Under the medical model, these impairments or differences should be 'fixed' or changed by medical and other treatments, even when the impairment or difference does not cause pain or illness. The medical model looks at what is 'wrong' with the person, not what the person needs. It creates low expectations and leads to people losing independence, choice and control in their own lives. 1.2 Describe the social model of disability The social model of disability says that disability is caused by the way society is organised, rather than by a person’s impairment or difference. It looks at ways of removing barriers that restrict life choices for disabled people.
(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. The model focuses on the treatment rather than the prevention. It does not take into account the role of a person's mind or society in the treatment. (Senior and Viveash 1998) It is for reducing the treating of morbidity of unhealthy, disease conditions and premature death and focuses on the removal of illness through diagnosis and effective treatment which makes it useful for helping ill patients. (Webb and Tossell 1999) In the biomedical model of health a critical
Sociologists propose a different cause. They examine patterns within society, and they seek social rather than biological answers and suggest that the differences in health and illness between different groups within society are influenced by social, economic, cultural and political factors. It is from these observations that sociologist believe that “being ill is not a simple thing”. The state of our health is very important to us, we spend a lot of time and money on trying to stay healthy, but what do we mean by “Health”? The World Health Organisation 1955 (WHO) describes heath as “Not the mere absence of disease but total physical, mental and social wellbeing”.
Numerous theoretical models illustrate the importance of the treatment process for abnormal psychology. The psychosocial model relates to internal conflicts as between the conscious and unconscious mind as the individual responds to environmental stimuli. This aspect model focuses on relationships, social status, memories, and peer group environments (Hansell & Damour, 2008). Contributions of physical and biochemical functions relates to the biological or medical model and how the human body reacts and influences mental illness and dysfunctions. The focus of this model concerns the brain and functions and abnormal behaviors and unobservable deviant thought processes (Hansell & Damour, 2008).
In particular, key social factors considered under this model include the impact of poverty, poor housing, diet and pollution on persons’ health. For instance, poor housing and poverty may prove to be catalysts to respiratory problems, and in response to these causes and origins of ill health, an objective of the socio-medical model is to encourage society to provide better housing and introduce programs to tackle poverty, and these propositions are seen as viable solutions. The socio-medical model encourages people to live healthy lifestyles, it looks at the cause of the illness and tries to change the factor that causes the illness to prevent it from continuing rather than only giving when diagnosis and only medical treatment. The factors which the socio-medical model suggest is also a cause of ill health such as poor housing, poverty and diet can have a strong impact on the over health and wellness of individuals, communities and countries. The model emphasises preventing and changing the cause of an illness on a more natural way instead of relying on medication.
If the health care professional would have provided Ms. Selbstmord of all of the options for treatment and their consequences, it would become Ms. Selbstmord’s responsibility if whether or not her condition improved or worsened. The best a health care professional can do is stress to the patient how damaging her choices are to her health and still help to improve her asthma in anyway
This process produces environmental pollution while the processes of consuming processed goods have the long term effect on health consequences. For example, eating processed foods, chemical additives etc. Available at: http://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-textbook/medical-sociology-policy-economics/4a-concepts-health-illness/section1 accessed: 04th November 2013 Interaction approaches to health- The Interactionists approach to health could be a label of assumptions. For example some people who are suffering a serious illness do not consider themselves as ill. This could be approached to health if a professional and the patients come together to negotiate how ill the person is and whether or not they are assigned to be “signed off work”.
Sociological Approaches to Health and ill–Health P2 – Explain different sociological approaches to health and ill-health In this criteria I will be explaining the health and ill-health in different sociological perspectives. Health is the condition of our body working effectively. Therefore, health is the physical, mental and social well-being of the absence of being ill or having a disease. Ill-health is when your body is not functioning well, you may have a disease, an illness and be sick. This is the opposite of health.
Sociological perspective of health posits that society depends on healthy people to function properly and also help to control illness (Parsons, 1975). Parsons identified the sick role of a person which demonstrates a condition of an ill person and its impact on society. He used four components to identify the state of an ill person role. Parson suggests that, for a person to assume a sick role the individual should not be held responsible for being sick, be exempted from normal duties, the person should be seeking help to get out of the role because the individual should not like being in the position of a sick role. However the theory of social stratification does not favour the sick role theory because it is not realistic for some class of people who may need a
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.