Policies H 300 Health Services example essay topic

HEALTH Values and Principles H 100 Health is the condition in which individuals and communities achieve their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potential. Health for individuals is only possible in the context of a healthy environment and society. The healthy society is one which guarantees a safe and clean environment; material security for all its citizens; good work; adequate housing; a balanced and unpolluted diet and clean water; appropriate education; a safe transport system; accessible and sensitive public services; equality of opportunity; a secure present and hope for the future. All Green Party policies are designed to promote the health of individuals, communities and society. H 101 Ill health exists at many levels; a diseased organ within a stressed person, a sick individual within an uncaring society, or a sick society within an overstrained and collapsing ecosystem. To achieve improved individual, social and environmental health, effective interventions at all levels are needed.

Current theory and practice place too much emphasis on interventions at the biochemical and individual levels, too little on the social and ecological. Achieving better health requires a balanced, integrated and holistic understanding and approach. H 102 Health services are not in themselves a major determinant of the public health. Increased investment in health services alone will generate little improvement in the conventional indicators of health and disease. Furthermore, expansion of health services on the basis of indiscriminate economic growth will inevitably be counterproductive, since such growth itself damages health at the individual, social and ecological levels. However, willingness and ability to care for the sick and disabled are essential features of a compassionate society.

Free market mechanism alone cannot adequately meet health needs, or effectively constrain costs. Proper health care for all, and the responsible use of resources, both require the continued provision of well-funded health services. H 100 Health services can create dependence on the part of users, which is itself unhealthy. Individuals can through properly informed choice, and when adequately supported, acquire much greater responsibility for their own health, and the health of their families.

However, true freedom of choice cannot be exercised without the economic and political power to choose, at present denied to the majority. Aims H 200 To promote public health through policies designed to secure: a healthy urban and rural environment, healthy work, healthy agriculture and food, healthy education, a healthy transport system and healthy local economic development. (FD 300's) H 201 To devise new economic models using quality of life and health indicators as the target variables to be optimised. Policies to achieve these targets will be integrated into overall economic strategy. Health-promoting policies will be mediated by social investment at national, regional and community levels. H 202 To develop a new public health consciousness, which, through individual and collective action, will challenge vested interests and promote the personal, social and political changes needed to achieve improved states of health.

H 203 To develop health services which place as much emphasis on illness prevention, health promotion and the development of individual and community self-reliance as on the treatment and cure of disease. Such services will of necessity be empowering, participatory and democratic and their development will be guided by users' own perceptions of their health needs. Policies H 300 Health services must be effective, efficient, comprehensive, accountable and equally available to all. Effective health services will deploy a broad range of interventions, operative at many levels: pharmaceuticals, surgery, psychological therapies, complementary and alternative medicine, and community and social interventions will be used where appropriate. All services will be available without charge at the time of need. Community Health Centres.

H 301 Funding will be diverted away from centralised facilities towards community health care, illness prevention and health promotion. Community Health Centres will be the focal points for self-help and community-based initiatives and will also provide a full range of services including primary health care, and health education and health promotion programmes. A variety of specialist services, in particular midwifery, obstetrics, family planning, counselling and psychiatry, will also be available. The midwifery and obstetric service will be such that a real option of home delivery is created.

To permit the availability of the widest possible range of services and interventions, staff will be organised into multi-disciplinary teams. The public will be provided with easier direct access to nurse practitioners and other non-medical health workers, including social workers, counsellors, clinical psychologists and complementary therapists..