Question:
Discuss about the Enhancing Health Care Equity.
Human rights are intrinsic to all humans across the globe. Fundamental human rights are universal, and every individual is equally entitled to their rights without discrimination. Human rights promote the elimination of negative stereotypes, injustices, marginalization, and discrimination that has been overburdened on other individuals due to societal prejudices. The existence of human rights influences the relationships between citizens and the government power exercise over its citizens (Donnelly and Whelan 2017).Nonetheless; human rights are limited as States have an obligation of providing some rights while at the same time safeguarding citizen’s freedom. Some of the greatest milestones that human rights have helped all communities across the globe to achieve are women and persons with disability empowerment politically, economically, socially and culturally. Human rights have therefore helped to significantly reduce inequalities within the society especially in areas where patriarchy is the norm and women rights have been ignored. Through human rights, women have gained access to, control over and decision-making power on matters about their own life; a privilege most women had missed for centuries (Kim and Johnson 2011). Human rights ideology is therefore geared towards achieving sustainability which will promote economic, social, political and cultural development across the globe without discriminating certain individuals. The future fate of human rights seems promising as many people are aware of their rights.
The human rights major focus is on universal values. The universal values of human rights focus on: equality, equity and non-discrimination, interdependence and indivisibility and the rights and obligations of the right owners and duty bearers. State responsibility in protecting human rights requires states to protect individuals and groups against injustices or any form of abuse. It is the responsibility of the state to take, formulate and implement affirmative action that will endorse the gratification of human rights (Nonet 2017). International human rights treaties ratification has prompted governments to establish domestic measures and legislation that matches their legislative obligations and duties which are guaranteed under international human rights laws (Nonet 2017).
Human rights focus allows individuals opportunity to express their dissatisfaction at regional and international levels. Global rights focus on women and persons with disability and the societal stereotypes that have disadvantaged women. Human rights focus dealing with women rights has uplifted women from private sphere participation to public domain participation thus granting women right to education and health. For instance, the right to education has created awareness among women thus leading to economic, social and political empowerment (Deere and De Leal 2014). Right to health has prompted women access to information on contraception, protected women from environmental hazards and allowed them general access to health services. One of the most re-known policies that have promoted human rights while at the same time promoting health is the Victorian women health policy and well-being strategy that aims at safeguarding women health
Victorian women and health policy 2010 is an Australian government policy that is aimed at preserving the health rights of Victoria state women. The strategy is a four-year term plan developed by the health department and designed to improve women health and wellbeing (Blank and Burau 2013). The strategy was established for all women in Victoria State with the intent of identifying health concerns and outcome of women unable to afford healthcare due to inadequate income. The Victorian women health policy gives priority to women sexual and reproductive health issues. Other functions of the strategy are to collaborate with other social bodies in preventing all forms of violence against women by prioritizing work at the health sector through rehabilitating, creating awareness and providing shade of domestic violence victims. The essence of Victoria Women health policy is, therefore, more geared towards tackling avoidable illnesses and deaths that affect Victorian women (Blank and Burau 2013). The development of Victoria Women Health Policy and Wellbeing strategy was facilitated and spearheaded by a committee of professionals who consults widely on the state and basic needs of women about their health and well-being.
Besides focusing on women who cannot afford medical access, the strategy also focuses on women who have been mainstreamed in accessing health services by identifying better health services for women and linking the health services together to improve the outcome of women (Whv.org.au.2017). The Victorian women health policy and well-being have helped improve the livelihood and well-being of women by creating awareness on disease prevention, providing free medical services and enhancing greater employment opportunities for women. The major strength of the strategy is its highlight and determination to support women from a younger age as twelve years old. The organization slogan is based on the belief that positive development of women health is not only a plan but rather a contemporary plan that is geared towards developing a better future for women by encouraging positive health values adaption and resilience (Hub for health service and Business 2017). The organization supports health resilience by identifying the different issues that women undergo in the quest for accessing health facilities and by focusing on the poor health outcomes among women. Secondly, the organization also addresses women major health concerns and their wellbeing throughout their lifespan.
The principal reason for discovering the strategy was to advocate for family planning among Victorian women by protecting women sexual and reproductive health. The policy slogan is based on care, education, and advocacy for women with lower health outcomes (Browne et al. 2016). Other three major areas that the strategy was created to defend when it comes to women health was chronic illness and injury, violence against women and their mental health (Grych et al. 2015). The family planning departments of the central strategy target are women from the ages of twelve as these are sexually active individuals. The family planning department allows women the right to exercise reproductive health over their life by enabling them to make decisions on the appropriate time they want to get children and the number of children they want to have (Sonfield et al. 2014).
