Social Health: Beyond Medical Model, Beyond Poor Housing - Essay Sample

Introduction

The social model of health is a reaction that was developed to the traditional medical model. It examines all the factors contributing to health in general. These include the social, cultural, political and environmental aspects of life. Stress and low self-esteem have been identified to have a negative toll on health. A good example of an environmental factor that may lead to a negative impact of social health is poor housing; this is just as illustrated in the diagram below the text.

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According to Marmot, 20003, low levels of autonomy and low self-esteem are likely to lead to worse health. Communities know that their health is being affected by a variety of issues and therefore can and should be involved in the identification, planning, and implementation of solutions to health issues and unjust health inequalities (Scott, 2005). Social context holds the key to an individual's health since it can either enable or disable it. Although human agency and the choices people make are arguably as important, it all comes o the social context people find themselves in have had a significant influence on people's experiences, choices and even behavior.

They also note that the human body is simultaneously social, psychological and biological. These can be summed up to biology, physiology, and anatomy. Health is believed to be cultural in that the way it is perceived together with how the experience of disease and illness are brought out vary from one culture to another (Scott, 2005). Other opinions on a health matter. It is advisable to consider other opinions from people outside the medical profession since they can provide valuable insights and ideas from an angle not perceived by medical practitioners.

Income and social status. People in society earn differently due to the difference in work occupations. This is bound to have a toll on social health since it comes hand in hand with a disparity in social status. The difference in the amount of wealth among people in society has psychological impacts on low-income earners since they are perceived as low-class individuals. This normally leads to mental health issues among these people. Early childhood development is also a very crucial factor that influences health (Scott, 2005). Childhood experiences and trauma have been identified to have prolonged impacts on individuals. One grows up with certain mentalities and fears from their early experiences as a child and views their environment and the world the same way even though several aspects have changed. This causes severe mental health problems for the individual as they grow up.

Biomedical Model of Health

It is a way in which health care professionals diagnose and treat a condition. The biomedical model of model purely focuses on biological factors excluding psychological, environmental or even social influences (Scott, 2005). It has been around since the mid 19th century being used predominantly by physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The biomedical model of medicine has three core elements which include pathology, biochemistry, and physiology. Its main is to free the body from disease, pain or defect making the normal human condition healthy.

How Socioeconomic Status Affects Recovery After Heart Attacks

Socioeconomic status as earlier discussed in this article is a major factor leading to health problems. Due to lack of proper or enhanced education, one may not be well informed on appropriate health behaviors after a heart attack and may go back to old ways of unhealthy lifestyle which is termed us bad health behaviors which in turn makes it very difficult to recover from the already existing health conditions they suffering from.

Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1: Causal Pathway Graph

Low income among people in society may also affect recovery. Heart-related problems are very expensive to treat. From surgical operations, medicine for the condition and even the special diet needed after are only affordable by a few in the society, the rich. Low-income earners find it very expensive and most times impossible to adhere to the strict guidelines from medical professionals because of certain urgent basic human needs such as food shelter and clothing. This is because their income can only support the basin needs thus they find it difficult to follow the strict health guidelines leading to bad health behaviors which in turn cause difficulty in recovery.

References

Scott, J. (2005). Life at the Top in America Is not Just Better, It is Longer. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 7 April 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/16/us/class/life-at-the-top-in-America-isn't-just-better-its-longer.html