Healthcare policy Family planning

Question: Describe the significance of family planning as a public health policy, theoretical principles with respect to formulation of policies, social determinants of family planning, legal aspects of family planning in UK and implications of family planning on the public health outcome. Answer: The core concept of public health policy can be explained as a process that include identification of a particular public health related issue and designing of a public health policy with emphasis on health policy analysis, health policy making and its subsequent implementation. Being retrospective or prospective in nature the task of policy analysis is found to be connected with identification, accessibility and commitment of the related stakeholders. Hence in accordance to the assignment requirement criteria the issue of family planning as been selected as the main agenda with respect to a public health policy whereby the initial segment of this assignment shall concentrate on the theoretical principles in this respect (Orme, 2007). On the introductory ground it is justified to mention that the issues particularly ideological belief and values, economic situation of the target community, political stability of the target location are the key players with respect to development of a public health policy. Additionally it is also important to highlight that contribution of evidence based research is of significance importance in this respect. However the issues related with stakeholders of the policy particularly that are connected with the statutory, charitable and commercial organizations also form the key components with respect to designing of a public health policy. The above mentioned facts are true for the public health policy associated with family planning (Popejoy and Akukwe, 2013). The emergence of the concept of family planning can be linked with the occurrence of uncontrolled fertility with a continuously increasing population size at a global scale. Hence family planning can be explained as a helping hand to guide the individuals in terms of having desired number of children. Family planning being a significant part of the healthcare system implementation of public health policies associated with family planning are highly essential ("U.K. Population (2016) - Worldometers", 2016). Citing the country example of United Kingdom it is observed that due to the increasing trend of population public health policies are developed in alignment with family planning. An insight into the population size of the United Kingdom data reveal that the total population of the country as per 1st January 2016 is 65039319 with an increase of 0.56% compared to the population size of the previous year. Also the present population of UK contribute to 0.88% of the total world populat ion. It was further estimated that about 81.5% of the total population of this country are inhabitants of the urban locations ("United Kingdom (UK) population 2016 | Current population of United Kingdom (UK)", 2016). Focussing on the key advantages of family planning the issues of effective birth control rate, improved health of the mothers, elimination of early or late pregnancies and better health of the children can be underlined. The steep increase in external migration rates and high birth rate compared to death rate are considered as the causal factor behind the population rise of the United Kingdom. Hence from the above mentioned data it is clearly understood that family planning is the main agenda for development of a public health policy in order to control the exceeding population growth of the Unite Kingdom.It is further important to understand the ineffectiveness of public health policies do not fulfil the key requirements of controlling the population size.These public health policies create a general awareness within the population with respect to healthcare issues.Teenage pregnancies are one of the key concerned of public health policies in this respect (Family Planning, 2007). A number of models have been designed for the purpose of designing and development of policies. The incrementalist model which is a descriptive model can be cited as one of the policy formulation model whereby only the changes or alterations have least possibilities are considered. The application of the above mentioned policy formulation model is evident in the policies that are designed with a purpose to embed a change through a gradual process and decision making is one of the major components of this model. On the other hand the mixed scanning model finds its application in consideration to all the available options prior focussing on a particular option(Fischer, Miller Sidney, 2007). The Hall Model, conceived in the year 1975 has been considered as one of the frequently implemented model for development of a healthcare policy. According to the principles of this cited model the issues like legitimacy, feasibility and support are considered to be important. The legal right of Go vernment intervention highlight the legitimacy issue while the availability of the subjects, funds and other resources are included under the domain of feasibility. The Kingdon model conceived in 1984 in contrast to Halls model has elaborated the importance of three streams namely problem stream, politics stream and policy stream to develop a window of opportunities. Later in the year 1994 Walt and Gilson designed a policy triangle model whereby both