Neoliberal governmentality and public health policy in Ireland

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne Wilson ◽  
Lindsay Prior
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
The State ◽  
Neoliberal Governmentality ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Liberal Government ◽  
The Individual

This chapter provides an analysis of some of Ireland’s key public health policy documents since 1994 in the context of advanced liberal government. The analysis reveals how Irish public health strategies increasingly target the individual in terms of responsibilising behaviours, inculcating them to make healthy lifestyle choices and mitigate against health risks. Scrutinising the claims and arguments set out in three health documents-Shaping a healthier future (Department of Health, 1994), Quality and fairness – A health service for you(Department of Health and Children, 2001), and Healthy Ireland (Department of Health, 2013)-they note the increasing shift to a market-based model of healthcare, and of the role of the state as one amongst many actors in the health policy arena. Health policymaking, as they argue, has become an increasingly technocratic process, and their analysis raises significant questions about the implications of neoliberal modes of government in the context of the three documents’ acknowledgement of persistent health inequalities in the State.

scholarly journals The relationship of urbanization with the formation and implementation of public health policy in Ukraine

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 59-69
Author(s):  
О. І. Деміхов
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
World Health ◽  
Motor Vehicles ◽  
Industrial Emissions ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

The purpose of the research is to study and find out the modern foreign technologies of public health policy in the context of the impact of urbanization processes, to explore the possibilities of implementation of best practices in Ukraine.Materials. Peculiarities of public health policy implementation in developed countries in the context of population density increase and agglomeration expansion are described in the article. The study is based on the analysis of statistics, publications in the media and scientific articles. The comparative statistical analysis of the countries of the world on the incidence of the incidence of different species and the correlation of these processes with the urbanization dynamics is made in the article. Expert assessments of UN and World Health Organization experts on processes of concentration of population around the world, deterioration of living conditions, quality of health, morbidity and appropriate prevention, promotion of healthy lifestyle and quality control of goods, works and services for the population are given in the article. Particular emphasis is placed on the environmental problems of densely populated areas, including through the proliferation of motor vehicles, substandard housing and uncontrolled industrial emissions. The connection of the dynamics of urbanization with the increase of the sedentary lifestyle of the citizens is also described. The urban way of life is assessed as requiring immediate influence by public health policy makers. The current experience of foreign public administration and public policy entities on a proactive approach to shaping the concept of public health in the context of urban transformation in society can be used in Ukraine. Practical results of the work of state institutions in developed countries should be implemented in Ukraine. Conclusions. On the example of the positive experience of the capitalist countries of the world, the further directions of the development of public health policy in Ukraine in the conditions of deepening urbanization processes are clearly defined.

scholarly journals Diabetes in India: Measuring the dynamics of a public health catastrophe

2016 ◽  
Vol 04 (02) ◽  
pp. 077-084 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pranav Patnaik ◽  
Kamlesh Jain ◽  
P. Chandra ◽  
Jaya Pathak ◽  
K. Raman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Lifestyle Changes ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

AbstractDiabetes has emerged as a major concern in the Indian health-care setting but has been underrecognized as a significant challenge in the context of public health policy due to the necessity to handle acute health conditions. Trends obtained from national and regional surveys over time strongly point to the increasing diabetes burden. In addition, people with undiagnosed and prediabetes can aggravate the burden in the near future. Long-term concerns arise from the rapid transformations such as urbanization, rural–urban migration, and lifestyle changes happening across different populations of India. Attempts at creating a rational diabetes prevention and management policy are severely hindered by a lack of comprehensive, standardized data on diabetes prevalence, and trends in the evolution of the epidemic. The impact of diabetes is multifaceted, ranging from the clinical impact of higher secondary complications to personal, psychosocial, and financial effects on the individual which create a cycle of negative outcomes. Given the chronic nature of diabetes, the impact is likely to remain as a self-perpetuating burden on the health-care system. The magnitude, spread, and impact of the diabetes epidemic are substantial, and it has transitioned to being a pandemic with potentially catastrophic implications for the Indian Public Health System. It is therefore essential to create public health policy specific to diabetes care that is effective in reducing the multidimensional impact of diabetes catastrophe and prevent further multiplication of this pandemic.

