Introduction-
In this essay I am assessing the socio and medical models of health and to what it implies. The socio- medical model of health focuses on the social factors that contribute to health and wellbeing in society. When this model considers social factors, it particularly looks at the impact of poverty, poor housing, diet and pollution. E.g. poor housing and poverty are causes to respiratory problems, and in response to these causes origins of ill health, the socio-medical model is aimed to encourage society to include better housing and introduce programmes to tackle poverty as a solution. The biomedical model of health looks at individuals physical functioning and describes bad health and illness as the assumption of disease and …show more content…
symptoms of illness as a result of physical causes such as injury or infections.
I am also looking at how mortality and morbidity rates come under these two models of health and how they affect them. I am also looking at the aspects of health i.e. the positive/negatives and the holistic approach to ill health, the negative definition of health although this is called the 'negative definition ' it doesn 't mean that the person enquiring about it is being negative. It simply means that when they say 'healthy ' they mean free from illness, upset, tiredness, or anything else that might be a symptom of not being in good health. The positive definition of health, when people talk about health in this way they have in mind a much more active type of personality. This type of person is more likely to do physical exercise and be completely fit. The 'positive definition ' is used when people look at
someone who has recently taken up a sport and say: 'You look very healthy '.
What is the bio-medical model of health and how is it applied to health care provisions?
The Bio-Medical model of health constitutes the freedom of disease, pain and defects this makes the normal human condition ‘healthy’. The Model is the dominant approach to health in contemporary Western societies and the one that most doctors use. Because the biomedical model is now so dominant it can be difficult to believe that it is a relatively recent way of thinking about practising ‘health’ care, and the range of different alternatives that also exist. The bio-medical model used by doctors assumes that:
Health is the absence of biological abnormality in the body
The causes of ill health are located in the individuals malfunctioning biological system
Health can be restored by using surgery and drugs to correct the malfunctions that occur
Advantages and disadvantages of the bio-medical model of ill health:
Advantages:
1. Broadly applied in almost every country.
2. Identifies and treats the sick resulting in health restoration
3. The sick benefit from direct intervention
4. Focuses treatment and management of the sick.
5. Immediate benefits of intervention are visible to all
Disadvantages:
1. Very costly
2. Does not focus on prevention of diseases.
3. The sick may not benefit from this
4. Focuses on treatment and management of the healthy
5. There will be no immediate benefits
What is the Socio-medical model of health and how is it applied to health care provisions?
The Socio-Medical model challenges the assumptions made through the medical model and although not suggesting a total rejection of it emphasises the need for wider considerations. The Socio-medical model of health is also another approach to health and ill health. They are more likely to look at what makes an individual suffer from sickness. They are more concerned about the environment and the life-style of an individual and they focus more on how to prevent every individual from catching the disease if there is disease prevalence in the society. Clearly, medicine does have a very important role to play in ‘fighting’ disease and ‘saving lives’, but there are plenty of arguments and sources of evidence to show that biomedicine is useful only for some of the ‘health’ problems that people face, rather than for everything.
Advantages and disadvantages of the socio-medical model of ill health:
Advantages:
1. Encourages people to live healthy lifestyles
2. It looks at the cause of the illness and tries to change the factor that causes the illness to prevent any other acccurance.
Disadvantages:
1. It takes time to look for factors affecting the illness and a prevention to stop it happening again.
2. It lies in its failure to fully include psychological factors which have proven to be powerful co-factors of disease in modern society.
Conclusion-
I think that overall through what I have researched and found out that the bio-medical model of health is more efficient and persuasive because it offers the opportunity for freedom of disease and illness and therefore the service user or person with the illness/disease will benefit because the source can be found out through treatment and research and then it can be stopped. The bio-medical model also has more advantages then disadvantages so indicates and more reliable way of tackling illnesses and diseases more thoroughly, and also most doctors use this approach when it comes down to a patient or user that is ill or has being ill to make sure that they are given the right treatment and that their needs have being met as well as there is a showing sign of a recovery. I have found out that the two different models of health are on a different approach when it comes to the different factors the affect the way in which a person or patient is feeling i.e. to what makes them ill or in’ bad health’ and I have also found out that the way in which different health care practioners can use these models of health in to their working practise and knowledge so makes it easier for the patient/person to get treated appropriately and effectively so that they can get a good enough recovery and to also make sure that they don’t get it again.
References:
BTEC National Health & Social Care Level 3- Mark Walsh http://www.markedbyteachers.com/as-and-a-level/sociology/biomedical-and-the-socio-medical-models-of-health.html http://www.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_disadvantages_of_the_socio-medical_model_of_health
http://www.slideshare.net/jkonoroth/321-models-of-health