to lack of availability of medicines as well as people who are ready to donate their organs. So its important to lay more focus on ease in availability of medical tools such as exercise and consultation of health care professionals essential for the survival of individuals. Now a days as the problem of obesity have become very common due to increase in the intake of fast food, drinks and many other things so, government must take initiate to aware people so that they can make correct food choice (Lang Heasman, 2015). Apart from this all those who are presently facing the problem special proper diet programme must be designed for them so, that they can intake only that food stuff which is good for them (Bombak, 2014). References Althaus, C., Bridgman, P., Davis, G. (2013). The Australian policy handbook. Allen Unwin Australia. Baum, F. (2008). The New Public Health. Oxford University Press. Berkman, L.F., Kawachi, I. and Glymour, M.M. eds.,( 2014).Social epidemiology. Oxford University Press. Best, J. (2017).Images of issues: Typifying contemporary social problems. Routledge. Blank, R., Burau, V., Kuhlmann, E. (2017).Comparative health policy. Springer. Blank, R., Burau, V., Kuhlmann, E. (2017).Comparative health policy. Springer. Bombak, A. (2014). Obesity, health at every size, and public health policy.American Journal of Public Health (ajph). Briassoulis, H. ed., 2017.Policy integration for complex environmental problems: the example of Mediterranean desertification. Taylor Francis. Brownson, R. C., Baker, E. A., Deshpande, A. D., Gillespie, K. N. (2017).Evidence-based public health. Oxford University Press. Charter, M., Tischner, U. (Eds.). (2017).Sustainable solutions: developing products and services for the future. Routledge. Cockerham, W. C. (2014).Medical sociology. John Wiley Sons, Ltd. Lang, T., Heasman, M. (2015).Food wars: The global battle for mouths, minds and markets. Routledge. Malik, V. S., Hu, F. B. (2017). Obesity Prevention.Disease Control Priorities. Paton, D., Johnston, D. (2017).Disaster resilience: an integrated approach. Charles C Thomas Publisher. Vedung, E. (2017).Public policy and program evaluation. Routledge. Wallace, H., Pollack, M. A., Young, A. R. (Eds.). (2015).Policy-making in the European Union. Oxford University Press, USA. Walls, H.L. (2011). Public health campaigns and obesity - a critique. BMC Public Health. Westcott, L. (2016). THESE COUNTRIES HAVE THE WORLD'S HIGHEST LEVELS OF HUNGER. News week. Retrieved 9 January 2016 from https://www.newsweek.com/global-hunger-index-yemen-syria-chad-car-508477