Health Education Homework
ned.khChapter 10
Using Conceptual Frameworks in Health Policymaking: A Guide for CEOD
What is Policy?
Public Policy / A set of rules made by governments to establish and regulate behaviors that are judged to be morally unacceptable. They also include decisions made by governments to execute programs for the well-being of society.
Health Policy / A form of public policy that centers on government actions intended to improve the health of its members
Official and Unofficial Participants
Official participants / They have legal authority to make laws (legislative branch); enforce, veto or implement laws (executive branch); and interpret laws (judicial branch). They can also appropriate moneys toward social programs aimed to improve the welfare of society
Unofficial participants / They do not have the legal authority to implement policies; but do have the right to be involved in the policy process to protect their own interest and can engage in other promising advocacy strategies to get support for grassroots causes also for media advocacy, holding rallies, marches, developing alliances and partnerships with key constituents and organizations that support their causes.
The Problem: Health Disparities and the Social Determinants of Health (SDH)
To achieve equity in health outcomes for the most vulnerable populations requires an equitable distribution of the social determinants of health (Daniels, Kennedy, & Kawachi, 1999)
This requires action, particularly through political and economic policies to inherently make these resources more accessible (Labonte & Schrecker, 2006; WHO, 2008)
Previously individual risk factors, behavior change programs and spending large amounts of money on health care was tried with little success of health equity, now a political and economic policy commitment to invest in public expenditures that protect the basic needs and public services of its citizens, and require the availability of the social determinants of health to achieve health equity
World Health Organization Social Determinants of Health
Read the WHO site found above
The Policy Process: Introduction to Political Theories: The Stages Heuristics Model
Issue Definition
Agenda Setting
Formulation
Adoption
Implementation
Evaluation
Conceptual Frameworks: Three Streams Approach
“Window of Opportunity”
These three streams flow independently until they meet at a critical point, and this affords the opportunity for problems to be adopted into policy. These opportunities are short lived and do not occur often. They may be stimulated by political events such as a change in administration or Congress or by a change in how insistent the public (national mood) is about the government responding to a particular problem.
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Problem: Social Problems
Policy: Bureaucrats, academicians, researchers, congressional staff
Politics: National mood, and changes in administration