Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
James Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Ethical Reflection ◽  
Health It ◽  
Philosophical Reflection ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter introduces the book’s main themes. It explains why public health policy matters, and why public policy requires ethical and philosophical reflection. It introduces debates around the definition of disease and illness, and debates about the definition of public health. It examines why public health was initially largely excluded from the purview of medical ethics and bioethics in the 1960s and following decades, and some of the drivers behind the rise of ethical reflection on public health since 2000. It also briefly introduces the structure of the rest of the book.

Paternalism, Autonomy, and the Common Good

2021 ◽  
pp. 89-109
Author(s):  
James Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common

Public health policies are often accused of being paternalistic, or to show the ‘Nanny State’ in action. This chapter argues that complaints about paternalism in public health policy are, for a variety of reasons, much less convincing than is often thought. First, for conceptual reasons, it is difficult to specify what it would be for a policy to be paternalistic. Second, two of the elements that make paternalism problematic at an individual level—interference with liberty and lack of individual consent—are endemic to public policy contexts in general and so cannot be used to support the claim that paternalism in particular is wrong. The chapter concludes that instead of debating whether a given policy is paternalistic, it would be better to ask whether the infringements of liberty it contains are justifiable, without placing any weight on whether or not those infringements of liberty are paternalistic.

Litigation as Public Health Policy: Theory or Reality?

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter D. Jacobson ◽  
Soheil Soliman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Class Action ◽  
Policy Theory ◽  
Health Goals

An ongoing debate among legal scholars and public health advocates is the role of litigation in shaping public policy. For the most part, the debate has been waged at a conceptual level, with opponents and proponents arguing within fairly well-defined boundaries. The debate has been based either on speculation of what litigation could achieve or on ideological grounds as to why litigation should or should not be used this way. With the exception of Rosenberg's study of how litigation shaped policy in civil rights, abortion, and environmental matters, there is almost no empirical support for either position.In recent years, the most ardent proponents of litigation as public policy have been public health advocates. Perhaps out of frustration with the inability to achieve desired public health goals through the legislative branch of government, public health advocates have pursued litigation as an alternative strategy. Beginning with tobacco class action litigation in the early 1990s and continuing with litigation against gun manufacturers at the end of that decade, public health advocates have waged a veritable litigation assault aimed at changing how public health policy is formed.

Prevention Policy and Public Health

2020 ◽  
pp. 137-154
Author(s):  
Paul Cairney ◽  
Emily St Denny
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Prevention Policy ◽  
Policy Problem ◽  
Tobacco Policies ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Acute Healthcare

Health policy is the traditional home of prevention policies. Public health is at the heart of policies designed to improve population health, and perhaps reduce health inequalities, often through changes in behaviour at an early age. Public health policy tends to be a hub for advocates of EBPM. In theory, healthcare and public health are symbiotic, particularly if early public health interventions reduce demand for acute healthcare. However, in practice, public health is an exemplar of the wide gap between expectations for ‘evidence-based’ prevention policy and actual outcomes. To demonstrate, first, we apply our theoretical approach, outlined in Chapters 1 to 3, to present a broad examination of health policy and the role of prevention within it, considering what a window of opportunity for prevention policy within a complex system means in relation to health and public health policy. Second, we show that the UK and Scottish governments have described different policy styles, but faced and addressed the ambiguity and complexity of preventive health policy in similar ways. Third, our comparison of broad prevention versus specific tobacco policies shows why substantive policy change is more apparent in the latter: there is a clearer definition of the policy problem, a more supportive environment for meaningful policy change, and more windows of opportunity for specific policy changes. These three conditions are not yet fulfilled in the broader prevention agenda.

scholarly journals Public Policy Timing in a Sustainable Approach to Shaping Public Policy

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorota Korenik ◽  
Maria Węgrzyn
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Hospital Care ◽  
Public Hospital ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Final Conclusion ◽  
Theoretical Approaches

