The establishment of a health promoting case management service: a policy process case study

The purpose of this case study is to demonstrate the potential contribution that analysis based on established public policy theories can make to understanding the complex processes integral to the development and implementation of health promoting policies and programs. To date very little of the policy-related health promotion literature makes any reference to public policy theorists or research. To help fill this gap two well established streams of policy analysis are used in this micro-level case study: agenda setting and interorganisational dependencies. These two approaches are used to describe and analyse the development and establishment of a health promoting case management service for people with acquired brain injuries. What emerges is not an account of a rational, linear and inevitable sequence of events. Rather, it reveals an amalgam of policy processes that include elements of rationality, conflict, cooperation, opportunities, constraints and the exercise of power in a complex and changing network of actors.