Women's Health Policy - National Women's Health Strategy: 2020-2030

This essay discusses the National Women's Health Strategy: 2020-2030, a policy launched by the Australian government to address health inequities faced by women and girls. It explores the problem and context, stakeholders, policy process, solutions, and effectiveness of the policy.

Policy analysis
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Table of Contents
Topic: Women's health policy - National Women's Health Strategy: 2020-2030...........................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Problem and context....................................................................................................................3
Frame of references.....................................................................................................................4
Targets, stakeholders and their representation............................................................................5
Policy Process.............................................................................................................................5
Policy Solutions..........................................................................................................................6
Effectiveness...............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
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Topic: Women's health policy - National Women's Health Strategy: 2020-2030
Introduction
Caring for the health of the citizens is one of the sectors that a government of a country
cannot be complacent about. Government of Australia undertakes many policies such as mental
health policy, preventive health policy, aboriginal health policy, etc. to provide a direction to
face challenges presented to the well-being of its citizens (Bacchi and Goodwin, 2016). Below
mentioned essay pertains to discuss health policy launched for women of country by Australian
government and is titled as National Women's Health Strategy: 2020-2030. Under this essay,
current and historical context to the women health problem is discussed as it forms the basis for
the discourse that is underlying this theory. Further, stakeholders are identified to understand
their representation in the policy process. In the final segment of the essay, solutions put forward
in the policy for the problem in context have been discussed to determine its effectiveness.
Main Body
Problem and context
Ensuring the health and longevity of women in communities has always been challenging
with both new and on-going health and wellness issues that they face. Different women and girls
of different age and ethnic groups have both general and specific health needs and face
challenges to fulfil them due to either economic or social constrictions (Graham, McKenzie and
Lamaro, 2018). These challenges include a range of factors such as social, behavioural,
economic, biomedical or environmental influences that further leads to various health inequities
such as health literacy, gender inequality, stigma, access to services, etc. during various stages of
their life. This policy seeks to aim and target to develop a coordinated action both at the national
and jurisdictional level in order to address above mentioned health inequities women and girls in
Australia have to face. Acknowledging and addressing unique needs of different age groups of
women of different ethnicities in the country from all geographical ranges is included as a key
element in this strategic policy, with a view to develop targeted interventions that are capable of
improving their health outcomes.
Key problems that this policy highlights and undertakes to drive change ranges in five
critical areas around problems faced by girls and women (Felton-Busch and Larkins, 2019).
These priority problems are related to maternal, sexual and reproductive health; healthy ageing;
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chronic conditions and preventive health, mental health and impacts of violence against women
and girls on their health. However, there are still certain things that requires to be updated in this
policy such as coherence or connected mention between priority areas such as out of five key
areas, mental health area part of policy follows different structure than others which makes it
difficult to comprehend for the reader as to what is covered or what is left in the discussion.
Further, there is no specific differentiation between general risk or identifying those women who
are at more risk of poor health to provide them additional care and health services (Dalton and et.
al., 2020).
Frame of references
This policy has five key principle areas such as gender equity, health equity between
women, a life course approach to health, a focus on prevention and a strong and emerging
evidence base (National Women's Health Strategy 2020-2030, 2018). It derives all its strategic
objectives on those basis. Therefore, throughout this policy those key policy principles provides
a common frame of reference and are dominantly present during the course of the business. This
policy then further contains certain words that are present in sections covering all the policy
principles. These words are diagnosis, treatment, awareness and information. These references
are two dimensional - one, awareness related i.e. it shows that policy has a primary objective of
improving access to information and awareness among the women related to various discourses
available to them for the challenges and issues faced by them (Edwards and et. al., 2016). This is
a preventive and mitigating action. Another dimension is contingency action i.e. in case, they
face issues that requires them multi-faceted care, they should receive that care as promptly as
possible. Underlying assumptions behind using these words as reference or common mentions is
that, this policy aims for building resilient medical and social infrastructure that is capable of
supporting girls and women of all ages with their specific needs. Policymakers understand that
since, they aim for long term objectives, it is important to build a change in the society so that all
those health issues that stems out of mental pressure or violence can be reduced. Mostly mental
issues arise out of social stigma and change their nature to physical violence or illness.