This study addresses the problem of optimal public policy timing and the relation to public health policy. Ways of recognizing this problem are presented, as well as the role of public policy timing, which is perceived or can be performed from various economic theories and concepts, mainly: regulation theory; the concept of adaptive public policy; and the theory of policy timing based on the concepts of option value and the transaction costs of the political process. The approach of methodological pluralism adopted by the authors made it possible to reach for various cognitive inspirations borrowed from numerous theoretical approaches, in order to create a comprehensive and coherent theoretical foundation for the purposes of analyzing the role of timing in applied public policies. Next, an attempt was made to define the role of public policy timing in the applied approach, i.e., the case of Polish policy towards the public hospital care sector. The final conclusion is that the role of timing is marginalized in Polish public health policy. The time dimension of its creation was ignored or treated as an exogenous event in relation to the rest of the policy formulation process. There is no political approach that adaptively links the right combination of resources and regulatory activity to timing for specific stages of development or growth in public hospital care.

Translating evidence to policy

2020 ◽  
pp. 312-319
Author(s):  
Lauren Smith ◽  
Ichiro Kawachi
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Policy Formation ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Research Findings

As a result of reading this chapter, you will be able to: identify the challenges that arise in translating research findings to public policy; understand the frequently cited barriers to evidence-based public health policy making from the perspective of legislators; take steps to bridge the gap between evidence and policy formation.

scholarly journals Institutional Mechanism for Public Health Policy in Conditions of Poverty Alleviation

2020 ◽  
pp. 163-175
Author(s):  
Oleksii DEMIKHOV
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Poverty Alleviation ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
The Eu

Introduction: Public health is a new field of knowledge and human activity that is being developed in Ukraine nowadays. In Ukraine and globally, public health is one of the highest priority areas of human development that falls into the category of systematic social inequality. Public health sector is socially important as it creates a health-preserving lifestyle for the population. Research: The basic elements of this approach are population economic status, ecology, education, territorial settlement (urban or rural), and housing quality. At these basic levels, there is already a feasible scientific debate about the existence and growth of poverty. There is inequality in access to health care quality, prevention and treatment; healthy food quality; and furthermore the opportunity to lead a healthy lifestyle, especially in urban areas. Recognizing the effects of such inequality and poverty in access to health-preservation, national and regional public authorities of the EU and Ukraine have begun to develop and implement public health concepts and programs at different levels. The purpose of our research is to study public health sector of the EU and compare it with Ukraine in order to formulate proposals for mitigating health inequalities and poverty in access to health services, as well as developing new standards and to have an integrated approach to work out an effective public health policy. Conclusion: The aim of this topic is the processing and synthesis of information of public policy instruments in the context of preserving and promoting the health of the population, increasing the expectancy and quality of life, preventing diseases, promoting a healthy lifestyle. We use a multidisciplinary and systematic approach in research as a baseline, methods of analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison and economic-statistical methods are used. Data was sourced from the surveys of Ukrainian and foreign scientists, national statistical agencies of the EU and Ukraine, associations of cities of the leading countries around the world. In particular, we are interested in the indicators such as the level of urbanization, the level of gross domestic product, area pollution, the level of mortality, other economic, social and health characteristics. Keywords: poverty alleviation, public health, health care, public policy.

scholarly journals Rethinking knowledge translation for public health policy

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Fafard ◽  
Steven J Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Knowledge Translation ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Policy Instrument ◽  
Policy Decision Making ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Do So

There is continuing interest in using the best available research evidence to inform public health policy. However, all too often efforts to do so rely on mechanistic and unrealistic views of the process by which public policy is made. As a result, traditional dyadic knowledge translation (KT) approaches may not be particularly effective when applied to public policy decision making. However, using examples drawn from public health policy, it is clear that work in political science on multiplicity, hierarchy and networks can offer some insight into what effective KT might look like for informing public policy. To be effective, KT approaches must be more appropriately tailored depending on the audience size, audience breadth, the policy context, and the dominant policy instrument.

