Policy and Evaluation in Public Health

This essay focuses on the harmful drinking issues among the population of the UK and the policy developed by the government to tackle this issue. It discusses the history of the policy, factors influencing its development, key elements, programs and interventions, stakeholders involved, and the effectiveness of the policy.

POLICY AND
EVALUATION IN PUBLIC
HEALTH

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
BACKGROUND.............................................................................................................................1
Explanation of key concepts........................................................................................................1
Importance of the public health topic and key statistics on the public health topic....................1
Value of a healthy public policy/health in all policies approach in informing the policy process
and thereby improving individual, family, community and population health and wellbeing....3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
History of policy in harmful drinking area, ways in which it has evolved over time and reason
because of which it has evolved in the way that it has................................................................3
What social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental factors have influenced ways in
which policy has been developed. Explanation and analysis of reason because of which these
factors influence the policy in the way they did..........................................................................4
Policy vision, aim and objectives................................................................................................5
Population targeted by policy and why.......................................................................................5
Key elements of the policy, the key programmes and interventions and ways in which policy
think these programmes and interventions will improve population health................................5
Are programmes and interventions included in the policy appropriate from a public health
perspective and are there any gaps in the policy.........................................................................6
Key stakeholders were involved in the policy process, reason because of which they were
involved, influence they had........................................................................................................6
Does policy address health equity and inequalities issue............................................................7
How is the policy being implemented and put into operation.....................................................7
What do any existing evaluations tell us about the effectiveness of the policy..........................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Government has developed guidelines for people that helps in understanding unit of
alcohol that they should consume and how frequently they should consume it (Mialon and
McCambridge, 2018). This policy was important to be developed because more than 50 percent
population of UK do not consume alcohol as per these guidelines and consumption of excess
alcohol is harmful and dangerous of health. This essay will be focusing upon harmful drinking
issues among population of UK and policy developed by government of UK for tackling this
issue. This harmful drinking policy was developed so that consumption of alcohol among people
can be reduced.
BACKGROUND
Explanation of key concepts
It is fundamentally important for government so that they can bring improvement within
health, well-being, and safety of people. Not only this, these polices are also developed to set a
standard for all the major activities for a person such as education, job, salary, heath, healthcare
services etc. Policy development is a plan or course of action by the government (Das and et. al.,
2019). Policies developed by government mostly comply within existing law but mostly led to
proposal of new laws. Policy ‘2010 to 2015 government policy: harmful drinking’ is an
important policy developed UK government that has been developed in order to bring changes
within overall behaviour of people in terms of drinking alcohol. It not only helps in generating
awareness among people about alcohol consumption, but helps in limiting unit of consumption
so that it harmful effect upon health can be reduced.
Importance of the public health topic and key statistics on the public health topic
Public health is an important topic which is required to be developed so that government
can support individuals, organizations, society, tackle any kind of preventable disease or issue,
mortality, and disability. In terms of public health, development of government policy is
important so that overall health of people can be enhanced, issues due to which overall health of
people can be degraded can also be tackled or eliminated (Babor and et. al., 2018). Some of the
public health policies have been developed so that to support healthier lifestyle among people.
Harmful alcohol consumption is one of the most important health topic which is required
to be focused upon today from time to time consumption of alcohol is increasing day by day.
Consumption of high unit of alcohol is one of the main reason behind various diseases or heath
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issues such as liver damage etc. Not only this, according to current epidemiological statistics on
UK harmful drinking, it has been identified that mortality rate in UK is increasing due to harmful
or excessive consumption of Alcohol. In UK, in 20187,551 alcohol-specific deaths were
recorded i.e., around 11.9 per 100,000 people (Viet Cuong and et. al., 2018).
Above graph clealry helps in understandign that as number of units of alcohol
consumption per day of an individual increases, mortality rate also increases. Another graph
below helps in understanding that as number of unit consumption of alcohol among people
increases related health risk factor among people also increases. Below graph also helps in
understanding that women are more at risk as comared to men if their alcohol unit conumption
increase.
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Value of a healthy public policy/health in all policies approach in informing the policy process
and thereby improving individual, family, community and population health and wellbeing
Health in all policies is a kind of approach for public policy in different sectors that focuses
upon health implications of decisions, avoid harmful health impacts so that overall improvement
within population health and health equity can be brought. healthy public policy plays a vital role
and major importance in all policies approach as it helps in making health choices possible or
much easier for people (Rose and Jones, 2018). It helps in making both social and physical
environment of people much better and health enhancing. In all policies approach health public
policy has much value and more weightage because it helps in avoiding any kind of harmful
health impacts because of which overall physical or mental health of people can get impacted. it
further helps in providing evidence informed policy making. It can also be said that it helps in
developing good knowledge base about policy making or progress of policy. It further helps in
incorporating ways in which health considerations in policy making can be incorporated in order
to reach target goal of enhancing overall wellbeing and health of target population, individuals,
families and communities.
