Health Policy for the Old People - Essay Writing Assessment Answers

1. Introduction

Policy refers to the decision, planning and actions that is applicable to a specific social group, for example, the old people in an attempt to achieve the predetermined health goals that the social set up is striving to achieve (Blank & Burau, 2013). An explicit policy for the old people can help them achieving several objectives. For example, the vision that they have for the future that assists in establishing healthy targets and remaining physically, mentally and spiritually fit. It also helps in outlining the priorities and the roles that are expected from the different groups that provide support to the older generation in the society. Moreover, it helps the society in establishing the consensus and informing the people of their important roles and benefits of taking up the roles..

For example, health policy for the old people is involved with the strengthening of the health systems. It aims to provide positive contributions to the health sector, especially those that are established across the developing nations (Kulzhanov & Rechel, 2015). The policies help the health sector through the following approaches;

1. It participates in the process of funding of various health’s experimental results. It also participates in disseminating and translating the valuable results. The findings and knowledge across the health sectors that is generated will be translated to provide help to the old folks in the society.
2. The policy helps in the creation of the ethical and evidence- based research policies that include the ethical standards and norms for caring the old.
3. Policies also help in the promotions, perform the monitoring and participate in the process of implementing the high quality of health research and evidence that improve the effectiveness of health sector in caring for the old.

2. The origin of the Health Policies for the old

Over the last few years, health policies that target to improve the health status of the aged in the society have gained a significant attraction. Their origin dates back to about 35 years ago. It is during the time of declaration of the Alma-Ata in the year 1978 by the World Health Organization (World Health organization, 2015). The policy development encourages the intersectoral approach in designing the practical policies for caring the old. The intersectoral policy collaboration for the improvement of population health provides a wider base of tackling the health issues that older generation faces in the society. It also includes the global spread of the health policies (World Health organization, 2015).

3. Factors that prompted the changes in the health policy formulation

There is a high prevalence of the factors that affect aged health status and thus, require the policy makers to address them. Through the suggestion from several studies that addresses the so-economic inequalities, for example, inadequate education that is contributing to high mortality rates (Busse, Aboneh & Tefera, 2014). The studies provide constructive contributions to the overall improvement of the population health as compared to the emergence of new medical interventions and advances. There is a growing economic inequality across the developing countries and thus, might lead to conditions of worst inequalities in the health status of the old people and the poor developments of the health sectors across the globe.

The economic well-being is a key issue in the policy that determines the old people health. The living conditions of poverty are associated with some of the significant worse health outcomes all over the world across all the communities (Capacci et al., 2012). In addition, the less structural and economic support that is extended to the old because of unemployment states of the population are associated with both poorer mental and physical health outcomes. It is believed that poverty is responsible for creating the several damages of health aspects over the life course. Policies that govern health include the creations of the factors that create limitations to the opportunities and participations that are directly linked to financial resources. The financial resources that is inadequate and scarce. It also promotes the education and creates the education opportunities. Policies also help in trying to improve the early life and education environments that are risky (Drummond et al., 2015).

4. The fundamental issues and element of health that is considered in the policy

For the policy makers, there is no specified approach that can be used in designing and implementing the health policies for the old people. Most of the health aspects that are featured in the policy are the initiative that applies to the social set up that is being focused during the policy formulations. The policy initiatives that are fundamentally based on the health issues of equity that the population faces. The formulation is, therefore, considered to be varied in structural formation, a process, the scope and the nature of participation that will suit the initiatives that are used.

The government has several opportunities to use activities that are helpful in decision making regardless of the structured that has been used by the policy makers. These actions can be viewed to be falling along a spectrum that ranges from the opportunities that one-time for the input of the stakeholder activities that completely embed the considerations in health into the aspects of the government decision-making process (Friedberg et al., 2013). Where an operation or an action is considered to be falling in the spectrum, it depends on the nature of how the action incorporates the key elements.

4.1 Promotion of health, equity, and the sustainability

The health policies are aimed at promoting health, equity in access, and the sustainability through the use of two approaches (Blank & Burau, 2013). These approaches include;

1. The incorporation of health, equity in access, and sustainability mechanisms together with the policies that are specific, clearly outlined programs, and the designed processes.
2. Considerations include the issues of health, equity in access, and sustainability processes in the decision-making process of the government. It is incorporated in the policy making to make it a norm in governmental operations.