The strategy has also linked sexual and reproductive health to mental illness, chronic diseases, violence, and injury. This is because; most women are more prone to sexual injustices which exposes them to violence, injury and mental illness regarding depression and post-trauma after sexual, violent acts (Motz 2016). The aim of the strategy is, therefore, to join the four policies together in diversifying women through creating reproductive health awareness and providing health services responsive to Victoria’s marginalized and disadvantaged women. Finally, the policy was discovered for health social determinant purpose where the Family Planning Victoria entrusted the government with the work of analyzing and determining the state of women health.
The policy impacts positively on women as it advocates for the sexual and reproductive health of women by linking the challenges women undergo as a result of poor reproductive health outcome. The Strategy is embedded on the belief that that violating women sexual right exposes them to chronic illnesses such as Sexually Transmitted infections and cancers. Secondly, women who lack reproductive rights don’t have control and decision-making power family planning; the strategy educates, advocate and create awareness to women from the age of twelve on family planning. Thirdly, the strategy understands that women who lack childbirth decision-making power and women who undergo sexual abuse are more prone to suffer mental disturbances due to depression and trauma (Kleppe 2016). The strategy aims at rehabilitating women in such scenarios. Personally, I believe that the strategy is an empowerment action that is likely to promote women dignity and give them the right to freely express their sexual desires, frustrations, and interests thus allowing them an opportunity to participate in other matters of concerns within the society.
Nonetheless, the strategy has focused so much on women and ignored the interests. The approach fails to understand that quality reproductive health is one which focuses on the needs of both men and women and goes beyond the absence of disease and emotional illness to rational and emotional dimensions. Separating men and females health policies promotes marginalization and stigmatization due to population assumption. In most instances, Men are always the assumed population. Assuming men sexual reproductive health and focusing on women may not be effective as when all genders are involved (Alexander et al. 2016). It is important to note that the positive and adverse effects of reproductive health occur differently in all populations and impacts the same way severely on the entire population. The Victorian state should, therefore, advocate for equity among women and men in promoting their sexual and reproductive health rights.
The UN acts of human rights in 2012, declared contraception a universal fundamental human right, an implication that the rights should benefit everyone (Roosevelt, 2001). Even so, the Victorian women health policy has proven discriminative in two ways; first, it only helps women. Secondly, it is limited to women within the Victorian of Australia. All the same, the policy well targets; it is over-inclusive as it targets women as young as twelve years old. Besides it allows women opportunity to participate in matters affecting their lives by combining more and less restrictive, coercive and punitive policies. Restricted and coercive policies are used in instances where a situation poses harm to an individual wellbeing. Less restrictive and coercive policies are used as alternative humane policies in cases where the programs aim at reaching a particular objective. For instance, the Victoria women health and well-being use advocacy, education and care policy strategies as an alternative policy to enhancing the program effectiveness (Michau et al. 2015).
Alternative humane policies emphasize on the main vision of a program agenda thus making it readily achievable. The policy has proven to be under inclusive as it focuses sexually related illness and ignoring other diseases those impacts on human the same way. Policies can be both inclusive and under inclusive depending on the matter of concern. For instance, The Victorian state has implemented a policy where commercial sex workers are penalized with intent of reducing STI’S, yet their agent is not penalized (Hextell 2017). This policy is under-inclusive because it targets a vulnerable population yet sexual behaviors occur with the participation of other members such as commercial sex agents and clients. The policy is over inclusive as it considers the fact that not all sex workers are infected, it, therefore, advocate for safe sex practice and clients access to information on potential risks associated with commercial sex.
The policy is essential as it protects women from all sexual violence, makes provisions for treatments against post-sexual violence outcomes, creates awareness on reproductive health and provides marginalized and disadvantaged women with appropriate medical facilities. On the contrary, the policy itself is a restriction on human rights especially the women rights as it imposes certain policies on women on the grounds of protecting human rights. For instance, the policy fosters compulsory admission and detention of women who undergo serious violence issues as they administer treatment and investigate on certain criminal activities that may be associated with the sexual violation. The rights restrict individual freedom to the movement as people movements may be limited within a hospital premise due to illness or at a rehabilitation center for necessary medication and due to the impacts of mental diseases that arise due to post sexual violence trauma (Humanrights.gov.au.2017). The policy necessitates human rights restriction as it protects victim’s information from third-party access. Nevertheless, hiding information from close family members or relatives may be risky, the program may, therefore, be considered restrictive in such scenarios. The World Health organization treaty argues that reproductive health rights should be enjoyable and equitable granted to every individual (World Health Organization 2014). The policy only advocates for women reproductive assuming that of men, it ‘s hard to achieve reproductive health sustainability when one group is excluded from reproductive health awareness creation.