Therefore, it is very important for policymakers to take into consideration, chronic conditions
that are behind reducing preventive health among the women and girls in the country
(Hankivsky, 2019).
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Targets, stakeholders and their representation
Stakeholders are those groups which influence the decision-making of the policy and are
inversely impacted by the decisions taken in the policy. This policy mainly targets women and
girls of all ages from all kinds of spheres in the country, constituting the primary stakeholder
group. It was identified in the policy that women are very attached to their surroundings and the
people in their surrounding (Hancock, 2020). Therefore, they are strongly influenced by the
endeavour and contributions that are made by the range of other stakeholders that were identified
in the policy document as well. These institutional stakeholders include individuals, families and
care givers, government of all levels, communities, non-government organisations, health sector
of public and private sectors and researchers and academics. It is assumed that all of these
institutional stakeholders when work together in cooperation will lead to more successful system
and outcomes (Cavanagh and et. al., 2017).
Primary subjects of the policy are well-represented in the policy in the manner that all the
factors identified and discussed in the policy aim to provide appropriate, accessible and equitable
prevention and care in order to enable improvement of health and well-being of all women and
girls in Australia, especially those who are at greatest poor health risk. Different social groups
are covered in this policy through the principles that have been developed in order to set strategy
objectives for the policy. For example, community has been given responsibility to take health
initiatives such as invest in developing habits of positive intervention and prevention of gender-
based health and holistic care from childhood or that researchers and academicians must indulge
in data collection, monitoring and knowledge transfer of the evidence based women health
information. It is a clear case of integrating moral and social responsibility of the whole society
towards the cause of maintaining women's health (Spangaro and et. al., 2016).
Policy Process
National Women's Health Strategy is a document that has been designed to complement
and align healthcare policies related to women with all other health-related policies and
strategies. It is like defining gender-specific approach in the general policy guidelines.
Recognising that physical and mental challenges of women are different than men, this policy
has been developed through a consultative process that included the data input of the latest
evidence available on the women health in the country as well as opinions of the leading health
experts, health sector members and wider communities of Australia (Grant, Nash and Hansen,
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2020). An open discussion was invited and window was opened for suggestion however, the
group which was supposedly be targeted in the policy was not directly involved in the
discussion. During development of the policy, mainly interest of the women in Australia
especially those who are having poor health risk or those who are having ethnic disadvantages
(Shakespeare and et. al., 2020). It includes the representation of women and girls and the sub-
population groups of women and girls on the basis of age. However, it ignored that there is a
difference in the needs and challenges of teenager girl of aboriginal community and a teenager
girl of modern society. This policy is generalised and the specific voices of women and girls who
vary with the physical, emotional, socio-economic and cultural circumstances. Policymakers
were imminent personalties of their field while the discussions and suggestions were made by
common and regular Australians as well. This gave rise to the conflicting situations in the
competing rights and power differentials of the two sides of the policy development. Common
person wants policy according to their needs while policymakers were looking for strategies that
can be helpful to general targeted group. Australia is a WHO member and is also committed to
adopt United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is a 17 points-agenda and
application of SDG3, SDG5 and SDG10 were the motivating factors for development of this
policy. These points require actions to achieve gender-equality and to reduce inequalities and
provided the windows of opportunities to the development of this policy in nature of its scope
and international commitment (Keogh and et. al., 2017).
Policy Solutions
As mentioned-above this policy has five priority areas. There were so many initiatives
taken in this policy as suggestions and for implementation. For example, in the area of maternal,
sexual and reproductive health, it was identified that it was required to promote access to
information so that children and adults can learn the correct and safe knowledge about
reproductive health. Therefore, it was introduced in academic knowledge. This not only helps
raise awareness and prevention but also helps reduce sexually transmitted diseases and further
complication for the women (Gete, Waller and Mishra, 2020). However, the role of civil society
in this area has been overlooked and might have proved more effective as they would have
promote both maternal health and perinatal health in such a manner that women could relate to it
in more easier and effective manner. For healthy ageing, policy provided for development of
resilient infrastructure for training, counselling and support of women who are vulnerable.
