Although, many sociologists engage in conflict when deciding on a definition of ‘healthy’ they tend to predominantly agree with the WHO’s definition. This concept ‘absence of disease’, can be seen as a negative concept of health as it is concerned with an individual’s physical, intellectual, social and emotional wellbeing. Due to the WHO’s definition many health care provisions have taken to using holistic methods of treatment in order to address the needs of the ‘whole’ person. The biomedical model is one approach to health and illness that sociologists use. This model identifies health as the ‘absence of disease’ with specific focus on diagnosing and curing individuals with illnesses such as cancer.
Therefore, to protect them, they are kept away from mainstream society and excluded. * Rights: The medical model of disability believes that medical professionals know best. This means that therefore the rights of the individual are seen as unimportant and are pushed aside to follow the opinion of the medical professionals. * Autonomy: Decisions in health and social care services for people with disabilities are usually made by carers or medical professionals, as they feel they know what is best for the individual. Therefore, autonomy is not an important principle in the medical model.
It creates low expectations and leads to people losing independence, choice and control in their own lives. They are disempowered: medical diagnoses are used to regulate and control access to social benefits, housing, education, leisure and employment. The medical model promotes the view of a disabled person as dependent and needing to be cured or cared for, and it justifies the way in which disabled people have been systematically excluded from society. The disabled person is the problem, not society. Control resides firmly with professionals as choices for the individual are limited to the options provided and approved by the 'helping' expert.
The medical model looks at the body as a machine, where if it were to break down, a doctor would take on the role of an engineer and attempt to fix it. Unlike the social model, the medical model of health does not take into account social aspects which can also have an effect on health and illness. The social model of health tends to focus on sociological factors, linking illness to things such as poverty, poor housing and unemployment. Eg, the impact that poverty and social class has on illness and health are reflected in life expectancy figures. Although life expectancy in the UK has risen, there is still a gap in life expectancy between the middle class and the working class.
M1: Assess the biomedical and socio-medical models of health. Biomedical model: The biomedical model only focuses on the biological factors when someone is ill it doesn’t look at the social or environmental factors that could have lead to the illness. This method is dominant in the Western societies. Most health care professionals will only analyse what is and look for something that is biologically or genetically wrong with you they won't ask you anything personal about your life because they aren't interested in that, they are just interested in making you well again. According to this model, good health is where you feel no pain, and don't have a disease or defect.
The differences between the biomedical and social model of health is that biomedical focuses on the cure for treating and diagnosing treatment for ill patients while the social model focuses on the origins of the illness rather than the cure. (Denny and Earle 2010) The social model’s aim is to change environmental factors to allow healthier choices focusing on the psychological and social factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, religion, social class and disability. (Kirby et.al 2000) The biomedical model of medicine has been around for centuries as the dominant model used by health professionals to diagnosis disease. The model concentrates on the physical processes of disease and does not take into account psychological or social factors in the cause or treatment of the illness. (Giddens 1989) This model of health looks at individual physical functioning and describes disease and illness as a result of physical causes such as injury or infections.
Sociology Being ill is not a simple thing! Why do sociologists see it as being a problem? When we think of health and illness, there is a general conception that it involves health habits such as exercise and eating the right food, as well as institutions such as hospitals and doctors. In Western societies it is commonly accepted that if we are ill it is a result of an infectious disease that can be cured by modern medicine, or is a result of genetics or lifestyle choices. Sociologists propose a different cause.
Although the Socratic seminar and the novel left many questions unanswered for me, it made me understand more why things are they way they are in the healthcare and scientific research industries. It made me look more closely at the specific details health care professional do in their line of work. In society, money is the key to getting things to happen. It is inferred by the book that informed consent and bioethics are not as important as the appropriation of funds for research. I can tell that this idea is a huge controversy among different individuals.
Healthcare Regulatory Agencies and their Effect on Rising Medical Costs Regulatory agencies can be viewed as a hindrance, these agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Joint Commission of Accreditation of Hospitals (JOINT), and the Occupational Safety and Healthcare Administration (OSHA) are responsible for much of the increase in costs that have taken place in providing effective and safe healthcare in the past decade. There have been arguments ever since the inception of the first regulatory agency as to whether or not these were, or would be advantageous to healthcare practitioners and healthcare institutions. Although their focus is on the patient, these agencies state that they exist for the healthcare provider’s protection. There is solid evidence demonstrating the rise in costs due to these regulations. Regulations can be as complex as safety devices for injections and as simple as requiring hair covering for healthcare workers.
Health geography can offer a spatial understanding of a population’s health, the distribution of disease in an area, and the environment’s result on health and disease. Health geography also deals with accessibility to health care and health care providers. This is also considered a sub discipline of humane geography; nevertheless, it requires a perceptive of the other fields such as epidemiology, climatology. Although health care is a great public superior, it is not pure. However, it is not equally available to all individual.