Social Determinant Of Health And Social Care

The World Health Organization (2011) defines social determinant of health as conditions of everyday life in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. It includes the system and circumstances that are beyond the control of an individual. With reference to my study about Chelsea, lack of family support is a problem. She is home alone mostly. Occasionally children come to visit but stay for couple of days and leave. She has always loved the company of her family and felt depressed when the husband passed away and children left home causing her to be lonely. Living alone increases with age, with 35% of those aged 85years and above, living in lone person households (AIHW 2013).Living alone for Chelsea is causing depression which is affecting her health. Family support is important in older adult as family is an economic unit, bound together by emotional ties.
She experiences arthritis that interferes with her activity. With someone around her, there will have sense of security, belonging and direction she goes through psychological distress like moods of depression, anxiousness and gets demoralized. A person who lives alone may be isolated from an important network of social and economic ties. Without the family support Chelsea feels lonely, adrift and unprotected. She feels no one cares about her and her problems. The mere presence of another adult in the home could positively affect her health and wellbeing. The commitment, caring, advice and help provides personal relationship and good health. Family support decreases depression, anxiety and other psychological problems. It is in the family that the macro-level social and economic order affects individual physical and emotional