Is Health a Biological or Social Issue
Is health a biological or social issue?
Changes in society, of how people live, have ultimately led to a ‘medical model’ of health. Trends of human evolution have led to urbanisation and industrialisation. Beginning over 12000 years ago (Halliday & Davey 2010) when ancestral humans began settlements and left their nomadic lifestyles behind reaching a climax sometime during 2006-2007 when for the first time in human history more people were living in cities and urban environments than in the countryside (Halliday & Davey 2010). The changes in sanitation, education and food supply that these trends brought have had a direct impact on health. As it became noted and recorded, correlations between good sanitation and lower disease rates could be seen amongst others. The research of these correlations and the advances in technology gave birth to the Biomedical model of health (Clark R, 2012). The biomedical model of health is currently the most emphasised way of western medicine, the most polarised of all health care models. It forms the basis for the NHS and many other western health care systems. In its purest form biomedicine believes that science and ‘professional knowledge’ are of the utmost importance. Beliefs of the lay person are considered ill informed, irrational and sometimes superstitious – the biomedical model devalues these opinions (Clark R, 2012) . Being scientific the focus is on the body of the individual, not the person. It is the doctor’s job to diagnose the symptoms and classify the ailment through measurable means and the aide of technology. The professionals focus on disease having a specific cause, something wrong in the body in a specific location, to be found and fixed. Each can be treated like the next and the person whose body is ill has no impact on the biology of the abnormality. In this light the approach to health is biologically reductionist, and biomedical practitioners could be criticised for being more
Changes in society, of how people live, have ultimately led to a ‘medical model’ of health. Trends of human evolution have led to urbanisation and industrialisation. Beginning over 12000 years ago (Halliday & Davey 2010) when ancestral humans began settlements and left their nomadic lifestyles behind reaching a climax sometime during 2006-2007 when for the first time in human history more people were living in cities and urban environments than in the countryside (Halliday & Davey 2010). The changes in sanitation, education and food supply that these trends brought have had a direct impact on health. As it became noted and recorded, correlations between good sanitation and lower disease rates could be seen amongst others. The research of these correlations and the advances in technology gave birth to the Biomedical model of health (Clark R, 2012). The biomedical model of health is currently the most emphasised way of western medicine, the most polarised of all health care models. It forms the basis for the NHS and many other western health care systems. In its purest form biomedicine believes that science and ‘professional knowledge’ are of the utmost importance. Beliefs of the lay person are considered ill informed, irrational and sometimes superstitious – the biomedical model devalues these opinions (Clark R, 2012) . Being scientific the focus is on the body of the individual, not the person. It is the doctor’s job to diagnose the symptoms and classify the ailment through measurable means and the aide of technology. The professionals focus on disease having a specific cause, something wrong in the body in a specific location, to be found and fixed. Each can be treated like the next and the person whose body is ill has no impact on the biology of the abnormality. In this light the approach to health is biologically reductionist, and biomedical practitioners could be criticised for being more
References: The OU 2012 1.6, The Open University 2012, 1.6 models of health care delivery:the biomedical model, Learning space, open learn, [online] retrieved from http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=398060§ion=1.6 accessed on 7.12.2012 The OU 2012 1.7, The Open University 2012, 1.7 models of health care delivery:the biopsychosocial model, Learning space, open learn [online] retrieved from http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=398060§ion=1.7 accessed on 7.12.2012 Crinson 2007, Section 6. The social experience of living with chronic illness and disability, Public Health Action Support Team, Buckinghamshire [ online] retrieved from http://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-textbook/medical-sociology-policy-economies/4a-concepts-health-illness/section6 accessed on 7.12.2012 Robert Halliday & Basiro Davey, 2010, Water and Health in an Overcrowded World, The Open University, Oxford Ross Clark, 2012, Class Notes, The Manchester College, Manchester BBC4 2010, Mental: A History of the Madhouse Mental Health Foundation 2012, Mental Health Statistics, [online] retrieved from http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-statistics/ accessed on 8.12.2012