National Women's Health Policy

1090 Words3 Pages

nation’s health issues and address the major challenges that face society in general which justifies the National Women’s Health Policy 2010 as a credible policy document that will improve women’s health. However, the NWHP 2010 does not detail the strategies to be employed in solving health issues experienced by the disabled population (Department of Health and Ageing, 2010). The National Women’s Health Policy outlines statistics of the impact of the key health issues identified namely: prevention of chronic diseases and risk control factors, mental health and wellbeing, sexual and reproductive health and healthy ageing. Chronic diseases with cardiovascular disease being identified as the leading cause of death and a prevalence of 55 percent …show more content…

Additional research is proposed to be undertaken by the Jean Hailes Foundation which has been funded since 1997 to translate findings into workable strategies to prevent and treatment illness among women. The policy recommends increased awareness on the importance of breast cancer screening in order to reduce the prevalence among women. This will be conducted in conjunction with the program aimed at supporting rural women diagnosed with breast cancer to access quality specialist care. The establishment of the Australian National Preventative Health Agency and research fund with an initial funding of $17.6 million was also suggested as a way of increased research and providing advice on policy (Harvey, …show more content…

The word gender is mentioned severally in the 140 page policy document. It is stated that there is evidence that the social perception that shapes the role and position of women in society, hence their gender, is a common denominator when health issues affecting women are considered. Other words like principles, key health issues and social determinants of health have been used widely. The term social determinants stands out in this policy because it represents the impacts on health caused by social factors like sex and gender, stage in life of a woman, being or not being endowed economically and diversity in terms of marginalisation (Morgan, Glass and Davidson,

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