Social Model Of Health

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in health education. More and more people noticed the importance of having a heath body and lifestyle. However, not all of these people understand the authentic meaning of health. This journal will demonstrate the changes of my perspective for health and some of my viewpoints about the social model of health.

My viewpoint of health has changed significantly during my first health education class. Previously, I thought getting more sunshine is positive, because my hometown is in the north part of China. There are a large amount of people having diseases due to the lack of sunshine. However, as Jennifer mentioned, sunshine also can influence people’s health in a harmful way. For instance, in Australia, because of excessive sunlight, there are approximately 12,510 citizens having troubles in skin cancer in 2012 ( Reilly,n.d.).

Another notable aspect is the focus of mental health. In my initial idea of
health, I only consider about the physical health, such as drinking clean water, eating enough fruits, and doing exercises. After the group discussion, there are several people mentioned that having the positive feeling is also vital. The concept of health includes physical health, mental health and well being. The interplay of psychological health and health itself is noticeable. This idea is further supported by Collingwood who believes that if residents ignore the importance of happiness, there is no possibility to being in a healthy status (2016).

Beside the inspiration of health concepts, I am also impressed by the sentence, ‘The social model assumes that health is a social responsibility by examining the social determinants of individuals’ health status and health-related behavior.’ (Germov, 2014, p17).
This understanding is useful to me, because the social model is an innovative model which has consider about the external influences for people’s health. Comparing to the biomedical model, the one only focusing on individual’s problems, the social model pays more attention on the social influences. It mentioned that there are various factors which might affect health, such as living and working conditions, different social groups and access to infrastructure. The social model offers the equality of having the similar basic condition, which will promote health in precaution. The social model also encourages community, government and other public organizations to take some actions. This measure will enhance the health standard and prevent illness
obviously.

However, as a learner, I still need to be aware of some defects in the social model. Firstly, the social model is difficult to implement. It is nearly impossible for every community to have the similar living and working standards, because of the diverse financial positions in different counties. Another shortage for the social model is the neglect in individuals’ problems. Every residents have their own gene, which could influence their own health conditions. This kind of statuses cannot be understood and explained merely in the social model way.

To sum up, the conception of health is complicated and extraordinary. Also, the proposition of social model could been seen as a significant advance for health. It highlights the importance of social supplement and notification for being in the similar living standard. While the weaknesses in the social model focus on the impracticability and the partiality in social effects instead of the combination of personal and public influences.