Concepts Of Health Analysis

CONCEPTS OF HEALTH
Introduction
This essay will firstly discuss what health is as a broad concept, look at the differences of health looking at the negative and positive aspects and how health can be socially constructed. Defining what is meant by holistic health and what effects promoting health can help reduce individuals getting ill by working together in society and looking at changes that need to be made and recognised. Health has a wide range of meanings which all need to be considered, it is not merely an absence of disease or infirmity but a state of complete state of physical, mental and social wellbeing (WHO 1948). Disease, illness and ill health have different meanings although there are used similarly.
A disease is an existing pathology or something in the body that is abnormal that is detectable and have proof that it is there that may be causing a discomfort. An illness is feeling symptoms in the body like pain so tests may have to be carried out to find out the cause and if through the screening or tests a disease is found the term ill health would then be used to refer to the disease and illness.
On a social point of view of health would be concerns of support from family and friends, feeling that your are not alone. A mental concept would be feeling you have a purpose in life to be living, to feel you have belonging and to cope with everyday life and the physical concept would be about the body, actually feeling healthy and fit. Defining health can have different definitions depending on the individual perception, social values, religious beliefs and social class (Naidoo and Wills, 2009, pg4). There are two main perspectives of health, negative and positive it and tends to be based on cultural heritage. A negative concept perspective is believed to call illness only if there should be evidence of it in the body like a virus or disease proven evidently by microscopes, screening or blood tests. If it is found that the body is functioning well and cells, organs and tissue are healthy this was seen as healthy (Naidoo and Wills, 2009, pg4). Social, psychological and emotional factors as a positive perspective looking into individuals mental state that can also be a form of illness are looked at and considered just as serious as ill health like having a disease. Health has an holistic approach which means it looks at the body as a whole and the different dimensions taken into account of these separate influences and interactions it has.
Health is looked at in these different types of categories, emotional, spiritual, sexual, social, mental and physical, these are what affect a person as an individual where as broader influences are social and environmental. Social aspects are what can affect a person physically looking at quality of life, good or poor water facilities in the area that can affect our health and also living conditions and how well houses are built making sure there is plenty of light and air vents to prevent mould that can cause ill health (Naidoo and Wills, 2009, pg5). Mould can be very harmful to health as it produces toxin and allergens so if inhaled or comes into contact with skin it may cause an allergic reaction, cause redness or eyes and if already a person suffers from asthma this could trigger and asthma attack (Nhs.uk,
2014) Social influence contributes a lot on how we see health among different cultures, religions and communities. Different influences can come from religion, this can change our behaviour and health habits that we believe is the right thing to practice depending on the religion. There can be negative effects on health with religion that can influence other individuals into believing that that practice is right. Health promotion plays an important role among health in preventing and controlling illness in the first place.
Health promotion was first used in the mid 1970s (Sholom Glouberman, 2003). The aims of promoting health is to change the way it is broadly perceived so rather than concentrating on the illness itself to make the individual medically better. It focuses more on how to prevent people becoming ill primarily and what changes environmentally and socially we can participate in to reduce illness and look at more on being healthy fit individuals. Health promotion is categorised in three main sections, primary, secondary and tertiary . Primary prevention looks to what triggers ill health by detecting high risk groups, it looks at immunisation specially at young children/babies to eradicate the problem disease from coming back and also educating individuals at schools and workplaces and free health advice or counselling about how to prevent ill health (Naidoo and Wills, 2009, pg57). Secondary prevention looks at reducing episodes and prevention of illness by changing health damaging behaviour or lifestyle that contribute to ill health like educating people about medication as it can be damaging as well as trying to make us better, looking at healthy eating and a change in an unhealthy lifestyle and using that to prevent illnesses such as diabetes (Naidoo and Wills, 2009, pg57). Tertiary prevention finally focuses on making an individual who may have disability continue to
have good quality life offering rehabilitation therapy and equipment that can be used to limit the complications they have in life because of their disability. Health promotion is all about trying to motivate society and individuals ways and thinking to live a healthy lifestyle to avoid recurrence of ill health, providing information and advice on how to live a healthy lifestyle and equipping people with the education and skills to make those changes (Naidoo and Wills, 2009, pg57).

Health itself and its different meanings are complex but it is important we understand the importance of how we as society view ill health in the way it is acceptable without any discrimination. Treating ill health is all very important and some individuals are incapable to live without allopathic help but focusing on preventing ill health firstly is just as important and more attention needs to be involved in promoting health. If everybody engaged and are more educated about control and how to live a healthy lifestyle people becoming ill will start to decrease, we ourselves are partly in control in maintaining good health like avoiding obvious behaviours like smoking, eating high fat foods and drug abuse.