Understanding Specific Needs- Health and Social Care Related
Understanding Specific Needs- Assignment 1
This assignment on understanding specific needs will look into the perceptions that people have of health, disability, illness and behaviour in a health and social care context. It will also look into and explain how attitudes towards individuals with specific needs and perceptions of those needs change over time and differ between cultures. I will then analyse how legislation, society, culture and social policy interact to influence attitudes toward and service development for individuals with specific needs.
The World Health Organisation (WHO, 1946) describes health as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. Concepts related to health and social care that have been adapted to define health and disease in individuals include disability, illness, impairment, sickness and behaviour to name a few. These concepts may be misused by individuals who don’t actually understand the term. In order to be a competent and professional health and social care practitioner it is extremely important to understand the correct definition and have the correct perceptions of health, disability and wellbeing, if not, we may end up offending individuals in our care without meaning too. It is hard to find a correct definition for ‘impairment’ and ‘disability’ but WHO describes impairment as ‘any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological, or anatomical structure or function’- an example of this would include someone who has suffered from a stroke and as a result loses function of one side of their body. They then go on to describe disability as ‘any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the matter or within the range considered normal for a human being’ followed by an example of ‘limited functioning of leg leads to inability to walk’. When it comes to illness, disease and sickness it is sometimes hard to
This assignment on understanding specific needs will look into the perceptions that people have of health, disability, illness and behaviour in a health and social care context. It will also look into and explain how attitudes towards individuals with specific needs and perceptions of those needs change over time and differ between cultures. I will then analyse how legislation, society, culture and social policy interact to influence attitudes toward and service development for individuals with specific needs.
The World Health Organisation (WHO, 1946) describes health as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. Concepts related to health and social care that have been adapted to define health and disease in individuals include disability, illness, impairment, sickness and behaviour to name a few. These concepts may be misused by individuals who don’t actually understand the term. In order to be a competent and professional health and social care practitioner it is extremely important to understand the correct definition and have the correct perceptions of health, disability and wellbeing, if not, we may end up offending individuals in our care without meaning too. It is hard to find a correct definition for ‘impairment’ and ‘disability’ but WHO describes impairment as ‘any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological, or anatomical structure or function’- an example of this would include someone who has suffered from a stroke and as a result loses function of one side of their body. They then go on to describe disability as ‘any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the matter or within the range considered normal for a human being’ followed by an example of ‘limited functioning of leg leads to inability to walk’. When it comes to illness, disease and sickness it is sometimes hard to
Bibliography: - World Health Organisation 1946 & 1984 cited in L Ewles & I Simnet [2003] “Promoting Health – A Practical Guide” 5th Ed London, Balliere Tindall - L Jones [1994] “The Social Context of Health and Health Work” London Macmillan - http://www.disabilityartsonline.org.uk/affirmative-model-of-disability- accessed on 1/5/13 - http://www.scope.org.uk/about-us/our-brand/talking-about-disability/social-model-disability- accessed on 1/5/13 - Grunewald [1974] The Mentally Retarded in Sweden” Swedish Institute, Stockholm - CCETSW, Conn, L. and O’Hara, R. in Social Work and Social Change in Northern Ireland, 1998, London -