The Contingent Power of Experts: Public Health Policy in the United States, Britain, and France

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance A. Nathanson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Health Problem ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Social Processes

Dangers to life and health abound. Even among the subset known to medicine and science, however, there is no guarantee that any particular danger will rise to the level of a recognized public health problem or elicit a response from the makers of public policy. The path from knowledge to policy is not straightforward; scientific consensus does not lead automatically to policy consensus. Judgments of what dangers should be most feared, how to explain them, what to do about them, and even whether they are public health problems at all are the outcome of social processes. A couple of examples may help to clarify these points.

scholarly journals The city as a healthy lifestyle cluster: connection of public health policy and health culture formation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Demikhov ◽  
І. Dehtyarova
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Public Health System ◽  
Health Culture ◽  
The Public ◽  
The City ◽  
Public Health Development

Problem setting. The city is always a group identity, including a culture of health. Health is related to education, living conditions, work, leisure, and many other factors. Global megatrends confirm the relevance of public health development. At present, the public health structure in the field of domestic medicine is forming in Ukraine. A pandemic and a financial crisis are pushing the state and local communities more actively to build an appropriate system to protect the population.Recent research and publications analysis. Foreign authors focus on the effectiveness of community-based health care spending, especially for the poorest. At the same time, analysts argue that mortality among children under the age of five is significantly decreasing in urban areas and, on the contrary, and is increasing among adult men. Other studies provide a robust, flexible forecasting platform for community management systems. Therefore, foreign authors point to the need for active involvement of municipalities in the field of public health. This is necessary to preserve lives and to inculcate all levels of urban governance and citizens of the health culture. At the same time, the tools of this managerial influence in cities are not yet fully disclosed in researchers' publications.Highlighting previously unsettled parts of the general problem. Studying foreign experience of health care development in the context of forming a health culture in the city, as well as exploring the possibilities of implementing effective decision-making technologies in this field in Ukraine.Paper main body. The experience of World Health Organization projects in the context of urban public health development is considered. In particular, one of WHO's Healthy Cities initiatives is interesting. The following six theses of the Copenhagen Consensus of Mayors underpin the priority directions of Stage VII: investing in people; urban environment design, support for active participation and partnerships in the interests of health and well-being; promoting the development of local communities and access to public goods and services; promoting peace and security through the formation of inclusive communities; protecting the planet from degradation, including through sustainable consumption and production.Cities need to ensure that public policy, economic investment programs are interconnected, and make every effort to equitably distribute resources. In this way, public health policy tools will shape the city’s health culture as a multifaceted concept. The process of implementation of public health system in the regions of Ukraine, in particular in Sumy region is also considered on a specific example. So, Sumy Regional Center for Public Health was created as part of the All-Ukrainian Medical Reform in 2018. Regional program of public health support for 2020 – 2021 is approved.The total amount of indicative financing under this program for the years 2020 – 2021 is 63 mln. UAH. The main activities and activities of the program for two years are: improvement of the material and technical base of health-care establishments involved in the public health system and provision of services related to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, drug addiction. However, due to the lack of implementation of the regional budget and the deterioration of the socio-economic situation in the region, the Sumy Regional Public Health Center has been reorganized recently to optimize the structures of the region council. This fact points to the actual phasing-out in the area of public health health reform. Only the coronavirus pandemic, which began in 2020 both in the world and in Ukraine, has intensified the activities of the state and regional authorities to partially strengthen and restore the public health system.Conclusions of the research and prospects for further studies. Therefore, the impact of public policy in cities on the development of a health culture becomes an urgent task. Using this strategic thinking in European cities will give Ukraine the opportunity to develop its own public health policy. Therefore, further research in this area is extremely promising. Cities need to ensure that public policy, economic investment programs are interconnected, and make every effort to equitably distribute resources. In this way, public health policy tools will shape the city’s health culture as a multifaceted concept.

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