‘Where You Live Can Affect Your Health and Well Being’

1311 Words6 Pages
Our physical and social environments have an impact upon us. In this essay I will discuss this idea that where you live can affect your health and well being. Looking at social and economic factors, specifically social exclusion and poverty as examples of how our neighbourhood can have both a negative impact and positive effect on the health and well being of those who live there, taking into consideration the physical and social consequences of both. Poverty and social exclusion are often inextricably linked and have many negative impacts upon health and well being. But, there are schemes in place to combat these negative effects that can turn people’s lives around, meaning that in these instances the place in which people live has a positive effect upon their health and well being. To assess how the place in which we live affects us we must first understand health and well being. If the air in our neighbourhood is polluted we me suffer breathing difficulties, our health would be affected. We could think of the term health as our physical state of comfort, being without any disease or disorder in the body. However, the definition from World Health Organiastion is that ‘health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. (WHO, 1946, quoted in K101, Unit 9, p.12), taking account of the whole person. Well being is a term that encompasses the physical state of comfort but also takes account of proper provision of both social and economic commodities. A model proposed by Labonte suggests that three elements need to be in place to experience health and well being: physical capability, mental health and a social connection to family and others in the community (K101, Unit 9, p.13). In this respect I will use the terms health and well being together, using a broad perspective not simply the physical
Open Document