Youth Policy in Relation to Health - Essay Example

Introduction The Maltese Youth Policy 2004 was created with the aim of providing opportunity, equity and social justice to youth. The government of Malta wanted to promote authenticity, responsibility and diversity among young people. It also wanted to ensure that most of them participated actively in their country thus leading to better quality of life. Maltese policy The National Youth Policy of Malta emphasises on the examination of all aspects of health. This means that the health policy does not just deal with treatment of sick persons alone, it also looks at ways of preventing diseases, ensuring that the youth gain access to primary health care and also promoting healthy living. The policy covers the psychological, mental and physical realms of young people's health. Since the policy focuses on prevention rather than treatment, this is a wise approach by the Maltese government because it implies that they have realised that good health starts at an early age. This objective is to be implemented through establishment of health education. (Youth Forum, 2006a) The Maltese Youth Policy is also quite unswerving in its approach because it focuses on some of the dangerous activities that youth engage in and those that can be detrimental to their health. This has been achieved through placement of professionals to deal with those dangerous issues e.g. unprotected sex, addiction, promiscuity, careless driving, malnutrition and dangerous leisure activities. The Policy also considers the fact that youth need to be protected in their work places and therefore introduces the issue of promotion of safety standards within workplaces. There are some weaknesses in the policy too. The first is the fact that very little has been done to address the issue of diversity within the nation yet there are a number of foreign youth in the country. Additionally, the policy has described all the issues that need to be addressed but it has not implemented some of these issues. Part of the reason why implementation has been slow was because some of the terms in the policy are ambiguous. For example, the policy claims that it will 'promote' health as part of the holistic approach to health. However, details on how this can be achieved have not been clearly laid out. Additionally, the policy has not specified which age groups or classes will need health education. The policy has made a sweeping statement about the importance of early education as a base for healthy living yet there are various interpretations to the term 'early'. (Eurodesk, 2004) A Critique of the Youth Health policy in Slovakia, Britain and Finland The Youth Policy in Britain focuses on a number of issues facing young members of society. Some of them include; embracing diversity within the nations' youth agenda, promoting participation of the youth in activities that affect their country including sports and many others. However, there is very little focus on health. Despite giving numerous suggestions on how the overall well being of the youth can be improved, there is still little effort to link those suggestions to health. (ESPNsoccernet, 2008) However, there are some positive aspects about the policy too. The policy initiated a campaign against unhealthy eating habits and childhood obesity. It also created a personal health initiative where there would be focus on the young people between the ages of twelve and thirteen. This was introduced in order to assist young people in the process of making a transition from their teenage years into later stages of life. However, even this initiative is not all encompassing as it has not looked at emotional and mental aspects of health. All in all, one can conclude that the Youth Policy in Britain is quite elaborate but lacks precision under the health agenda. The Youth Policy in Finland is examined after every ten years through the Youth Act. The last change was made in the year 2006. The first problem with the youth policy was the fact that there is so much emphasis on education and attainment of higher education and very little has been covered on youth health. However, there are plans to improve the overall well being of the youth. This however raises one specific concern; who are the youth Finland has not gone out of its way to clearly outline age groups in its health policy. The youth may range from fourteen to thirty (as stipulated by the European Union). However, different groups should be given special attention. For example, there should be a health program for teenagers or nay other suitable arrangement. By making a blanket statement of health policies for the youth, Finland is not clear in its descriptions. The country also realises that there are certain social problems that should be addressed in order to ensure the well being of Finland's youth. This is because the country was faced with a serious economic problem during the 1990s. This left most youth unemployed and most of them lacked the means to take care of their health. The youth policy pledges to engage in more coordination of youth activities in order to ascertain that they do well economically and hence health wise. However, upon critical analysis, one can see that there is a lack of precision in this area. The government should have given specific resources to deal with issue. All in all, one can say that the Finland Youth Policy is well structured and varied. (Youth Forum, 2006b) The Youth Policy in Slovakia is still in its formative stages. This is against the shaky background