HEALTHY PUBLIC POLICY

1
HEALTHY PUBLIC POLICY

• THE CHNs ROLE

2
WHAT IS PUBLIC POLICY?

• a course of action or inaction chosen by public
  authorities to address a given problem or
  interrelated set of problems (Pal, 2001)
• We have no position is a policy statement
• Deal with public problems
• Once identified, governments have 3 options
• Do nothing
• Act indirectly
• Act directly

3
ORGANIZATIONAL POLICY

• Policies made by administrators, managers,
  front-line staff, within organizations
• Policy and procedure manuals at workplace
• U of M has policies for staff and students
  conduct, admissions, courses
• Examples

4
Public health policy vs. healthy public policy

• PH policy reflects health care system only
• E.g. Communicable disease reporting
• Health care services alone do not improve health
• Healthy public policy reflects the broader
  perspective determinants of health
• Represents a shift in Canada in last 20 years

5
HEALTHY PUBLIC POLICY

• Concerned with creating a healthy society
• Involves low technology
• Holistic and future oriented
• Part of health care reform
• Multisectoral
• Founded on public involvement in policy
• Regionalization facilitated public involvement
• Meant to address needs of specific population

6
Characteristics of Healthy Public
Policy(consistent with PHC principles)

• Determinants of health
• Population health
• Equity
• Multidisciplinary consideration
• Intersectoral collaboration
• Participatory
• Health systems

7
Development of healthy public policy

• Similar to nursing process community assessment
  process
• Agenda setting
• Policy formulation/policy design
• Decision-making
• Policy implementation
• Policy evaluation

8
How do we involve community in policy making?

• Community development
• Building community capacity
• Partnerships
• Empowerment
• participation

9
Why should PHNs (nurses) be involved in policy
making?

• Aware of the needs of communities (patients)
• Have resources to bring
• Have respect of the community
• Knowledge and skills needed
• Roles as outlined in CPHA document
• CHNAC standards role in policy development

10
Clarke, Beddome, and Whyte article

• PHNs involved in healthy public policy to change
  environment factors, i.e. social determinants of
  health. Policies beyond the health sector, at
  local and national levels
• Nursing has tremendous potential to contribute to
  the publics health agenda. Community and
  political activities should be considered part of
  their professional role.

11
Nursings involvement in policy

• Canadian Nurses Association
• HEAL Health Action Lobby, 1994
• CRNM handwashing campaign
• Nursing has a history of political activism
  Florence Nightingale, Lillian Wald, Helen Glass
• What about front-line nurses?
• Nursing is a political act Canadian Nurse,
  Sept05

12
TRAC Community Mobilization for Healthy Public
Policy

• Tobacco Reduction Action Coalition
• Assessing public support
• Influencing decision makers
• Planning the campaign
• Implementing the action strategies
• Evaluation

13
POLICY DEVELOPMENT

• Agenda setting
• Assessment/issues/public support
• Who to involve and how?
• Formulate/design policy
• Theme/statement/slogan
• Implementation
• Strategies/who and how
• Evaluation
• Outcomes/pitfalls
• Next steps

14
TYPES OF POLICIES

• Public policy
• Public health policy
• Healthy public policy
• Organizational policy