Women’s Health Policy (Concise Version) pptx

1 Women’s Health Policy (Concise Version) March 5, 2008 2 CONTENT Preface Chapter 1 Prospect Chapter 2 Establishing gender mainstreaming health policies Health Promotion Chapter 3 Establishing healthy living environment Chapter 4 Improving and maintaining women’s mental health Chapter 5 Enhancing women’s health and health-related physical fitness Chapter 6 Enhancing healthy diet Chapter 7 Establishing healthy and positive body image Reproductive Health Chapter 8 Enhancing women’s sexual health Chapter 9 Enhancing menstrual health Chapter 10 Protecting and maintaining women’s reproductive health right Diseases and Care Chapter 11 Enhancing female caregivers’ physical and mental health Chapter 12 Protecting women’s occupational health right Chapter 13 Lowering the threats of major chronic diseases to women’s health Chapter 14 Lowering the threats of cancer to women’s health Chapter 15 Eliminating the impact of violence to women’s physical and mental states Conclusion 3 Preface Chapter 1 Prospect The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women(1995) brought up the platform for action and 12 critical areas for concern, as well as “gender mainstreaming” as a major strategy for the promotion of gender equality. Gender Mainstreaming requests each government or society to bear the concept of gender perspective and gender equality in policy development, research, legislation, resource allocation, and the design, execution and monitoring of programs. Subsequently, as mentioned in the “Health for All. In The Twenty-first Century.” of the World Health Organization (WHO), the “health equality” takes gender, races and poverty into account (1998). In 1999 WHO set the Department of Women and Health and change the name as the Department of Gender, Women and Health (GWH) at the end of 2000. Furthermore in 2002, the WHO approved their gender health policy.and more focused on each nation to understand and pay attention to the social, cultural, psychological and physiological impacts to women’s health. In view of the women’s health policy drawn up in 2000 in Taiwan, though it focuses on life cycle, does not takes women as the mainstream. The policy targets on medical care more than health care, and more on reproductive health. It is in lack of gender consciousness, the studies on women health and related medical problems and their long-term needs, as well as neglects the problem of medicalization. The policy was drawn up as directed from the central authority without women’s participation. It thus to a severe degree ignores women’s overall health need. Besides, the gender blind in Taiwan medical care system also affects the quality of women’s health in Taiwan. In response to the concept of gender mainstreaming of the United Nations and health equality of the World Health Organization, the new version of women’s health policy is drawn up by following the “Framework of Women’s Health Policies” and the five strategic actions of the “Ottawa Charter for Health 4 Promotion”. The guidelines for the formulation of the policy include: “to meet women’s needs; to empower the participation of women and communities; to emphasize men’s responsibilities and participation in prevention for women’s diseases , to prior primary care, to pursuit health equality, to integrate inter-departmental cooperation strategies and so on”. The new version eliminates patriarchal viewpoint to look at women’s health problems, changes the focus from treatment to prevention, and eliminates sexual/gender bias. Analysis on gender and sexual equality are incorporated to the mainstream of health care service system. Furthermore, emphasis is also given to women’s health problems due to violence, isolation, ignorance and prejudice in the expectation to eliminate the health inequality from the traditional society to women such as sexual discrimination and sexual bias. The new version of women’s health policy is in the hope to achieve gender equality and mutualism. Written in fifteen chapters, the first two chapters, Prospect and Establishing gender mainstreaming health policies, are the introduction. The following five chapters, Establishing healthy living environment, Improving and maintaining women’s mental health, Enhancing women’s health and health-related physical fitness, Enhancing healthy diet and Establishing healthy and positive body figure, target on health promotion. The three chapters, Enhancing women’s sexual health, Enhancing menstrual health and Protecting and maintaining women’s reproductive health right, are associated with reproductive health. The rest five chapters, Enhancing female caregivers’ physical and mental health, Protecting women’s occupational health right, Lowering the threats of major chronic diseases to women’s health, Lowering the threats of cancer to women’s health and Eliminating the impact of violence to women’s physical and mental states”, focus on diseases and health care. In each chapter, the first section analyzes the current situation and problems; the second section states the objectives; the third section describes the strategies and actions taken to achieve the objectives. The objectives were set up in three stages and five levels (primary prevention: health promotion and special protection; secondary prevention: an early diagnosis and treatment; final prevention: reduction of disability and rehabilitation). Strategies and actions were drawn up by referring 5 to the five major strategic actions of the “Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion”: (1) build healthy public policy, (2) create supportive environment, (3) strengthen community actions, (4) develop personal skills, and (5) reorient health services. The arrangement of the chapters is made by referring to the framework of women’s health policy of other nations and the principles of women’s policy of the Commission on Women’s Rights Promotion, the Executive Yuan. In these principles, the concepts of women’s health and medical care policies are: (1) building gender conscious health policies and establishing gender conscious medical ethics and education; (2) strengthening gender equity sexual education, and promoting women’s physical and sexual independence to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and unwilling pregnancy; (3) considering gender equality in health policy making system; (4) implemeting a women’s friendly medical care environment and completely respecting women’s interests and rights of seeking medical attention and their decision-making right; (5) focusing on the balance in regions, social classes, races and gender while making strategies and allocating resources of the National Health Insurance; (6) conducting gender conscious research on women’s health and diseases; (7) examining and improving medical care overwhelming situation in women’s health (de-medicalization); (8) recognizing women’s contribution to health promotion and maintenance, and providing thorough resources and remuneration to female caregivers. The policy will be implemented in 2008 to 2011, and the experience and outcomes gained in the four years will be reviewed and revised for the drawn-up of the women’s health policy in the following four years to assure the update of the policy. Conclusion The World Health Organization emphasizes to have the highest and acquirable health level is one of the basic rights of each individual regardless of races, religions, political faith, economy or social status. Yet, many social and cultural factors such as political, economic, social, cultural, environmental, behavioral and biological factors cause gender health inequality. Therefore, it is 6 urgent to build a “Women’s Health Policy” to meet the needs of Taiwanese women in order to improve the existed health inequality. As brought up by the United Nations, the framework of gender mainstreaming women’s health policy is: to clarify ideas, improve the gender bias in health services, incorporate gender equality issues to the mainstream of health research, incorporate gender analysis and equality into health care service system, and integrate inter-departmentally gender equality and health. From increasing people’s understanding about gender issues as well as sexual difference and sex/gender inequality to incorporate gender mainstreaming and sensitivity to hygiene and health related policy-making mechanism through gender sensitive health research, survey on health differences, review and improvement of health services, related resource operation in coordination, staff training and media propagation, this policy reveals the determination of Taiwan government to protect women’s health interests and rights. This women’s health policy with the inter-departmental cooperation of the government and the cooperation with women’s organizations and experts builds up a healthy environment of gender equality and mutualism to allow women’s empowerment and participation and meet women’s health needs. Fourth World Conference on Women http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/plat1.htm#statement Gender mainstreaming http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/pdf/SwissGM_20Jun2003.pdf World Health Organization. Health for All. In The Twenty-first Century. WHO, 1998. Ottawa Charter for health promotion http://www.who.int/hpr/NPH/docs/ottawa_charter_hp.pdf WHO gender policy http://www.who.int/gender/documents/engpolicy.pdf . Reproductive Health Chapter 8 Enhancing women’s sexual health Chapter 9 Enhancing menstrual health Chapter 10 Protecting and maintaining women’s reproductive health. women’s health policy is drawn up by following the “Framework of Women’s Health Policies” and the five strategic actions of the “Ottawa Charter for Health