Health

Health

1. 'You can never really understand an individual unless you also understand the society, historical time period in which they live, personal troubles, and social issues' Mills, C., Wright (1959)

2. Concepts of Disease, Illness and Sickness

   • See revision cards for full definitions. 
   • Disease
     • Abnormality in the structure or function of the body, or deviation from the norm.
   • Illness
     • the subjective experience of 'feeling' unwell
   • Sickness
     • the social role of those defined as diseased or ill (society perspective)

3. What is health?

   • Positive definitions
     • Health as general physical well-being
       • e.g. I feel I can do anything...nothing can stop my tracks
   • Negative definitions
     • Health as absence of disease / not-ill
       • e.g. when you don't hurt anywhere and you're not aware of any part of your body
   • Functional definitions
     • Health as the ability to work
       • e.g. I am able to walk around netter, and doing more work in the house
   • no clear-cut answer
   • WHO: A state of complete physical, mental/spiritual and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity

4. Models of health

   • Biomedical model
     • Key features
       • Disease
         • breakdown of human body, caused by a specific biological agent
       • Patient
         • = passive being. Body treated separate from mind.
       • Technological
         • Significance attached to medical methods of intervention in treating disease.
       • Mechanical
         • The body can be repaired like a machine
     • Limitations
       • Little patient autonomy
         • Patient history neglected
       • Chronic diseases now major health threats (multifactoral in their development) not infective diseases.
       • Body isolated from person
         • Treats the disease, rather than the 'whole' person
       • Social, psychological and material causes of disease neglected
   • BioPsychoSocial model
     • Key features
       • Biological factors
       • Psychological factors
       • Social factors
     • This model has superseded the previous Biomedical model
       • 1977

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