Social Policies and Their Impact on Australian Public Health and Wellbeing

This article discusses the impact of social policies on the health and wellbeing of Australians. It covers topics such as responsible government, recovery model for mental health, and the purpose of social policy. The article cites relevant literature to support its claims.

Running head: SOCIAL POLICIES
Social Policies
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
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1SOCIAL POLICIES
Question 1.
McClelland (2016, p.3) stated “social policy change has dramatically affected the lives and
choices of Australian over time”. Using relevant literature provide one example of social
policy that contribute positively to the health and wellbeing of Australian public.
DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is one of the Australian immigration
policy that is meant for helping the individuals in Australia that have unlawful presence in the
country after being brought here as children for having access to renewable two-year period
of the deferred action from the deportation as well as to become eligible for working in the
country. As per the study of Lancet Public Health of 2017, it has been found that as a
significant result of this policy, the DACA eligible individuals in Australia has better mental
health outcomes because of the eligibility. Also, as per Venkataramani et al. (2017), by
receiving deferred action, the psychological well-being of the DACA eligible individuals was
improved and there was a notable decline in the levels of distress, fear and negative emotions
among them.
Question 2.
Using relevant literature, what is the role of public service/public servants in the process of
policy development?
Public servants or service play a significant role in the process of policy development.
They are responsible for mediating the delivery, creation and the sustenance of the services to
the public. Hence, they are a significant part of the process of formulation of policy and its
execution by means of which the services are provided to the people (Denhardt & Denhart,
2015). They run and manage the administration in efficient and effective manner so that the
development of the policy process runs smooth. They manage the human, economic and the
natural resources and ensures that people get the best with the minimum amount.

2SOCIAL POLICIES
Question 3.
What is the purpose of social policy?
Social policy is all about the ways in which societies all over the world meet the needs
of the human for education, security, health, wellbeing and work. Their main purpose is to
address how the societies and states respond to the global challenges of demographic, social
and the economic change as well as the issue of poverty, globalisation and migration
(Schelkle, 2019). In simple words it can be said that the main aim of the social policies are to
improve societies. They help people in living better lives and protect them from racism,
discrimination and bullying.
Question 4.
What is/are the characteristics and activities of responsible government? Provide a brief
description and role of each characteristic.
Responsible government is the government that is responsible to its citizens. They are
basically the executive or cabinet, which are independent on the support of any elected
assembly, instead of the monarch. In Australia, this term is used for describing the political
system where the executive government, the Ministry and the Cabinet is drawn from or are
accountable to the legislative branch (Gilchrist, 2018). This means that the elections of the
parliament are the main source by which they decide who shall be governed. With the same,
its other characteristic include the fact that it is dependent on the support of elected assemble,
instead of monarch.
Question 5.
From a mental health context, recovery model is practice and policy framework. By
providing definition of recovery model, you are required to discuss the benefits of recovery
model for clients with mental health condition.

3SOCIAL POLICIES
According to Jaccob (2015), recovery model is a holistic and person-centric approach
towards mental health care. It is based on a total of two premises- a) It is possible to recover
from mental health disorder, b) patient directed is the most effective recovery. The main
benefits of the recovery model are that it speaks to the goals of people and addresses the ways
in which they want to live their life. With the same, it focuses on the objective of having a
good life, free of deficiency and not symptom focused. The model involves several common
aspects of life which further help in the promotion of the shared concerns.

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References:
Denhardt, J. V., & Denhardt, R. B. (2015). The new public service revisited. Public
Administration Review, 75(5), 664-672.
Gilchrist, D. (2018). Westminster system, parliamentary sovereignty and responsible
government: Executive accountability in New Zealand and Australia. In Public Sector
Accounting, Accountability and Governance (pp. 55-66). Routledge.
Jacob, K. S. (2015). Recovery model of mental illness: A complementary approach to
psychiatric care. Indian journal of psychological medicine, 37(2), 117.
Schelkle, W. (2019). EU Pension policy and financialisation: purpose without
power?. Journal of European Public Policy, 1-18.
Venkataramani, A. S., Shah, S. J., O'Brien, R., Kawachi, I., & Tsai, A. C. (2017). Health
consequences of the US Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
immigration programme: a quasi-experimental study. The Lancet Public Health, 2(4),
e175-e181.