UK Health Policy: A Historical and Ideological Analysis

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DEMONSTRATE UNDERSTANDING OF
THE HISTORICAL AND IDEOLOGICAL
DEVELOPMENT OF UK HEALTH POLICY
IDENTIFYING THE UNDERPINNING
PRINCIPLES AND VALUE
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
BODY...........................................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
Mental health can be defined as emotional, social and psychological wellbeing of the individual. It
affects how people think, act and feel. It also determines how people can be able to handle stress and
make a decision in their life. Older people are defined according to various ranges of characteristics such
as changes in functional abilities, change in social role and chronological age. This report will discuss and
analysis two policies related to mental health that is “Mental Health Act 1983” and “No Health without
Mental Health 2014” and two policies related to older people that are “Equality Act 2010” and “Griffiths
report 1989” NHS and “Community Care Act” and how they have developed over time.
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BODY
Ideology can be defined as a set of value and belief that an individual or group can hold for others. The
public policy is very important in order to determine the health and wellbeing status of the individual. It
has been seen that health is considered as a political issue in which its social determinant is open to
political intervention (Bateman, Fonagy and FBA, 2019). It has been seen that in any area of socio-
economic reality, the ideology can influence the understanding the health and social policy. Ideologies
can fudge and simplify issues. It has been seen that policymaking in health and social care is driven
largely by three ‘I' that are ideas, interest and institutions. The role of idea and ideologies can be used in
shaping evidence which can help in policy decisions (Bateman, Fonagy and FBA, 2019).
Mental health
UK general surgeon explained that mental health is the fruitful performance of a mental function that
can provide to the ability to cope with adversity and to adapt to change, fulfilling relationships with
other individual and result in productive activities (Singh et al., 2017). An individual suffering from
mental health may experience relationship problem, suicidal, though, anxiety, depression, loneliness,
various mood disorders, learning disabilities, self-injury and self-harm. The multidisciplinary care team is
being needed to manage mental health disorder.
Mental health act 1983
It is an Act of Parliament of the UK which has been applied to the population in England and Wales
(Branton, Brookes and Brindle, 2018). This act covers the treatment, care and reception of mentally
disordered persons. This act provides legislation in which a person who is diagnosed with a mental
health disorder can be detained in police custody or hospital and their disorder has been treated or
assessed against their wishes. This can is regulated or review by the care quality commission. Mental
health units act 2018 and mental health act 2007 has significantly amended this act (Branton, Brookes
and Brindle, 2018). The monarch was formally approved the mental health act 1983 on 9th May 1983.
The Mental Act has been divided into the following ten parts:
1. Compulsory admission to guardianship and hospital
2. Consent to treatment
3. Management of affairs and property of patients
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4. The patient concerned is under sentence or criminal proceedings
5. Return and removal of patients within the UK
6. Application of the act
7. Mental health review tribunal (Singh et al., 2017)
8. Miscellaneous functions of the secretary of state and local authorities
9. Supplementary and miscellaneous
10. Offences
All this ten-part has been divided into sections and has given a number to every section throughout the
act. The Act contains 149 sections (Docherty and Thornicroft, 2015). An Approved Mental Health
Professional who has huge experience and knowledge of working with the individual with a mental
health disorder. Before the 2007 amendments, the role of mental health professional was restricted to
social workers. AMHP has provided special training in order to deal with the patient with a mental
disorder (Stewart-Brown et al., 2015).
No health without mental health 2014
It has been seen that one in every six-person has been experiencing a mental health issue. The
governments of the United Kingdom have developed a strategy, No Health without Mental Health which
set six objectives in order to improve and better mental health care (Gureje and Thornicroft, 2015). The
six objectives of this strategy are
More individual will have good mental health: more individual of all background and ages will have good
mental health and better wellbeing. The fewer individual will suffer mental health issue- by working
well, starting well, developing well, living well and ageing well.
More individual with a mental health issue will improve: more individual who are suffered from mental
health issue will have a good quality of life- better employment rates, improved chances in education,
stable place to live and strong social relationship (Gureje and Thornicroft, 2015).