The nature of promoting equity in access is essential to health policy in consideration of the strong relationships that have been established between poorer health outcomes and inequity in access to the members of the society or a nation.

4.2 Support intersectional collaboration

The policy that is designed to govern the health issues needs to have an element that brings together all the together partners from other sectors with the aim of recognizing the relationships between health-related issues and other factors that are covered in the and policy statement. It should also design to establish partnerships that help in the promotions of health, equity in access and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the government. The consideration of agencies that do not typically promote health help in playing key roles in shaping and improving the socioeconomic, physical, and the service environments in which humans exists. Therefore, they have an opportunity to play a key role in promoting equity and health.

4.3 Benefiting multiple partners

The policy formulation should be designed in a way that it benefits multiple partners. It should also simultaneously address the objectives of the public health agencies. The benefits should also gather for the expectations of other agencies and help in creating the multi-agency effectiveness in presenting solutions to the health and equity. The concept is important during the process of securing and consolidating support from all the stakeholders and partners in the process of reducing redundancies and ensuring more effectiveness in the utilization of the scarce resources available in the government (Starfield, 2012).

4.4 Engage stakeholders

The policies designed need to have an element that provides engagement to the variety of the stakeholders in the health sector. The stakeholders include the policy experts, health advocates, the community members, the donors, funders and the private sector. The provision of the high-level engagement of all the stakeholders in the health sector is important so as to ensure that the work is work is responsive. The nature of the response to community needs is necessary for the creation of the changes that will impact the entire social or the community.

4.5 Creation of both the structural and the procedural change

The policies are designed in a manner that will create the nature of how all the agencies in the health sector relate to each other. It will also influence the decision-making processes by the government. Therefore, it requires the constant maintenance of the structures that are helpful sustaining the inter-sectoral collaborations. It can ensure the establishment of the mechanisms that can be used in the effective establishment of better health care and equity in access during the process of decision-making processes across the government (Milteer et al., 2012). The future is considered to be the process of embedding or institutionalizing the policies of health in the existing structures and processes of the government.

5. The health policies for the old and their impact on their health

The decisions that are featured in the policy affect the status of public health. The decisions incorporated are not limited to corporations and agencies that are concerned with the improvement of health. Moreover, the effects of other policies outside the health sector are believed to be causing more profound effects on the policies in the health sector. It is explained that the policies that are outside the health sector, for example, housing, transportation, income, employment and social assistances are considered to be the social determinants of health. The problem is the process of recognizing the effects that the health policies create on these social. The considerations need to incorporate the effects on the groups, the time of the occurrences, and the nature of the effects (Manary et al., 2013).

6. Challenges in policy designing and implementation

Therefore, it is important to take into consideration some factors that are fundamental to seeing the relationships and connections between the public policies and the health amongst the populations.

6.1 Complexity

The considerations of the social determinant of health are very important. However, the determinants are deeply woven together with the social structures and have various influences from the several social factors. For example, the economic status is strongly linked to the nature of the health status of the population. In addition, the income level relationship with the health care is a complex phenomenon in the social set up.

6.2 Embeddedness

It is a challenge for the policy makers to outline the level of linkages that exist between the health sector policies and those from other sectors and agencies. There are typical influences from other factors and isolation of the policy from the population context within which it is unfolding provide a limited outlook of the effect of the policy in the social context (Kulzhanov & Rechel, 2015). The interactive nature of the policy in the social context is very important as they provide a real picture of the social environment.

6.3 The multisectoral in nature

The consideration is taken after the first two factors. After acknowledging the effects of other social determinants on the population’s health, it is important to use the approach that considers the multisetorial issues. Through the multisectorial approach, it requires explicit expansion of the circle of discourse that surrounds issues. To work across the sectors, it is very necessary to have a clear outline of issues (Halpern et al., 2012). This will help in providing a coordinated response to the identified social issues that are affecting health.

Conclusion

The search for a lack of knowledge, the mixture of scientific evidence is important in establishing the contextual factors and balances during the process of designing effective policies. The information on the elements can be found by analysing the available range of values, expertise, perspectives, and advice that is provided by the different stakeholders and the related sectors. Through the process of analysing all the values rigour and openness, the specific and the general, the persuasive evidence it provide a basis of policy formulation. In addition, the imperativeness of the nature of the effects unfolding in particular situations, it puts the policy makers in a better position of addressing the challenges.