This essay focuses on   a Change in Policy to Improve the Public’s Health.In a Microsoft Word document of 2-3 pages formatted in APA style, you will focus on the methods to develop a change in policy to improve the public’s health by using a health policy model.

a Change in Policy to Improve the Public’s Health

Policies are the written or unwritten guidelines that governments, organizations and institutions, communities, or individuals use when responding to issues and situations. They are generally shaped both by logic (e.g., get a medical history before you prescribe medication) and by people’s assumptions about reality, including:

• Assumptions about the way things should be. These are formed by a combination of the values people learn as children, conventional wisdom (what “everyone knows”), local custom and community norms, cultural factors, religion, and “common sense” (which may be neither common nor sense). People’s conceptions of gender roles, relationships among groups, appropriate behavior, etc., are usually subject to this set of assumptions.
• Assumptions about what works.

• These assumptions guide ideas about how to address a particular issue.

• They can determine, for instance, whether a community drug problem is approached with stricter enforcement and harsher punishment, or with an increase in funding for treatment and follow-up programs.
• Assumptions about people. What people think they know about other people in general or about members of other ethnic, racial, or social groups. Sensitivity to other cultures – or its absence – has a lot to do with these assumptions, as do empathy and exposure to a variety of cultures and situations.
• Assumptions about what’s good for the community. These assumptions may not reflect reality, or the needs and wishes of everyone in the community. Until the 1960’s, for example, the majority of the white population in many American communities – and not only in the South – honestly felt that separation of the races was best for everyone, and that African Americans were perfectly happy with their position in society. It is probably fair to say that most black people’s assumptions in this matter were quite different

Policies can take different forms, depending upon whose policies they are, and what they refer to. They may be public or private, official or unofficial, expressed or unexpressed. Some common types of policies:

Official government policies.

Official policy, in and of itself, can take many forms:

• Simple recognition of the seriousness of an issue.

• Support for addressing an issue, or for a specific position on that issue. A policy of support may mean that officials consider that issue when discussing others related to it, that it gets funding priority, etc.
• The amount of funding available for a specific issue reflects government policy on the importance of that issue.
• Funding and eligibility standards for publicly funded programs. Eligibility in this case might include the types of programs the government is willing to fund, which reflects its policy (and assumptions) on what will actually work to resolve the issue. It might also include who is eligible for services, which reflects official policy on where and what the need is.
• Enforcement – or lack of enforcement – of existing laws and regulations.
• Actual laws or regulations are an expression of official policy, often brought about by pressure from citizens.

Unofficial government policy.

In a Microsoft Word document of 2-3 pages formatted in APA style, you will focus on the methods to develop a change in policy to improve the public’s health by using a health policy model.

Suppose you want to initiate a policy of taxing sugared sodas/pop/beverages in your community. In your paper, address each of the following criteria:

Firstly, use the Longest’s policy cycle model to structure your proposed policy.

Secondly, that arguments would you use to make the case for the policy?

Thirdly, hat argument(s) would your opponents make?

Further, how would you go about getting buy-in for your proposed policy?