policy making and policy implementation are mutually interlinked. In the year 1990 Thomas and Grindle conceived another policy formulation model known as the interactive model whereby negotiations are permissible in all the stages during the implementation of this particular model (Fischer, Miller Sidney, 2007). Discussing the issue of public health policy it is essential to highlight that the Hall Model of policy formulation own a significant amount of rationality. This particular model has been considered to be effective because the theoretical principles of this model has well complimented with the underlying factors of family planning. However as family planning is play a pivotal role on the social scenario the intervention of government can be considered to be one of the priority addressing this issue. Apart from this as the practice of family planning can be identified as one of the potential targets towards the population the availability of technological resources the aspect of feasibility can be considered as an important aspect. . Last but not the least in accordance to the theoretical principles of Halls model of policy development it is logical to convey that for the effective implementation of a family planning related public health policy the support and participation of the co mmon public is required. Therefore it can be rightly stated that the public health policy addressing the issue of family planning can be designed in light of Halls Model as all the above three factors are available in this respect (Buse, Mays Walt, 2005). Considering the social determinant of family planning as a part of public health policy the factors like legal guidelines, human rights, education, norms of society, culture, religion and economic condition of the society can be considered. Hence in order to maintain the operational efficacy of family planning it is required to incorporate educational policies. The emphasis towards providing sex education services, evidence based sexual health information and counseling can be considered as effective tools of family planning. A significant level of disparity is evident in issues related to the outcomes of family planning practices. The conflict of interests and lack of knowledge regarding the benefits and positive consequences of family planning practices can be brought into attention (SathyanarayanaRaoet al., 2012). The intervention of various religious beliefs is also evident in this context. The example of beliefs of Roman Catholics can be cited in this respect as according to their beliefs it is against the law o nature to practice abortion and artificial contraception ("Religion as a Social Determinant of Public Health", 2016). One of the major challenges of family planning services can be associated with the accessibility issues of such service. It is evident that presence of shallow knowledge regarding family planning services particularly within the population of lower social strata and the minority group are the major restrains towards acceptance of family planning practices. However in this context it is justified to state that the poverty stricken segment of the society is mainly deprived from the access to the family planning and contraception services. Moreover the immigrants populations that comprise a major segment of the population of the United Kingdom also have limited access the public health policy of family planning. The major barriers in this respect are language and insurance cover. Hence according to the legal guidelines formulated under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 the prohibitions have been implied to limit the access to the publicly financed health care by the immigrants during first five years of their stay in the country. However under such a social scenario the immigrant population is only allowed to obtain the facility of Emergency Medicaid only for acute illness and obstetrical deliveries. Health inequality due to racism and ethnicity are also present as social barriers to family planning whereby the Black and the Hispanic women population are affected (Hall, Johnson and Dalton, 2013). Under the initiatives of the World Health Organization or WHO countries are adapting to evidence based approach of family planning. The above mentioned initiative has been pursued by WHO in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF), the International Planned Parenthood federation European Network, European Society of Contraception and Reproductive Health etc ("Contraception", 2016). In order to promote positive sexual health of the population the administrative body of the United Kingdom has published the Framework for Sexual health Improvement in the year 2013, the Health and Social Care Bill was sanctioned in 2012. The example of Sexual Health and wellbeing action plan for Wales 2010-2015 can also be cited to address the above mentioned issue. Hence from the above cited examples it is justified to mention that the governing body of the United Kingdom has given considerable emphasis in promotion of public health through implementation of family planning practices("Sexual health across the UK | FPA", 2016). In context of discussing the significant aspects of family planning this can be represented as one of the major achievement that has improved the public health condition of the society. It is need les to mention that family planning practices has also gained huge scale acceptance on the global platform as it is one