Health Policy and Advocacy | Report

Running head: HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS 1
Health Policy and advocacy
Introduction
Health policy refers to actions, decisions, and plans that are undertaken by a state to
reach certain healthcare objectives. A clear health policy achieves several things, which
include determination of future vision that helps in establishing certain targets and reference
points both short and medium-term. In Australia, there are different health policy problems,
including preventive health policy, mental health policy, women's health policy, Torres Strait
Island, and Aboriginal health policy and men's health policy. The problems need to be
addressed in different perspectives to make sure satisfaction in Australia. The health policy to
be addressed in the paper is Western Australian Women’s Health and Wellbeing Policy. The
paper greatly deals with the analysis of the preventative health policy.
Problem and Context
The Western Australian woman's health policy emerged with the objective of
improving women's health care. At the federal level, the Women’s health policy tried to make
significant gains for all the women in the society despite certain setbacks in the sector of
reproductive rights. The policy became a strong political force, and most of the sectors gave
significant support (Government of Western Australia, 2019). Historically, women regarded
as consumer health activists wanted changes in the health care sector. The woman’s rights
campaigners demanded equal rights for all the women in the state. The women's activities
working in different arenas came together purposely for the election of supportive
governments, employment of feminists in different key positions, and come up with
opportunities for expansion of the policy afforded by federalism. The influences within the
Australian context of support for social liberalism account for the policy position of the
country.

Running head: HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS 2
Australia is considered to be among the country with the healthiest population in the
world (Bach, Kull, and Rangan, 2019). However, women experience high levels of sexual
and reproductive ill-health. During adolescence, sexual activity puts many adolescents at risk
of both sexual and reproductive health complications. The related problems include unsafe
abortion, early pregnancy, violence, sexual coercion, and transmitted sexual infections such
as HIV (Navodani et al., 2019). Furthermore, girls face genital mutilation in some cultures,
which have several consequences. In the country, many sexually active young women lack
the required knowledge that is needed to avoid unintended pregnancies and STIs
(Claringbold, Sanci, and Temple-Smith, 2019). Almost universally, the girls also lack enough
time to access to healthcare products, including contraceptives and condoms that help in
protection against unnecessary pregnancies and other related problems. Young women are
sometimes unable to negotiate the use of condoms and contraceptives with their partners. The
women’s health policy also demonstrates contraception as one of the problems in the sexual
and reproductive ill-health (Government of Western Australia, 2019). Many women may not
be in a position to negotiate the use of contraceptives because of the effects of alcohol and
other related drugs, being forced into sexual activity, and poor decision making in a
relationship. Other barriers to women accessing contraception include geographical location,
privacy concerns, cost, lack of information about options, or medical practitioner may refuse
to prescribe due to their values and personal beliefs.
Frame of Reference
The dominant frame of reference in this policy is the Department of Health in
Western Australia. The department has played a significant role in providing factual
information regarding the status quo of the condition aimed to be curbed by the policy. For
instance, factual information has been provided regarding the health risk factors among
Australian women. 82% of women who are aged above 15 years do not perform the

Running head: HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS 3
recommended amount of physical activity (Hands et al., 2016). 45% of ladies aged above 18
years do not take in the recommended amount of fruits. 87% of the same group of women
have less intake of vegetables (Blekkenhorst et al., 2017). The Department of Health WA
plays a significant role in expressing some of the primary health conditions faced by women
in the region. For instance, cancer contributes to 16%, mental health and substance use
contribute to 14%, musculoskeletal contributes to approximately 14%, cardiovascular
contributes to 11%, and finally respiratory contributes to 10%. This information helps to
guide the policymakers to conclude that chronic conditions are the major issues among
women. The most used word in the document is "women." The frequent use of this word
creates an emphasis that the policy is targeted towards curbing the challenges facing that
particular gender group. The underlying assumption in this policy is that the specifications
and priorities enshrined within the National Women’s Health Strategy 2020-2030 are not
adequately being implemented in Western Australia (Department of Health WA, 2015).
Target Stakeholders
The target of the policy is women. The policy goes further to clarify the meaning of
the term women as per the context of discourse by including girls. Several other stakeholders
have been involved in the formulation of the policy. The screenshot below shows the
representation of different stakeholders in the policy.