More individual with a mental health issue will have good health and wellbeing: a fewer individual who
is suffered from mental health issue die prematurely and more individual with ill health will have good
mental health.
More individual will have a positive experience of support and care: support and care whenever it takes
place to offer evidence-based approaches and interventions, access to time can give individual to
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greatest control and choice over their lives and it must ensure that human rights are protected (Prince
et al., 2015).
The fewer individual will suffer avoidable harm: individual receiving support and care in health care
should have full confidence that the resource and services they have provided is of high quality and is
safe as other public services.
The fewer individual will experience discrimination and stigma: public understanding and awareness
regarding mental health issue will improve and hence as a result of which negative behaviour and
attitudes of an individual with a mental health issue will decrease (Prince et al., 2015).
Older people
Old age can be defined as an age surpassing or nearing the life expectancy of human beings as it is the
end of the human life cycle (Gorman, 2017). The old aged period is very critical as generally older people
are not able to perform their work by own and manage their life. The UK government has proposed
several policies or legislation in order to protect older from unsafe services and care.
Equality Act of 2010
The Equality Act 2010 is the legislation of parliament of the UK came into force on 1 October 2010 with
the primary purpose of supplementing, updating and consolidating the numerous prior regulations and
acts that formed Anti-discrimination law in the United Kingdom (Redley et al., 2019). The act is being
formed in order to protect the people against victimization in employment, harassment, discrimination
and as user of public and private services that are based on nine factors such as age, gender, sex,
disability, sexual orientation, belief or religion, race, maternity and pregnancy, civil partnership and
marriage. The Equality Act 2010 has been designed to provide equal services and care to older people as
other people have (Redley et al., 2019). There should not any be any discrimination on the basis of age,
sex, age or gender. If any organization is found to be delivering services that are based on age, sex or
gender then external agencies have rights to take legal action against the organization. The Equality Act
2010 protects the individual from discrimination in the wider society and workplace. The Equality Act
changes the definition of gender relocation by removing the requirement for medical management
(Redley et al., 2019). This act provides clear protection for the breastfeeding mother. This act provides
protection for individual discriminated against because they are associated with someone who has; they
are perceived to have and have a protected characteristic.
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The Equality Act provides provision relating to disability
 Provide protection to the individual with a disability
 Provide protection against any harassment of workers by third parties (Carrier and Kendall,
2015).
 It provides the various opportunity to the people with disability
There are around 116 separate pieces of legislation that unite to form one single act that provides a
legal framework in order to protect the right of the person and advance opportunity to all (Carrier and
Kendall, 2015). The main nine pieces of legislation that merge inequality act are
 The Equal Pay Act of 1970
 The Race Relations Act 1976
 The Disability Discrimination Act 1995
 The Sex Discrimination Act 1975
 The Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003
 The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 (Carrier and Kendall, 2015)
 The Equality Act 2006, Part 2
 The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006
 The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007
Community Care Act
Sir Roy Griffiths has investigated the development of community care (Seo et al., 2019). He has observed
that there was drastically change in development and success of community care and it has been
decreased with time. He explained that this is due to a lack of responsibility and leadership. He also
noticed that residential care is provided services for those who are financially stable and hence no
services are available for community care (Seo et al., 2019). He recommended the local authorities that
they must hold the budget for providing services and care across the community as well as assessing and
managing what services and care are required to older people. Local authorities can be able to purchase
appropriate care package from a various range of provider. In the Griffith report, he has made several
recommendations in order to provide community care in the UK (Mechanic and Olfson, 2016). The
action needs to be taken in order to manage the care and services provided to the community.
However, it has been set already the direction of action but the speed of implement the action is very
necessary.
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Griffith has made some recommendation such as
Plan for all day decision and discussion should be taken in the main organization and other units of
management and if the decision has been taken in elsewhere, a leader should provide justification.
Involve the practitioner more closely in the decision-making process, and management process. A
practitioner must participate in the decision-making process and should be provided full right such that
they could be able to share their feeling and opinion (Rummery, 2017).
