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wpo


Research Agenda for Psychosocial and Behavioral Factors in Womens Health: Public Policy Agenda

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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