Policy Processes, Overview of Long Term Care - Essay Example

?Policy Processes Introduction The formulation of policies is very important to every nation. Various organizations, agencies and s withina nation also need strong policy formations to ensure the successful running of their day to day affairs. Policies in this regard, serves as guiding principles, based on which a nation or an institution is governed. To this end, Slack (2011) explains that “Policies are developed in response to the existence of a perceived problem or an opportunity; they never exist in a vacuum.” This concludes therefore that a nation or an institution without a policy cannot be run successfully and that such a nation or institution is being governed like someone, walking in the dark – such a person has no guidelines. Sycamnias (1998) quotes a dictionary definition of policy that states that policy is "any course of action followed primarily because it is expedient or advantages in a material sense". To this sense, policies are necessary because they are accompanied with a number of advantages that can be tapped for strategic governing of any institution such as a healthcare system or a nation as a whole. To achieve the full benefits of a policy however, there are certain necessary factors needs to be considered before getting a policy under way. In the healthcare system, some of these factors often turn out to be practices that have been used over a long period of time. This paper discusses one of such factors, which has to do with how long term care becomes a policy. Overview of Long Term Care Individual people have different health needs. Ultimately however, the prime goal of every health practitioner is to cause a maximum level of quality health status to all clients and patients. Where the achievement of quality health status in some people may tae very short time, other people require extensive and prolonged healthcare delivery to attain premium health status; thus long term care. Day (2011) notes that “when a person requires someone else to help him with his physical or emotional needs over an extended period of time, this is long-term care.” Most often than not, people seek long-term care in areas such as waling, counseling, feeding, dressing, bating, removing snow and administering medications. The fact of the case is that the need for a person to be on long term care is not limited to a group of people alone though the aged have a higher risk factor rate. It is said that the tendency of needing long term care is not limited to a particular group of people alone because Day opines that “the need for long-term care help might be due to a terminal condition, disability, illness, injury or the infirmity of old age”; something that anyone may be a victim of at any point in time in the person’s life. To the health profession, for long term care to become a policy is an issue of importance; especially considering the immense role that long term care plays in the daily life of a person. As noted earlier, polices serve as guiding principle for decision making and so the healthcare provider would always embrace long term care policy because it would help in realizing the aims and goals for healthcare delivery. Stages in Policy Process Before the long term care becomes a policy, there are a number of stages that the policy process will be taken through. Each of these stages plays an instrumental role in ensuring the final product, which is supposed to be the policy itself becomes a success. To this end, each stage ought to be treated with special importance and attention. The three major stages identified on the policy making process are discussed below. • Formulation stage The formulation stage may best be likened to the base stage where the entire process of policy building is conceived. Coffman (2007) identifies two major sub-stages involved at the formulation stage. Fundamentally, the formulation stage does not really get anything tangible in place. In light of this, Coffman (2007) notes that there is sub-stage known as the problem stage. At the problem stage, stakeholders who are involved in the promotion of model that is being sought to be a policy: and in our case, stakeholders in the long term care model, would have to take their advocacy role to the higher level whereby they engage in the “process of persuading policy decision makers to pay attention to one problem over others” (Coffman, 2007). So as stated, stakeholders would have to persuade policy decision makers on why the long term care needs to be considered and actually made a policy. The problem stage is therefore a lobbing stage, where stakeholders must make their voices heard. As a way of persuading policy decision makers to choose the long term care over other models, they must be able to state categorically, the benefits of the long term care and how the benefits will even be increased or multiplied if the model eventually becomes a policy. The next sub-stage at the formulation stage is the proposal stage. Coffman (2007) states that “Proposals represent the process by which policy proposals are generated, debated, revised, and adopted for serious consideration.” In fact, this sub-stage