The situation at hand involves implementing a health public policy. The government is committed to setting up a region-based center for the ex-mentally ill persons.
The center is expected to create a window of opportunity for individual patients to make progress and live a significant life in the society and also fulfill individual goals. The project is supported by the interested parties, such as the community and alliance groups for the promotion of welfare.
However, as the government prepares to implement the project, it is clear that there is difficulty in carrying out public consultation with the local community due to the public resistance experienced under the rally of an elected District Council member. Despite their satisfaction with the policy, the community request to locate the center in other places to avoid contact.
From the analysis, it is apparent that the problem situation revolves around the difficulty of conducting public consultation with the local community. This can be attributed to improper realization of the network theme or lack of communication in policy implementation, leading to disagreements.
As an officer responsible in the implementation strategy, I suggest integrating the network theme in executing the project. Since it is a health public policy, the implementation should involve collective effort from the government, the elected council members, health practitioners, legislative authorities, interest groups, and the community.
We should challenge the government to rethink on the methods or strategies of carrying out public consultation. The government should be advised to consolidate efforts from the elected council members, the management advisory committee of the XX Public Housing Estate, and the community at large with the aim of having democratic governance.
Attrition strategies and involving everyone is seen as the most effective strategies in dealing with the problem. These strategies will not require a lot of structural or policy reforms with financial and political costs. So long as every party is aware of the intention of the government, setting up the health center in the XX Public Housing Estate would be considered effective.
Talking about network theme, I suggest that there is need to consider the interaction among the forces or parties that are involved. The health policy in this case is a vital project that covers everyone in the community; the people to be admitted in the training center are relatives or friends of the members of society.
The major pitfall with implementation networks would be lack of trust between the government and the community. Advising the community on the success of similar projects in other Hong Kong regions would be our concern.
The legislative bodies within the area are to be consulted to ensure that the policy is implemented. Through such bodies, rules can be enforced without any bias, ensuring that accessibility, reliability, and time frame of implementation are considered. Health care practitioners should be consulted to provide their views on the health concerns raised by the community.
The interest groups would also be requested to file in their concern on the matter through appointed specialists. More importantly, we should involve the media in our implementation efforts.
It seems that the government did not create awareness on the matter. The media would play a central role in coordinating the views of all other players in the policy making process by providing information on the benefits of setting up the health center within the area.
Through the media, community can be assured that setting up the training center will not in any way affect the development of young ones and that the training courses are not compulsory. Therefore, it is imperative that formulation and implementation of the policy take into consideration the consent of every player since having different views will help shape the public policy for the community’s welfare.