Context of Health Policies and the Impact on Implementation of Health Care and Health Interventions

Abstract

This chapter will discuss the interface between context, health and health care policy, and health care delivery, using examples primarily from the experience of cancer control and mental health care within the US health care system, although drawing on the more general trends in the influence of policy on health care. Primarily, the chapter will describe policy as existing as two distinct spheres of activity. First, it will describe the set of legislative and regulatory actions that governments and organizations use to influence the provision and receipt of health care, which form the context upon which health care is delivered. Second, it will describe policy as a set of interventions that may support or impede the implementation of health and health care innovations. Finally, the chapter discusses how research can be advanced in this space.