32 and 37 inches – the healthy body and the politics of waist circumference: a governmental analysis of the Stop the Spread campaign

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Dukelow
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Waist Circumference ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Medical Discourse ◽  
Neoliberal Governmentality ◽  
Health Promotion Campaign ◽  
Soft Paternalism ◽  
Healthy Body

This chapter focuses on a the 2011 health promotion campaign Stop the Spread, part of which involved the distribution of measuring tapes to the population via pharmacies to encourage people to measure their waists. Drawing on an analysis of campaign materials, the chapter explores the significance of Stop the Spread as a governmental technology and form of biopower in which medical discourse was utilised in an effort to not only re-programme ideas of what a normal healthy body should measure and look like, but also to more directly attempt to change behaviour by gifting people the technology to measure themselves, and to ultimately inscribe those numbers on their bodies. This chapter provides insights into how neoliberal governmentality is evolving in relation to public health policy, not least in the context of soft paternalism which is more directive in its use of techniques and strategies to steer norms and behaviour, whilst remaining highly individualised in terms of its understanding of health and its determinants.

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.

The Promise of Public Health: Vulnerable Policy and Lazy Citizens

10.1068/d355t ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 771-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicky Singleton
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Policy Document ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
New Public Health ◽  
Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation ◽  
New Public ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Uk

In this paper I explore the relationship between the UK New Public Health Policy and one of its enactments. I outline a crucial policy document, Saving Lives (Department of Health, 1999, HMSO, London), and consider the practices that constitute a localised initiative called The Heart of the Shire. This initiative aims to train all members of a rural community in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation in order to prevent deaths from cardiac arrest. I argue that Saving Lives promises a new approach to public health that transgresses traditional boundaries and collapses conventional dualisms. Yet, at the same time it privileges biomedical interventions and conventional modes of care. I argue that the policy is full of incompatibilities but that these incompatibilities are not destructive. Rather, they create a series of tensions that, in turn, expose the fluidity of boundaries and work against the stability of categories and in doing so afford the promise of the policy. I go on to describe the key practices of The Heart of the Shire, focusing on how the tensions of the policy are played out in practice. It seems that the promise of the New Public Health Policy does not survive its practices. The practices are creative and varied and are deeply embedded within the community in ways that make them ‘new’, yet they also enact ‘old’ boundaries and conventional dualisms. They smooth out the incompatibilities that characterise the policy and thereby solidify boundaries and stabilise categories. Hence, my argument is that it is the making of consistencies that leads to the (re)construction of conventional categories and boundaries. I conclude by suggesting that Saving Lives offers us a glimpse of the conditions of possibility for a promising approach to public health but that the practices that constitute The Heart of the Shire suggest the tremendous amount of work that would be required to enact it. Drawing upon Helen Verran's insight about ‘hardening of the categories’ I suggest that the practices of The Heart of the Shire are lazy in their refusal of the vulnerability (and the promise) of tensions and that consequently the approach to public health that is enacted is characterised by stabilised categories and impermeable boundaries.

scholarly journals EPIDEMIOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY TO PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY AND PRACTICE

2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN D. H. PORTER
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Epidemiological Methods ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Health Policy And Practice ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Effective Public Health

Academic disciplines like anthropology and epidemiology provide a niche for researchers to speak the same language, and to interrogate the assumptions that they use to investigate problems. How anthropological and epidemiological methods communicate and relate to each other affects the way public health policy is created but the philosophical underpinnings of each discipline makes this difficult. Anthropology is reflective, subjective and investigates complexity and the individual; epidemiology, in contrast, is objective and studies populations. Within epidemiological methods there is the utilitarian concept of potentially sacrificing the interests of the individual for the benefits of maximizing population welfare, whereas in anthropology the individual is always included. Other strengths of anthropology in the creation of public health policy include: its attention to complexity, questioning the familiar; helping with language and translation; reconfiguring boundaries to create novel frameworks; and being reflective. Public health requires research that is multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinary. To do this, there is a need for each discipline to respect the ‘dignity of difference’ between disciplines in order to help create appropriate and effective public health policy.

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