is so crucial that in most cases, its components have been mistaken to represent the formulation stage all alone. This is because by the proposal stage, stakeholders who are pushing for the consideration of the model into a policy must complete all ‘paper-work’, commonly referred to as whitepaper. The white paper must contain details on how the framework of the policy will look like and how the final implementation stage will look like. This proposal stage of the formulation stage is therefore a forecasting stage. But even more into the proposal stage is the need for decision makers to have a look at the paperwork, analyze it, and confirm if it fits the persuasions that accompanied it at the problem stage. In case decision makers express any reservations, the paperwork will be considered for review before it is will finally be adopted for decision making considerations. To sum it all for the formulation stage, it is good to reiterate the fact that the firmness of any mansion depends on its foundation and so it is very important that at the formulation stage, decision makers take time to consider all aspects of the paperwork to make sure that prompt feedback is given to stakeholders to make all necessary corrections before the next stage is jumped unto. • Legislative stage Legislation may best be referred to as a law. In this direction, Your Dictionary (2011) emphasizes that “Legislation means laws and rules made by the government.” This means that at the legislative stage, the duty of preparing a whitepaper or a blueprint shifts from the stakeholders or advocators to the actual policy decision makers. This is because by this stage, it is expected that the policy decision makers will be convinced much enough of the importance and significance of the model. In most countries where the parliamentary system of governance is practiced, the whitepaper must be accepted by the Executive at the formulation stage. The Executive then forwards the paper to parliament, where parliamentarians who are regarded as legislators also study the paper and record it in their law books – making the paper a legislative instrument or law. With the long term care, once the policy process reaches the legislative stage, government would have to accept that it would be responsible for the carrying out every expense on the policy from that stage onwards. One important component of the legislative stage is that the use of the model becomes recorded in the law books and so its enforcement and implementation becomes compulsory. If the long term care becomes a legislative policy therefore, there would have to be a portion in the health care practice system where health practitioners would be enshrined to apply the long term care to every patient who has need of it. The times as to when and how the long term care would be used would however depend on what is agreed on the whitepaper. • Implementation stage After the legislative stage, the long term care would be said to be a draft policy. This means that it would be just some few steps away from taking off. The implementation stage is the stage where the actual take off takes place and this stage is very crucial. In the view of Slack (2011), “the most carefully crafted policy that is widely accepted by those it affects can flounder because of improper implementation.” This means that no matter how much work is put into the policy process at the formulation and legislative stages, the entire idea could be thwarted if implementation is not done well. To avoid the threat of last minute failure, a ten step model of policy implementation that was devised by Hogwood and Gunn (1984) are recommended below: 1. Policies must not face insurmountable external constraints. 2. In implementing the policy there must be an adequate time frame and resources. 3. The implementing agency must have adequate staff and resources to carry out the policy. 4. The premises of policy and theory must be compatible. 5. Cause and effect relationships in the policy must be direct and uncluttered. 6. Dependency relationships should be kept to a minimum. 7. The basic objectives of the policy need to be agreed upon and understood. 8. Tasks must be specified in an appropriate sequence. 9. Communication and coordination need to be on the same wavelength. 10. There must be compliance. (Source: Hogwood and Gunn, 1984) Conclusion In the end, policy makers are admonished to consider the long term care as a policy that will entrust healthcare providers to provide long term health care to all patients who may be identified as needing it. REFERENCE LIST Coffman J. Evaluation Based on Theories of the Policy Process, 2007. Advocacy and Policy Change Volume XIII, Number 1&2, Spring 2007. Available on line at http://www.hfrp.org/evaluation/the-evaluation-exchange/issue-archive/advocacy-and-policy-change/evaluation-based-on-theories-of-the-policy-process Day,T. What Is Long Term Care? 2011. Web. October 17, 2011 National Care Planning Council Slack B. The Policy Process, 2011. Web. October 17, 2011. The Geography Of Transport Systems. Sycamnias, E. What is Policy? 1998. Web. October 16, 2011 Your Dictionary, Legislation. 2011. Web. October 19, 2011. Read More