I situated my research paper within the existing literature, including resources used in my Gender and Women Studies 130AC course at UC Berkeley and other scholarly sources on related topics. I aimed to concisely discuss and tie together the concepts of health (what is it and who is responsible to maintain it) with public policy (the ACA addressing health disparities), though admittedly 9 pages is far too short to adequately assess such a complex matter. I reviewed the work of Lock and Farmer to better understand the concepts of health and health disparity (Sherwin, 1988) (Farmer, 2010) (Bailey et al. 2017) as well as the work of Dworkin for the concept of intersectionality (Dworkin, 2005). I also surveyed various resources to further learn …show more content…
The classical Medical Model has a disease-focused approach and defines health as the absence of illness (Sherwin, 1988). On the other hand, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined health more comprehensively as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (Constitution of WHO, 1946). The issue with a reductionist view of health – to focus on a single cause for a single problem which in fact is much more complex – is its inadequacy to consider other forms of well-being beyond the physical health, as well as to recognize the impact of other determinants of health beyond the biological elements. The idea of health – physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being – entails more than its biological determinants; it is the ability to be free from discrimination on grounds such as race, ethnic origin, gender, sexuality, or disability (Sherwin, 1988). Considering the concept of health has changed throughout the history and across the various cultures, it is more opt to take a broader and more contextual approach in understanding health by contemplating the role of history, politics, and environment into account (Dworkin, 2005). Accordingly, health and illness are not qualities limited to individual bodies, nor are they the result of any singular
The elimination of disparities in mental health care among ethnic, racial and underprivileged populations, specifically minorities remains a challenge amongst mental health care workers and medical professionals. Many minority areas are more impoverished, rely on government assistance and have a higher incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, chronic diseases, and injuries compare to any other ethnicity. In recent studies there are strategies to help eliminate disparities in mental health care, such as improving health care access, quality, offering diverse mental health workforce, providers, and patient education. These are just several strategies that can help assist in disparities. The goal is to reduce or eliminate racial, ethnic and socioeconomic health inequalities that affect minorities.
Health care inequality has long been customary in the United States. Those in lower classes have higher morbidity, higher mortality, higher infant mortality, and higher disability. Millions of low-income families and individuals have gone with out the care they need simply because they cannot afford it. Denial of benefits due to pre-existing conditions, outrageous deductibles, and unreasonable prescription prices are in large part why the low-income class suffers. In addition, not receiving preventative health care, lack of access to exercise equipment and lack of availability to fresh foods all create health problems that become to expensive to fix. Low-income families need to have better, more affordable access to health care, specifically preventative health care, and be more educated about the benefits of health care in order to narrow the gap of inequality. The new Affordable Care Act under the Obama administration expands heath care coverage to many low income families and individuals by lowering the eligibility requirements for Medicaid, although it is not mandatory for individual states to make this expansion for Medicaid coverage.(CITE) It also requires that preventative health care be included in coverage by insurance companies. So with all the benefits the expansion of Medicaid could offer, why would some states choose not to offer it?
Disparities in cancer are caused by the complex interaction of low economic status, culture, and social injustice, with poverty playing the dominant role (Freeman, 2004). So I ask the question: Does socioeconomics impact a man’s prostate health?
Culture plays a key role in the quality of healthcare or health insurance services offered to patients. Disparities are ethnic or racial differences in the quality of healthcare. Ethnic or racial minorities tend to receive poor quality healthcare services compared to the majority ethnic group.
Until recently, intersectionality has been, to a large degree, left out of public health discourse. McGibbon & McPherson in their 2011 article “Applying Intersectionality & Complexity Theory to Address the Social Determinants of Women’s Health,” as well as Bowleg in her 2012 article “The Problem with the Phrase Women and Minorities: Intersectionality–an Important Theoretical Framework for Public Health,” acknowledge this glaring absence while seeking to incorporate intersectionality within their work. While both articles strive to inspire discussion and debate about the practical application of intersectionality within the field of public health policy, the authors accomplish this in different, uniquely nuanced, ways. Bowleg (2012) advocates
People of color face inequality and intersectionality in healthcare whether through insurance coverage, access, social economics, and quality of care. This leads to our health care system having disparities. It remains a big challenge today as 41% of people living in the United States are people of color (kff.org). People of color aren't getting the same care as someone who's white. Racial and ethnic minorities received lower care. Race also plays a role if someone will be uninsured or not. Another problem with health care is social economics which causes some race to have better care than others. There have been little improvements to address these issues. Today our society is becoming more diverse not less. In 2015 minorities represented
In this essay I am going to investigate whether health is easily defined as the absence of disease or physical injury. According to Health psychology (2009) ‘World Health Organisation defined health as a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. In order to achieve good physical a nutrition diet is needed, healthy BMI, rest and adequate physical exercise is needed.
Equality and diversity by Irwin Wendy address the need for equality in healthcare professions and how it affects the individual. Equality and diversity plays a huge role between patients, families and other healthcare professionals. It takes a unique look distinctive when analysing the support needs of patients in terms of equal opportunities as well as their choices and preferences as the National health service opens to a wide range of people to access the services .
In the United States is Health Care Equally Distributed? The Health Care Industry is one of the largest Social Institutions, made to ensure a communities wellbeing. The issue at hand, Health Care distribution is directly correlated to one’s income. In most cases Health care is often not distributed to those who need it but cannot afford it, and is to those who can afford it and may not need it. Health Care equality can be related to both Conflict and Functionalist Theories.
Despite critiques and apprehensions regarding intersectionality, Bowleg (2012, p. 1268) writes that “the fact cannot be dismissed that intersectionality provides a unifying language and theoretical framework for public health scholars who are already engaged in investigating intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, and disability to reduce and eliminate health
With the dominance of medicine over the past two hundred years many historical health concepts have gone through various changes. The definition of health is dependent on one’s perspective, be it lay, professional or from influences of specific cultures or social ideals and health policies of a particular time or place (Fleming & Parker 2012, p.30, Naidoo & Wills 2000).
To further introduce Medical Anthropology, I will reiterate highlights of my previous presentations. Early on in Turkey, I asked each person in our program the following question: "I would like you to tell me about health and what it means to you?" The answers to this question varied widely, making it difficult to define a global conception of health. In analyzing the answers, I established the following five components of health:
This also discusses health in relation to social institutions, for example family, employment and school. However, health can be defined in a number of ways, such as negative and positive. The negative is where health is perceived to be the absence of disease or abnormalities in the body. This is similar to the positive, where health focuses on the presence of certain attributes, rather than the absence of them. This is different from the World Health Organisation (WHO 2008) where health requires a person to be completely physically, mentally and socially well, but not just in the absence of disease and illness.
This essay will explore and evaluate the reasons sociologists put forward to explain the unequal social distribution of poverty and health. It will discuss social class, gender and ethnicity, and how they relate to poverty and health. It will also explore the competing definitions of poverty and the way in which they are used by different governments in order to create social policies.
In the operation of the healthcare system, gender plays a central role. Gender discrimination in the healthcare exists either in the field of education, workplace or while attending to the patients. Interestingly, as opposed to other areas where discrimination lies heavily to a particular gender; gender inequality in health happens to both women and men. Gender inequality in the health care service negatively affects the quality of care given and perpetuates patient biases to a gender. Also, the gender disparities in the field of health assists researchers and practitioners to study conditions and their probable manifestations within both sexes.