that Slovakia has been dealing with. First of all, the country changed from a communist regime to an independent state (Demes, 1999). Consequently, there have been problems with how the government perceives youth activities. The government of Slovakia still has difficulties viewing youth policies as issues that need to be dealt with separately. Most youth protection efforts are mostly covered by independent youth associations. They lack legitimisation through laws and support form the government. Youth policies in this State are welfare based and this goes against economic principles. The government also lacks the goodwill to promote civic [participation. Despite all these inadequacies in their youth policy, there are some few good qualities in their policy. For example, they have set up high health standards for the entire population and this covers the youth. They are also dealing with unemployment among the youth- this will assist in empowering the youth to take care of their health and overall well being. The Youth Council of Slovakia reports that a long term, youth policy is still in its drafting phases after work began in the year 2007. Slovakia is yet to reach the level set out by its counterparts in the youth health policy. (Wallace, 2008) Comparison between the Slovakian, Finland and Great Britain's youth policy with the Maltese Youth Policy 2004 Britain's Youth Policy on health can serve as an example for Malta because it specifies specific age groups. Some of the programs created within the policy are meant for teenagers while others are meant for older youth. This precision is something that was lacking in the Maltese Youth Policy. Another aspect that Malta can emulate from Great Britain's youth policy is that of clarity in terms of preventative measures. While the Maltese government realised that they need to prevent illnesses rather than treatment, they did not explain how this could be achieved or how they could promote this. Britain on the other hand clarified this by examples; it stated that prevention of teenage obesity can be prevented through promotion of healthy eating. This has been one of the major achievements made by British youth policy. (Greater London Authority, 2006) The Maltese Youth Policy 2004 is somewhat similar to Finland's youth policy. This is because some of the problems that can be seen in the Maltese Youth Policy are also present within Finland's policy. For instance Finland claims that it will spearhead the coordination of more youth activities through the implementation of networks. Instead of talking about how they will allocate resources towards youth activities, they have chosen to make a blanket statement. Similarly, Malta also claims that it will promote health care and does not state how it can achieve that. Both countries also fail to address the needs of specific age groups since the term youth can be used to mean a large number of age groups. On the other hand, Malta is not as ambiguous as Finland in this aspect. Malta has laid out some programs for younger youth through health education; Finland does not have such a policy. (Youth Partnership, 2007) The Maltese Health policy is far more superior o the Slovakian one. This is because the Slovakian government is yet to recognise the youth as a group that need to be protected and promoted. (Machacek, 2001) The Slovakian government can emulate their counterparts (Malta) in a number of spheres. First of all, they could adopt the Maltese approach on preventive health measures through employment of professional in the areas of drug addiction, prostitution and promiscuity. Slovakia can also adopt the issue of protecting the youth at wok and it could also provide health education for its younger population in order to prevent future incidences. Despite the fact that the Maltese youth policy may have some defects here and there, this does not undermine the fact that there are numerous advantages and they can act as guides for the Slovakian government which is still trying to make out its youth policy Conclusion The Maltese policy of 2004 was quite instrumental in protection and recognition of youth rights. However, there are some inadequacies that need to be addressed.For example too much ambiguity and failure to address needs of specific youth groups. (Eurodesk, 2004) Reference: Demes, P. (1999); The Third Sector and Volunteerism in Slovakia, Institute for Public Affairs, p347-364 Machacek, L. (2001); Youth in the Process of Transition and Modernisation in the Slovak Republic, Czech Sociological review, No. 1, Vol. 6, P 103-115 Wallace, C. (2008); Youth in Society: East and West Europe, Macmillan: St Martins Press Eurodesk (2004); National Youth Policy 2004, retrieved from http://forum.eurodesk.org/forum/FOV1-00010CAB/FOV1-000100FC/FAV1-0000E000/FOV1-00016454/FOV1-00011EEC/FAV1-0000E000/FOV1-00019792/FOV1-00019793/S0047A983.0/National%20Youth%20Policy%202004.pdf accessed on 2nd May 2008 Youth Forum (2006b); National Youth Councils in Finland, retrieved from, http://www.youthforum.org/Downloads/about_us/NYCswebdb.pdf. Accessed on 2nd May 2008 Youth Forum (2006a); National Youth Council (MALTA); Shadow Report on the Malta situation 2006 Greater London Authority (2006); Youth Policy in London, a policy paper of the Mayor of London, January, 2006 ESPNsoccernet (2008); England needs better youth policy, retrieved from http://soccernet.espn.go.com/ accessed on 2nd May 2008 Youth Partnership (2007): Youth Policy in Finland, a report by an international review group appointed by the Council of Europe Read More