The Women's Health Australia Project and Policy Development

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lois Bryson
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Women’S Health ◽  
Women's Health ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Good Health ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Base Line ◽  
Emotional Wellbeing ◽  
Age Cohorts

The Women's Health Australia (WHA) project plans to follow the health of a national sample of around 42,000 women who, in 1996, were in the age cohorts 18-22, 45-49 and 70-74. The multi-disciplinary research team adopts a social approach to health, focuses on biological, psychological, social and lifestyle factors and their relationship to physical health and emotional wellbeing, and is examining the use of, and satisfaction with, health care services. Base-line survey data highlight diversity and the need for health policy to tailor communications to the different age groups. In terms of general wellbeing and service appropriateness, the young are the most problematic, the mid cohort next, while older women indicate fewest problems. Young women experience the highest levels of stress, often suffer from tiredness and are over-concerned with their weight and shape. They are also most dissatisfied with GP services. Issues of employment and health are also central. In general employment is associated with good health, but strains are evident when there are family commitments. As employment becomes increasingly normalised for women, health policy must be mindful of these effects and the significant difficulties faced by a small group of women whose health precludes employment.

Development of the 2000-2005 Victorian Women's Health Plan: A Case Study

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 248
Author(s):  
Marilyn Beaumont
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Women’S Health ◽  
Women's Health ◽  
Health Plan ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Promotion Policy

The paper describes and assesses the development of the 2000 to 2005 Victorian Women's Health Plan; a policy overtaken by a range of political processes. It provides a working example of health promotion policy development including mapping the history and context behind the development of the policy. The paper is written from the author's view that good health policy behind funding arrangements is critical for good health practice. It is also important for health service providers to have an understanding of the politics and processes surrounding health policy development and implementation surrounding their practice and to work with this understanding to improve health outcomes. This is particularly the case with health promotion policy because outcomes are generally only identifiable in the longer term. Within Victoria, during the period 1995-1998, a number of things occurred to provide an environment for renewal of interest and potential for progress in women's health policy development. This included an increasing understanding of the relationship between gender and health outcomes. The complex economic, political and environmental elements, understanding of opportunities available, actions developed and taken, and the results are all expanded upon in the paper. The activity resulted in the launch, in August 1999, of the five-year Victorian Women's Health Plan. It was hailed by the then Victorian Premier on the launch occasion as the 'first comprehensive women's health plan to be developed by any Australian state, which leads the way for other States to follow'. The launch coincided with the calling of a State government election. Four weeks later there was a change of government and the process to develop policy has began again.

How Australia Came to Have a National Women's Health Policy

1998 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwen Gray
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Women’S Health ◽  
Women's Health ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Policy Position ◽  
Health Action ◽  
Social Liberalism ◽  
Ideological Context

A National Women's Health Policy was launched in Australia in 1989, and Australia became the only country to have a comprehensive policy on women's health. The policy is intended to provide a framework for decisionmaking in both mainstream and separate women's health services. The author examines the forces and factors that led to the formulation and adoption of the policy, then addresses the question of why Australia is alone in choosing a national policy as a focus for women's health action. A number of key influences, either absent or weaker in comparable countries, worked together to facilitate policy development. The activities of women working in a number of arenas coincided with the election of relatively supportive governments, creation of women's policy machinery in bureaucracies, employment of feminists in key positions, and opportunities for policy expansion afforded by federalism. These influences, within the Australian ideological context of strong support for social liberalism, account for the country's distinctive policy position.

scholarly journals The Politicization of Women’s Health and Wellbeing

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 3593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Udi Sommer ◽  
Aliza Forman-Rabinovici
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Women’S Health ◽  
Women's Health ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Morality Policy ◽  
Unique Challenge ◽  
Intergovernmental Organization ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Development Goals

The framers and advocates of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals face a unique challenge when it comes to the goals of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3, good health and wellbeing, as it concerns women’s health. The health of women, and in particular reproductive rights, have been politicized in the work of the UN. Forums of the UN have become a battleground between those who would frame reproductive rights as a morality policy versus those who frame them as a feminist policy. This problem is not new to the organization’s work. Indeed, it has been a challenge to the UN’s ability to promote women’s health for years. This article explores how the framing of women’s reproductive rights poses a unique challenge to implementing some of the goals of SDG3, and in particular targets 3.1, 3.7, and 3.8. It also offers strategies to surmount the challenge with an example of a different intergovernmental organization that managed to overcome this issue.

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