Use of proper resources in order to deliver quality care and services to the service user. the community
care act and the NHS was the first major reform of the National Health Services. under this act, health
care professional or department has been provided with a responsibility to provide community care for
older people (Carrier and Kendall, 2015). This act has been passed in order to provide proper support
and care to the older people because it has been seen that older people are generally week and hence
may not be able to perform their work my own. Respite care, day care and home care have been
developed to help an older individual to live in their home whenever possible (Carrier and Kendall,
2015). The community care act has been used to explained the services and resources have been
provided by the health care provider and the NHS in order to help adult and older people with their
health and social care needs. A community care lawyer has been appointed for older people who are
experts in order to help older people and their families who have suffered crises (Carrier and Kendall,
2015).
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CONCLUSION
It is concluded that both the piece of policies have a positive impact on the health of the user in the
present day. The ideological and historical development of policies and legislation has discussed. It has
been seen that older people are generally associated with mental health and hence both have a
similarity. Older people are generally suffered from mental health because of stress, poor family support
and not able to perform work my own. The governments of the United Kingdom have made several laws
and policies in order to address mental health. It has been seen that these policies have been
determined and influenced over time and the government has made various new values and principles
that have been highlighted in this report. This assignment has discussed various laws and policies that
can be applied to older people and those who are suffering from a mental health issue.
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REFERENCES
Bateman, A.W., Fonagy, P. and FBA, F. eds., 2019. Handbook of mentalizing in mental health practice.
American Psychiatric Pub.
Branton, T., Brookes, G. and Brindle, N., 2018. The Mental Health Act 1983: Criteria for detention.
Carrier, J. and Kendall, I., 2015. Health and the National Health Service. Routledge-Cavendish.
Docherty, M. and Thornicroft, G., 2015. Specialist mental health services in England in 2014: overview of
funding, access and levels of care. International journal of mental health systems, 9(1), p.34.
Gorman, M., 2017. Development and the rights of older people. In The ageing and development
report (pp. 21-39). Routledge.
Gureje, O. and Thornicroft, G., 2015. Health equity and mental health in post-2015 sustainable
development goals. The Lancet Psychiatry, 2(1), pp.12-14.
Mechanic, D. and Olfson, M., 2016. The relevance of the Affordable Care Act for improving mental
health care. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 12, pp.515-542.
Prince, M.J., Wu, F., Guo, Y., Robledo, L.M.G., O'Donnell, M., Sullivan, R. and Yusuf, S., 2015. The burden
of disease in older people and implications for health policy and practice. The Lancet, 385(9967), pp.549-
562.
Redley, M., Lancaster, I., Pitt, A., Holland, A., Thompson, A., Bradley, J.R., Glover, G., Thomson, K., Jones,
S., Herbert, B. and Holme, A., 2019. ‘Reasonable Adjustments’ under the UK’s Equality Act 2010: An
enquiry into the care and treatment provided to patients with intellectual disabilities following
admission to acute hospital settings. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities.
Rummery, K., 2017. Disability, Citizenship and Community Care: A Case for Welfare Rights?: A Case for
Welfare Rights?. Routledge.
Seo, V., Baggett, T.P., Thorndike, A.N., Hull, P., Hsu, J., Newhouse, J.P. and Fung, V., 2019. Access to care
among Medicaid and uninsured patients in community health centers after the Affordable Care
Act. BMC health services research, 19(1), p.291.
Singh, S.P., Paul, M., Parsons, H., Burns, T., Tyrer, P., Fazel, S., Deb, S., Islam, Z., Rugkåsa, J., Gajwani, R.
and Thana, L., 2017. A prospective, quantitative study of mental health act assessments in England
following the 2007 amendments to the 1983 act: did the changes fulfill their promise?. BMC
psychiatry, 17(1), p.246.
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Stewart-Brown, S., Samaraweera, P.C., Taggart, F., Kandala, N.B. and Stranges, S., 2015. Socioeconomic
gradients and mental health: implications for public health. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 206(6),
pp.461-465.
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