Explain Different Sociological Approaches to Health and Ill Health

605 Words3 Pages
The social perspectives on health and social care explaining health and ill health: Functionalism: The approach to considering health and illness derives from the work of Talcott Parsons. He saw sickness as a social state and a potential threat to social order. In his view, if people of society declared themselves ill, specific rights and responsibilities came with their new role. The rights were as follows: To be exempt from normal social obligations, for example sick people not allowed to school, college or any social functions. Sick people should be cared for. The functionalist believes that ill health can really affect the individuals and the society. The functionalist Parson argued that too much of sickness and sick people will affect the society in different factors such as people will start taking more days off and will not be able to work therefore it will affect the workplace and also the society to perform smoothly. The functionalist believes that there is different stage to take care for ill health and the procedures of controlling illness can only be done by the help of medical professionals. An individual is responsible for their own health and decision which means they should be able to decide if they want any medical treatments for their illness to get better. People must ensure that they look after their own health such as personal hygiene and eat healthy diets when they are ill. The responsibilities of the sick role included: The sick person talking all the reasonable steps to get better and seeking to resume their normal place in society as soon as possible. Co – operating with medical professionals and choosing affective measures to improve their health condition. Every single individual in the society have their own roles and responsibility. They contribute to their society therefore functionalist believes that people treated by
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