Human rights maybe are limited and restricted to safeguard the life of an individual without their consent. For instance, victims of sexual violence might be coerced into a certain form of medication without their approval or knowledge of the medication. People are prescribed medication without their knowledge in instances where the condition is a threat to their survival. Secondly, the freedom of movement may be restricted whereby an individual is at risk or under legal command where the law necessities a solitary confinement within an area during a case investigation (Upshur 2002). Thirdly, freedom of movement is restricted by medical conditions where an individual is under a medical condition that may cause harm to other people or may to the person on medication. For example, patients with chronic illness may be limited to movement at an advanced stage due to the critical medical conditions that require close supervision and attention.
On the other hand, patients with mental illness such as post-traumatic trauma and depression may be restricted within a rehabilitation center as their actions or response to stress management may expose them to actions that can harm other people. For example, individuals under stress may engage in disturbing activities such as drug abuse, may attempt suicide or inflict pain on other people as a way of relieving themselves from stress. Lastly, certain individual’s rights may be restricted by prioritizing other people’s rights than others despite the laws. For example, Women rights have often been given more priority than that of men in most societies; this is because women have been constrained by societal norms from accessing certain rights. However, the globalization and women empowerment agenda has given women more priorities than men with the intent of helping women attain equality and rise from societal drawbacks. Women rights can therefore not be similar to men rights as they are not homogeneous beings (Dudgeon and Inhorn 2004).
Health programs are effective in implementing the Victoria women policy, and well-being as health programs such as reproductive health programs share the same vision of education, care, and advocacy in family planning. Health programs provide women with necessary contraceptives and educate them on them of such contraceptives. Likewise, structures such as the Australian bill of rights provide a provision for women access to contraceptives and decision-making on family planning patterns about their lives (Shahnaz 2017). Even so, high pricing on contraceptive and medication may prevent the Victoria women health and well-being policy from being effective as most women are not able to afford to afford contraceptive cost despite the program strategy in caring for their contraceptive needs. Alternatively, the Victoria health program, the bill of rights, the health and government structures may provide all necessary provisions for better contraception but still fail to achieve its reproductive health agenda due to individual attitudes, cultural and religious belief against a particular form of contraception. All in all, the factors and strategies for health and policy implementation is not the same across all cultures, populations, and ages. Thus the policy implementation process may differ depending on an individual conviction on what is best for them (Kass and Beyrer 2007).
Rights systems on health programs can be monitored through establishing a framework of supervision, research and data collection which will enable stakeholders to analyze the progress of the health program implementation. For instance, the effectiveness of the policy application and success can be determined by supervising on how providers educate, supply and guide people in implementing the program. The policy can also be monitored through gathering data on how individuals are responding to the program by researching on the impact of the program on beneficiaries. The collected research and analysis should be evaluated by different professional neutral parties to attain genuine and none biased research. All stakeholders and external stakeholders should be held responsible for the outcomes of the program implementation process. The information shall be shared with interested parties and disseminate to members y their departmental leaders; this is aimed at promoting easy access to policy implementation report and for accountability purposes on awareness creation. Challenges that arise from the policy implementation process will be redressed by conducting an evaluation analysis of the policy expectations, where the team shall analyze and determine its effectiveness in fulfilling the program vision. Stakeholders shall then brainstorm and conduct further research on better ways to enhance the program effectiveness.
Conclusion
Human rights health policies are essential as it promotes an individual well-being while at the same time protecting the health status of individuals. Human rights are universal but not homogeneous to all persons due to race, gender, religion, and culture. All the same, certain rights are similar among groups of individuals or populations. For instance, the reproductive health policy has similar provisions for all women across the world. Over the years, women have fall victims of violation, discrimination, and marginalization. Fortunately, the rise of globalization has promoted women empowerment and allowed women privileges that never existed before. Victoria women health and well-being is an example of one of the rights that women enjoy as a result of globalization. However, women empowerment strategy should not diminish men; it should be based on an equity approach where both men and women enjoy globalization benefits at a fairly.
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