MAIN BODY
History of policy in harmful drinking area, ways in which it has evolved over time and reason
because of which it has evolved in the way that it has
Harmful drinking policy majorly focuses upon consumption of alcohol and its harmful
effects upon physical and mental health of a person. First Alcohol policy was developed in 2005
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for reduction of harmful alcohol reduction. This policy helped in reducing various harmful and
irresponsible practises. But then this policy did not make any impact then in 2008 restriction in
sales, pricing and consumption of alcohol policy was developed but this policy was thawed in
parliament because government failed to secure support of cross party (Das and et. al., 2019).
UK had classified its population in highest alcohol consumers and in world’s per capita
consumption rate UK is on 25th number. UK need to focus upon alcohol consumption policy so
that harmful drinking impact upon overall health of people can be reduced. In 2012 UK
government set an alcohol strategy proposal in 2012 in order to crackdown compulsive drinking
culture that was common among UK population. This proposal was developed to stop alcohol
fuelled violence. Between 2010-2011 there were approximately 1.2 million alcohol related
hospitalization out of which 15,000 deaths were caused due to alcohol. After this final harmful
drinking policy was developed in which units of alcohol consumption that a person should have
in a day were specified.
What social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental factors have influenced ways in
which policy has been developed. Explanation and analysis of reason because of which
these factors influence the policy in the way they did
There are various kinds of factors that has influenced harmful policy developed, some of
them have ben explained below:
Social factors: social factors directly influence policy development. Government need to develop
new policies as per social developments, openness of people and acceptability of people.
Government need to develop policy in such a manner that people can accept the new policy
development easily. Development of harmful drinking policy should be developed as per the
social influence of alcohol on people. For example alcohol consumption is a part of social culture
of people of UK so government cannot develop policy that bans alcohol consumption as this
policy wont be accepted by people (Nadkarni and et. al., 2017).
Cultural factors: culture affect overall behaviour of people, their value formation. This is the
main reasons cultural factors affect policy development because government need to take it into
consideration that value of people are not hurt or changed dur to new policy.
Economic factors: these are main factors that influence policy development because it has direct
impact on economic growth of country. For example 2.5% of UK GDP is due to sales of alcohol
so banning alcohol consumption or its sales will directly reduce 2.5% GDP of country.
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Political factors: priorities in political development also affect policy development because
political factors can directly affect implementation of new policies.
Environmental factors: development of new policy should not affect environment as it can affect
implementation of policy.
Policy vision, aim and objectives
Main aim of government of UK though this harmful drinking policy is to tackle and deal
with alcohol addiction.
Main vision of this policy is to change drinking culture in country in order to reduce harm
caused by alcohol to individuals, families, communities.
Main objectives required to be achieved by this policy are:
 To reduce number of unit alcohol consumption of alcohol daily by people
 To reduce harm caused by alcohol consumption to community.
 To reduce impact of excessive alcohol drinking of lives of individuals and on their families.
Population targeted by policy and why
Population targeted by this policy are people of UK who drink alcohol in excessive
among daily because of which its consumption becomes harmful for them. Thus population
group has been chosen by government because in UK 15% death occur only because of
excessive consumption of harmful alcohol (Harmful Drinking, 2021). Focusing upon this target
group government Cn focus upon reducing their consumption of alcohol.
Key elements of the policy, the key programmes and interventions and ways in which policy
think these programmes and interventions will improve population health
Alcohol treatment for dependent and harmful alcohol drinkers is one of the main key
elements of this policy. Reduction in number of unit consumption is another key element of this
policy.
Key program and interventions focused upon by this policy are: first intervention was
that no alcohol related programs or advertisements should be shown during any television
program. It is an important intervention because it will help in reducing attraction of alcohol
consumption among people. Another program was to deliver advices from healthcare
professionals to alcohol addicts because their advice can strongly bring changes within overall
behaviour of people.
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UK government had launched drug and alcohol recovery pilot programme in which
treatment providers were paid for achieving results in: service users become free from alcohol or
drug addiction, reduced reoffending of service users, and improving heath and wellbeing of
alcohol addicts. This program was important to be focused upon because it can directly help in
reducing overall alcohol addicts.
Are programmes and interventions included in the policy appropriate from a public health
perspective and are there any gaps in the policy
As per the literature reading, included interventions and programs were not sufficient to
reduce consumption of alcohol among harmful drinking drinkers. More programs and
interventions should be focused upon by government so that quantity of alcohol consumption by
drinkers can be reduced (2010 to 2015 government policy: harmful drinking, 2021). There were
some gaps in these programs and interventions such as it did not focus upon people drink or
consume alcohol on daily basis without any gap but in allowed quantity. It is dangerous because
even though a person drink or consume alcohol in defied quantity by their consume it on daily
basis then it can impact their health.
Key stakeholders were involved in the policy process, reason because of which they were
involved, influence they had
Some of the main stakeholders of this harmful drinking policy are: alcohol industry, local
government authorities and non-government organizations.
