Achieving health for Children - created from Mind Map_1

World Health Organisation (WHO) defined good health a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, not merely absence of disease or infirmity Good health can be seen as physical, happiness, emotional health, feeling secure and safe raised with love & care ~ but these things are harder to appraise ~ but the definition covers a more holistic approach to all areas of health, including mental, physical and social yet critics say this idealistic and unrealistic and places it beyond everyone reach ~ WHO definition relates to happiness more than health but crucial difference is one is a universal human right (health) but happiness is not although happiness and well-being are not human right there is recognition that children's rights to health care must take into account social requirements such as education or social inclusions WHO promote a more holistic view that covers all areas ~ ideas of health are culturally interpreted but world views matter because they shape peoples views about kinds of treatment which may clash with more holistic view medical and humanitarian interventions often place importance on saving lives but communities place priority on being sustainable or quality of life ~ ideas of health alter as views and culture changes and are affected by global changes, social and economic and political contexts and are often driven by the media

Culture, medicine and health western medicine world sees healthy body as functioning like a machine, but controversially many non western medical systems in majority world focus more on personal and spiritual or social experiences of illness not how the body is working ~ it follows that views on ill health can be different across cultures one example is red urine in boys is sign of sexual maturity, because it effects whole community it is understood to be right of passage and normal. another is teething diarrhoea that is seen as normal sign of growth but both cases in western medicine would see these as signs of ill health ~ in some countries mothers did not share explanation that it was down to poor hygiene as they believed there was nothing that could be done to prevent it ~ therefore to achieve good health means to understand local views of the world ~ as majority worlds disbelief of western medicine hinders the understanding other aspects of child health are mental dimensions that vary cross culturally, children reported to hear voices would indicate mental health issues in some countries where in others it is celebrated and normal for shamans when they enter trance like state and if a child does this they may be trained and invested in rather than being treated as ill.

Malnutrition and obesity different ways to look at health and social understanding, malnutrition can be starvation, poor diet and generally wrong sort of food ~ obesity rates of children are rising among children and are linked to lack of exercise, poor diets of fast foods, high fat content and cheap meals ~ in the UK 1 in 10 children are considered as obese I the age range 2 - 10 years Anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes spent time in Brazil in the slum areas working with poor women and their children ~ infant mortality rate is high, due to lack of food, diarrhoea, infections ~ mothers are aware of causes but poverty forces them to make choices such as go to work and leave children unsupervised, without care or food. china has seen increase in obese children ~ this is because they are one child they are doforbidden to have more than ted on by grandparents and may over indulge them obesity I children has become a pressing medical problem, studies have shown children are watching more TV, lack in exercise or eat poor quality food however for some there is less concern with issues as medical problems and instead think about how the issue came about in the early 21st century. de Vries relates modern obesity to wider issue on how beauty and physical attractiveness are viewed in contemporary society ~ she claims there is shift in what is considered plump to cuddly or thin ~ even though being thin and underweight can cause health problems too it is not considered as urgent as being over weight ~ she argues it may have more to do with social outlook on people who may be classed as lazy, greedy or feckless. another aspect of ill-health and poverty is between families, where recourses may shared out in order of ages, siblings, gender, birth order or perceived health ~ gender is most striking as girls tend to suffer from malnutrition more than boys, often have reduce health care access and have higher rate of mortality in many parts of the world high levels of ill health are not found through out the world but are mainly in poorer parts of the world this also varies regionally ~ there is now evidence that social inequality go hand in hand with ill-health and access to health care across nations this is seen through infant/child mortality rates while some countries have been able to reduce numbers of infant deaths because they have a national commitment to invest in basic social services that benefit child and mother the children die because of lack of support from government or health care services ~ parents feel helpless but do not always invest emotional energy as they do not trust children to survive some feel children do not have will to live and they become passive but S.Hughes feels this is how they learn to cope with high death rate of their children which happen because of poverty and social inequality

to achieve health governments have pledged to meet goals to reduce inequalities between regions of the world ~ Millennium Developmental Goals to be met by 2015 8 goals which cover all aspects of health ~ poverty ~ hunger ~ education ~ reduce child mortality ~ improve maternal health ~ combat aids/hiv ~ ensure environment sustainability ~ develop global partnerships there has been some success mostly with fewer children dying and fewer being under weight and Aids/HIV are reducing in numbers and most are on track to provide clean safe drinking water ~ yet diarrhoea remains biggest killer for children under 5 and needs to improve so called Magic Bullets and other interventions can cure and improve health, yet not all communities trust they work and the effectiveness may hinder the access to medical care as they do not believe they work ~ so a more productive and effective system would be to provide clean water to prevent causes of diarrhoea and other ill-health

Achieving health for Children