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Research Agenda for Psychosocial and Behavioral Factors in Womens Health: Public Policy Agenda
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Broad
Goals for Public Policy Efforts
Public Policy Priorities for Specific Groups
Real and lasting progress
in improving the health of all American women will require significant shifts
in policy by government at the federal, state, and local levels, as well as
by other public and private institutions. Through their decisions, these bodies
set priorities, allocate resources, and establish structures. In today's political
climate, focusing significant attention on issues of women's health will take
sustained and concerted action by advocacy groups, funding agencies, and interested
public officials.
Broad Goals for Public
Policy Efforts
The following are broad
goals for public policy efforts to advance women's health:
Develop health policy
at local, state, and national levels that is informed by the changing social
and economic contexts of women's lives.
Provide information and
education to women about healthy lifestyles, important preventive services,
results of health research, efficacy of treatments, and availability of health
care and related services in their communities.
Reduce financial barriers
to women's access to health care by assuring adequate health insurance coverage
for preventive and other services, regardless of women's employment status,
income, or health status.
Reduce non-financial barriers
to women's access to health care by providing health services that are culturally
appropriate and accessible to women in the communities where they live and work.
Ensure the appropriate
training and adequate numbers of primary care providers (physicians and non-physicians)
for women's basic health care.
Ensure that managed care
systems are sensitive to women's health care needs and appropriately integrate
the components of women's health care.
Ensure that women are
adequately represented among health research participants and that needed research
is conducted on women's health problems.
Protect women's right
to seek needed health services and to make decisions about their own health
care.
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Public Policy Priorities
for Specific Groups
Priorities
for Research Funding Agencies
Maintain adequate funding
for a broad spectrum of women's health research, including psychosocial and
behavioral areas as well as research on the delivery and appropriateness of
women's health services.
Maintain stringent guidelines
for inclusion of women and minorities in study populations.
Require broad dissemination
of research results and use developing technology to make results more available
through libraries, the Internet and other outlets.
Continue efforts to increase
the number of women and ethnic minority researchers through training opportunities.
Fund large-scale national
research initiatives in women's health addressing issues such as prevention
and health promotion, reproductive health, and chronic disorders. An example
is the Women's Health Initiative.
Fund comprehensive, multiagency,
multidisciplinary efforts to examine major health issues affecting women such
as HIV, coronary heart disease, lung cancer, breast cancer, teen pregnancy,
and male partner violence.
Create new funding mechanisms
for developing innovative settings for ongoing community-based and public health
interventions.
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Priorities for Policymakers (Congress and Administration)
Include requirements to
assess the impact on women of all proposed health care and health insurance
reform policies. Such assessments would be similar to the environmental impact
assessment requirement for development projects.
Preserve and strengthen
offices of women's health and women's health research and other infrastructures
involved in women's health research. A paramount concern is that these offices
receive adequate funding.
Maintain and strengthen
mechanisms to coordinate women's health activities across federal agencies.
Mandate dissemination
of research results to women and their health care providers.
Clarify and strengthen
the Public Health Service (PHS) guidelines on the inclusion of women and ethnic
minorities in study populations.
Create a Women's Health
Advisory Committee to the Secretary of Health and Human Services with a diverse
membership of researchers, advocates, policymakers, providers, and consumers
to assess the progress of federal and state agencies on addressing guidelines,
action plans, and goals on women's health. For example, it would set realistic
goals and timetables and monitor progress on the PHS Action Plan for Women's
Health.
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Priorities for Professional and Women's Health Advocacy Associations
Disseminate research findings
in professional journals, the media, electronic communications systems, and
other outlets accessible to a broad range of audiences, including policymakers
and consumers.
Inform policymakers and
health care providers of research results and gaps in current knowledge.
Ensure adequate training
and supply of professionals who provide women's basic health care.
Maintain strong advocacy
activities to ensure that women's health issues remain a priority and conduct
advocacy training for members.
Create linkages among
women in communities, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in women's
health such as electronic communication systems to keep pace with the rapid
changes taking place in the world.
Develop linkages with
organizations whose missions are to promote the election of women and to ensure
that those organizations have science-based information about the health needs
of women. Those organizations can, in turn, help educate and inform candidates
for office.
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Priorities for Health Care Providers
Ensure appropriate training
and supply of women's primary care providers.
Ensure integration of
all components of women's health care in managed care plans.
Ensure that health providers
and insurance plans do not discriminate against women in benefit structures
or provision of services.
Make use of current research
results in efforts to remove barriers to access for underserved populations.
Integrate findings of
women's health research into practice.
Involve schools, religious
organizations, women's groups and other community entities in health screening,
prevention, diagnosis, and treatment efforts.
Ensure that psychosocial
and behavioral issues are included in the training of health care providers.
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Priorities for Researchers
Translate research findings
into practical applications in primary care and community settings and disseminate
results widely to policymakers, community groups, health providers, and other
researchers.
Identify gaps in scientific
knowledge about women's health.
Develop partnerships with
health provider and community groups to disseminate research results and identify
issues that future research and policy should address.
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Priorities for the Media
Report women's health
research as accurately and in as much depth as possible.
Report how research results
affect and apply to various subpopulations of women.
Report the impact on women
of health care reform proposals, health insurance reform proposals, and other
developments related to the funding of health care.
Report the impact of federal,
state, and/or local health policies on women, including different subpopulations
of women.
Ensure that stories on
women's health are informed by the changing social and economic contexts of
women's lives.
Inform and educate women
about healthy lifestyles, important preventive services, results of health research,
efficacy of treatments, and availability of health care and related services
in their communities.
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