of the most effective tool in controlling the global population (Darge, 2009). The awareness of general public towards contraceptive and allied reproductive services, patient education, breast and pelvic investigation, screening of the breast and cervical cancer and diagnosis of pregnancy services can be considered to have immensely contributed improving the overall health condition of the global population. ("Family Planning | Healthy People 2020", 2016). Prevention of sexually transmitted disease (STD) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) through education, counselling and medical investigation can be enlisted as the other positive health outcomes by incorporation of family planning services as a part of public health policy (McVeigh, Homburg Guillebaud, 2008). Family planning is also found to contribute in the reduction of unintended pregnancies that are subsequently associated with negative health outcome and social discrimination. The negative or undesired health outcomes that are brought along with unintended pregnancies are delay in prenatal care, lowered chances of breastfeeding resulting in compromise with the infants health, chances of maternal depression and increased risk of physical violence during pregnancy period(Look et al., 2011). Additionally the other negative consequences like birth defects and low birth weight are also associated with unintended pregnancy that is also effectively inhibited through the implementation of family planning system. The above mentioned negative health outcomes that affect the health of both mother and the child can be restricted to a considerable extent through the implementation of family planning system. Hence it can be stated that family planning not only offers a number of positive outcomes with respect to public health but also serve to minimise the occurrence of negative health outcomes. Therefore to conclude it is justified to mention that family planning can be considered as an effective approach to restrict mother-child transmission of HIV, lowering of infant and maternal morbidity rate, lowering the number of abortion cases and also contribute to birth spacing(Tsuiet al., 2010). To conclude in it justified to state that family planning is one of the most significant part of public health policy and the governing body of the United Kingdom has given considerable amount of emphasis to this issue. Although there are certain social, cultural and religious issue that are found to be associated with the practice of family planning and contraception but majority of the population are observed to accept this process. Hence family planning contributes positively towards the public health outcomes and also indirectly helps in improving the overall economic situation of the nation. References: Buse, K., Mays, N., Walt, G. (2005).Making health policy. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Contraception.(2016). Euro.who.int. Retrieved 31 March 2016, from https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/Life-stages/sexual-and-reproductive-health/activities/contraception Darge, R. (2009). Determinants of Family Planning Behaviour among Married Women in the Amhara Regional State: A Social-Psychological Approach. Eth. J. Dev. Res., 29(2). Family Planning | Healthy People 2020.(2016). Healthypeople.gov. Retrieved 31 March 2016, from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/family-planning Family Planning. (2007). Retrieved from https://www.open.edu/openlearnworks/pluginfile.php/71945/mod_resource/content/1/Family_Planning.lo.pdf Fischer, F., Miller, G., Sidney, M. (2007).Handbook of public policy analysis. Boca Raton: CRC/Taylor Francis. Hall, K., Johnson, T. and Dalton, V. (2013). Social and demographic disparities in preventive family planning service use among adult women in the United States. Contraception, 88(3), p.467. Look, P., Heggenhougen, K., Quah, S. (2011). Sexual and reproductive health. San Diego: Academic Press. McVeigh, E., Homburg, R., Guillebaud, J. (2008).Oxford handbook of reproductive medicine and family planning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Orme, J. (2007). Public health for the 21st century. Maidenhead, Berkshire, England: Open University Press. Popejoy, M., Akukwe, C. (2013).Global public health policy. New York: Nova Science. Religion as a Social Determinant of Public Health.(2016). Google Books. Retrieved 31 March 2016, from https://books.google.co.in/books?id=lPs_BAAAQBAJpg=PA181lpg=PA181dq=social+determinants+of+public+health+policy+on+family+planningsource=blots=eKPTzXf8wjsig=ul0ZbpFHAkvJDBHmWVNfHyPabRMhl=ensa=Xved=0ahUKEwi32LfsnerLAhWOjo4KHYRMBiYQ6AEIUjAG#v=onepageq=social%20determinants%20of%20public%20health%20policy%20on%20family%20planningf=false Sexual health across the UK | FPA.(2016). Fpa.org.uk. Retrieved 31 March 2016, from https://www.fpa.org.uk/influencing-sexual-health-policy/sexual-health-across-uk Tsui, A., McDonald-Mosley, R., Burke, A. (2010).Family Planning and the Burden of Unintended Pregnancies.Epidemiologic Reviews, 32(1), 152-174. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/epirev/mxq012 U.K. Population (2016) - Worldometers.(2016). Worldometers.info. Retrieved 31 March 2016, from https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/uk-population/ United Kingdom (UK) population 2016 | Current population of United Kingdom (UK).(2016). Countrymeters.info. Retrieved 31 March 2016, from https://countrymeters.info/en/United_Kingdom_(UK)