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Health professionals, GPs, pharmacists, etc. were educated to provide care to elders and protect
them against abuse (Sassine and et. al., 2020). However, what could have worked better was that
women were taught and made understand to adopt a life course approach that would have helped
them age naturally and in a healthy manner from early age and a coherent societal framework
was developed. Such alternative would have included identifying key risk factors that would
reduce quality of life for women as they age and also would have helped them manage the needs
of ageing population better.
Effectiveness
Policy undertaken to be discussed in this essay pertains to a complete decade and in the
present time, it has been implemented and running in the policy period. Since, this pertains to a
decade, it has been focusing on developing resilient infrastructure which government of
Australia is effectively building in support with civil society of the country (Woolhouse and et.
al., 2016). It is a governmental policy and government is accountable to the people of Australia
and in the global age, it is accountable to international organisations as well as this policy has
been developed in compliance with the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. Most
effective evaluation measure of this policy is research on the infrastructure of pre-policy period
and changes brought in the policy period. These have proven effective considering the fact they
provide data to the government for undertaking improvement work as the policy is still ongoing.
Conclusion
Above essay has been prepared to discuss the current road map of women health as
provided for by the government of Australia in the decade of 2020 to 2030. Problems and
contexts of the policy was discussed in the essay that this policy aims to discuss and identify the
manner in which challenges faced by girls and women of Australia can be solved. It was
identified that their problems were part of social spectrum and therefore, multiple individual and
institutional stakeholders take part as participant in development of policy that aims for the
betterment of only one section of the society. Further, it was seen that this policy identifies five
priority areas and suggest many solutions to overcome the challenges present in them.
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References
Books and Journal
Bacchi, C. and Goodwin, S., 2016. Poststructural policy analysis: A guide to practice. Springer.
Cavanagh, A. and et. al., 2017. Differences in the expression of symptoms in men versus women
with depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Harvard review of
psychiatry. 25(1). pp.29-38.
Dalton, T. and et. al., 2020. Making social policy in Australia: An introduction. Routledge.
Edwards, S. and et. al., 2016. Miscarriage in Australia: The geographical inequity of healthcare
services. Australasian Emergency Nursing Journal. 19(2). pp.106-111.
Felton-Busch, C. and Larkins, S., 2019. Remote dwelling Aboriginal Australian women and
birthing: a critical review of literature. Women and Birth. 32(1). pp.6-15.
Gete, D. G., Waller, M. and Mishra, G. D., 2020. Prepregnancy dietary patterns and risk of
preterm birth and low birth weight: findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on
Women's Health. The American journal of clinical nutrition. 111(5). pp.1048-1058.
Graham, M., McKenzie, H. and Lamaro, G., 2018. Exploring the Australian policy context
relating to women’s reproductive choices. Policy Studies. 39(2). pp.145-164.
Grant, R., Nash, M. and Hansen, E., 2020. What does inclusive sexual and reproductive
healthcare look like for bisexual, pansexual and queer women? Findings from an
exploratory study from Tasmania, Australia. Culture, health & sexuality. 22(3). pp.247-
260.
Hancock, L. ed., 2020. Health policy in the market state. Routledge.
Hankivsky, O., 2019. 5. Gender-Based Analysis and Health Policy: The Need to Rethink
Outdated Strategies. In Women's Health in Canada (pp. 143-168). University of Toronto
Press.
Keogh, L. A. and et. al., 2017. Intended and unintended consequences of abortion law reform:
perspectives of abortion experts in Victoria, Australia. Journal of Family Planning and
Reproductive Health Care. 43(1). pp.18-24.
Sassine, H. and et. al., 2020. Why do women choose homebirth in Australia? A national
survey. Women and Birth.
Shakespeare, M. and et. al., 2020. Theories of Indigenous and non-Indigenous wellbeing in
Australian health policies. Health Promotion International.
Spangaro, J. and et. al., 2016. ‘They aren't really black fellas but they are easy to talk to’: Factors
which influence Australian Aboriginal women's decision to disclose intimate partner
violence during pregnancy. Midwifery. 41. pp.79-88.
Woolhouse, H. and et. al., 2016. Maternal depressive symptoms at three months postpartum and
breastfeeding rates at six months postpartum: Implications for primary care in a
prospective cohort study of primiparous women in Australia. Women and Birth. 29(4).
pp.381-387.
Online
National Women's Health Strategy 2020-2030. 2018. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/
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