Alcohol industry was one of the main key stakeholders of this policy because it directly
impacts sales and profitability of their industry because if number of alcohol consumers reduced
then it would have impacted sales and consumption of alcohol which was not fruitful of their
industry. they did not have much power but they did influence this policy in fact it can be said
that they were one of the major obstacles in implementation of this policy.
Local government authorities were another important stakeholder of this policy because they
were the one who were required to participate in making implementation of this policy
successful such as healthcare professionals working in government organizations are responsible
in participating programs for treating alcohol addicted. They do not have much power but can
influence success or failure of policy (2010 to 2015 government policy: harmful drinking, 2021).
NGO also influence this healthcare policy because they are the one who raise awareness among
people about drastic and harmful effects of alcohol consumption on people.
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Does policy address health equity and inequalities issue
Yes, this heath policy does address health equality and inequality issues. This policy does
provide social justice in terms of heath to all the people who are addicted to alcohol. Healthcare
program that this policy had developed were for all alcohol addicts. So, there were no health
inequalities in this policy that could have raised.
How is the policy being implemented and put into operation
Policy generation is always seen as tension generation force in society.as tension is
generated between society, policy implementors. In order to implement policy, a proposal and
counter proposal are created among different government actors who’s main aim is to modify to
permit an agreement to reach their target population (2010 to 2015 government policy: harmful
drinking, 2021). When this proposal is passed it is required to be passed by the parliament in
order to be implemented as a policy. When policy is passed by parliament as well it is put into
operation by the government.
What do any existing evaluations tell us about the effectiveness of the policy
There is no particular evaluation report of this government policy that helps in explaining
success or failure of this policy. But success or failure of this policy can be evaluated by national
healthcare statistics then it has been observed that in last two years alcohol related death and
hospitalization has reduced. These statistics helps in understanding that till an extent this policy
has been beneficial but however this policy has failed to reduce number of alcohol consumers in
UK.
Yes, there is an analysis research of harmful drinking policy of UK. There were various
kinds of intense criticisms of policy research analysis that were faced by this policy. these
criticisms were due to failure of this policy to solve most significant public health problems in
the shortest time possible. This policy has failed to reduce consumption of alcohol in UK.
Academic s and research play a vital and important plays a vital role in identifying ways in
which improvements within this policy can be brought. Academics will help government in
identifying areas upon which they can focus whereas, research can help government in
identifying current situation of the issues, areas where their policy fail to bring improvement.
There is epidemiological research evidence that helps in providing evidence on interventions on
inside of policy. This research helps in explaining that interventions of this policy were not
fruitful at community level. There were various kinds of substantial effects of alcohol sales in
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UK that directly impacted whole community and reduce effectiveness of this harmful drinking
policy on overall population of UK who consumed Alcohol.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it has been summarized that in order to achieve its main aim,
objectives and vision, UK government can focus upon putting one or another kind of restriction
on overall sales of Alcohol and strict actions on excess consumption of alcohol. This will directly
help them in bringing improvement within overall population health and wellbeing because if
sales of alcohol will be restricted and restriction of excess consumption of alcohol will be put
then it will directly restrict and being consumption of alcohol in control. For this it is important
to put some limitation on production of and sales of alcohol by, alcohol industry. It has also been
summarised that if any kind of change within social, cultural, economic, political, and
environmental factor or change in stakeholders and their powers occurs then it will result in
bringing changes within these policies as well. Because these factors and stakeholders directly
impact harmful drinking policy.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Babor, T.F., and et. al., 2018. Is the alcohol industry doing well by ‘doing good’? Findings from
a content analysis of the alcohol industry’s actions to reduce harmful drinking. BMJ
open. 8(10). p.e024325.
Das, R.K., and et. al., 2019. Ketamine can reduce harmful drinking by pharmacologically
rewriting drinking memories. Nature communications. 10(1). pp.1-10.
Mialon, M. and McCambridge, J., 2018. Alcohol industry corporate social responsibility
initiatives and harmful drinking: a systematic review. The European Journal of Public
Health. 28(4). pp.664-673.
Nadkarni, A., and et. al., 2017. Counselling for Alcohol Problems (CAP), a lay counsellor-
delivered brief psychological treatment for harmful drinking in men, in primary care in
India: a randomised controlled trial. The Lancet. 389(10065). pp.186-195.
Rose, A.K. and Jones, A., 2018. Baclofen: its effectiveness in reducing harmful drinking,
craving, and negative mood. A meta‐analysis. Addiction. 113(8). pp.1396-1406.
Viet Cuong, P., and et. al., 2018. Cross‐country comparison of proportion of alcohol consumed
in harmful drinking occasions using the International Alcohol Control Study. Drug and
alcohol review. 37. pp.S45-S52.
Online
2010 to 2015 government policy: harmful drinking. 2021. [Online]. Available Through:<
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-policy-
harmful-drinking/2010-to-2015-government-policy-harmful-drinking>.
Harmful Drinking. 2021. [Online]. Available Through:< https://www.gov.uk/health-and-social-
care/harmful-drinking>.
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