Health Policy Analysis and Critique: National Alcohol Policy for the Elderly

Running Head: HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS AND CRITIQUE 1
Health Policy Analysis and Critique: National Alcohol Policy for the Elderly
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HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS AND CRITIQUE 2
Health Policy Analysis and Critique: National Alcohol Policy for the Elderly
All public policies need to be analyzed before they can be considered for
implementation (Northway, Davies, Mansell, and Jenkins, 2007). Public policy analysis
intimates stakeholders on the relevance of a policy besides estimating its capabilities,
effects, and impacts on targeted populations. In the healthcare sector, health policy
analysis plays a significant role in informing healthcare stakeholders such as healthcare
practitioners, medical superintendents, the ministry of health officials, politicians,
patients and the general public, the real value that can be derived from the
implementation of a proposed policy. With a policy analysis, health policymakers are in
a position to weigh their options on a range of policy alternatives with the view of
arriving at the most optimal health care policy option. Facets informing decision
making for a particular health care policy include financial implications; political
atmosphere; legal concerns, impacts on targeted communities; social implications;
patient’s care implications, and family/caregiver viewpoints (Weimer and Vining,
2017). As such, policy analysis enables policymakers to establish a need for
establishing the effectiveness and efficiency of a health policy before its actual
implementation. In this paper, the primary focus will be on formulating and analyzing a
healthcare policy meant to combat alcohol abuse amongst the older population in
Australia.
The significance of the Policy Problem
In line with the National Alcohol Strategy 2018-2026, there has been a need to
not only prevent but also decrease alcohol-associated harms across the entire country’s
populations. This fight has been anchored on the need to identify federal priority areas

HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS AND CRITIQUE 3
of concern as well as opportunities for action. Moreover, it is premised on the need to
establish consented efforts to promote and facilitate advocacy efforts and forging of
partnerships and/or collaborations with relevant stakeholders including the private
sector, government as well as non- government sectors. In these efforts, the national
alcohol strategy is aiming to minimize harmful alcohol abuse by at least 10% (Kypri,
Thorn, and Crozier, 2018).
A primary health care policy such as alcohol abuse prevention and minimization
of its harmful effects amongst the elderly in Australia is an important one when the
devastating effects of alcohol are taken into consideration. Abusive alcohol
consumption has presented itself as a very complex issue across Australian
communities. Alcohol is the most abused drug in the whole of Australia with the
National Drug Strategy Household Survey (AIHW 2008) showing that approximately
90% of adults have ever experienced alcohol at some point their lifetime and many
continue to do so most of their lifetime. The statistics also indicate that of these around
80 % are bound to consume alcohol within any particular year. Though most
Australian’s drink alcohol moderately, a quarter of the alcohol drinking population puts
itself at risk of alcohol-related harm of injuries from a single drinking occasion.
Those vulnerable to diseases or lifetime injuries account for about 17% of the
entire drinkers' number. In a 2004 study, Windle found out that even if the elderly aged
65 and above are bound to drink less alcohol on a single occasion than their youthful
counterparts, they tend to consume it on a daily basis (19.5% of males; 8.7% of
females). When older persons drink at these levels, they become more vulnerable to
age-related illnesses besides significantly increasing social-economic costs such as

HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS AND CRITIQUE 4
seeking health care, justice and policing. Moreover, alcoholism plays a significant role
in elevating family violence, road clashes, sexual violence and child abuse further
contributing to ethical dilemmas in policy development.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has lately singled out alcoholism as one
of the priority areas for primary health care consideration following its widespread
implications on communities. In a 1998 study, Deehan, Marshall, and Strang ran into
the conclusion that primary health care can be of help in laying health policies that can
assist in promoting, preventing, advocating for the minimization of alcoholism as well
as the treatment of alcoholics with mental illness. Australia's National Survey of Mental
Health and Wellbeing (NSMHWB) indicated that approximately 90% of older persons
are likely to report mental disorders in their lifetime which can majorly be attributed to
alcohol abuse (Reavley, Cvetkovski and Jorm, 2011). In addition to these shocking
statistics, alcoholism is the second contributor to tobacco to the Australian disease
burden. Alcohol has been associated with close to 200 chronic diseases as their major
risk factor. To this end, the formulation of an alcohol prevention and minimization of
harm health policy among the older persons is very crucial.
Reason for Choosing the Policy
Following the widespread negative impacts of excessive alcohol consumption as
highlighted above and Australia's commitment to the World Health Organization
Global Action Plan for the Prevention of and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases
2013–2020 that also requires world’s nations to minimize alcohol abuse by 10% by
2025, there is need to have a ratified health policy targeting the older population for the
same [World Health Organization, 2018]. This is because the alcohol abuse among the