Functionalist Perspective on Healthcare In the event of an individual falling ill, we as a nation are very lucky to have such excellent Physicians. Sociology has a variety of different perspectives when it comes to the understanding of the honest purpose of healthcare. With the new era emerging with new technology, humans have become inattentive to the environment and health wellness. I will be explaining the importance of healthcare from the Functionalistic Perspective, targeting three main factors; sick role, gatekeeper and social class. Along with some interesting facts, and studies of the environments role in health within a community. Prior to, new technology and educational programs, a community couldn’t identify properly what the …show more content…
According to World Health Organization health is defined as “‘state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity’”. The terminology of “sick” and “well” is socially constructed from the community, family, friends, and work. Health is viewed differently on the demographic map, and communities. Gaining brighter insight into the use of health, we begin to understand the sociological perspectives. Functionalist believe that sick role is “societal expectations about the attitude and behavior of a person viewed being ill”. Early influential functionalist emphasis medicine’s role to maintain or even cure a ‘”normal”’ functioning individuals of society. In simple words, the patient or individual would be seeking to get well. It was also understood functionalist believe even disabled people were classified as sick. The downfall with functionalism is they confuse impairment and disability with the “sick role”. Talcott Parson, who is well known for his contribution to functionalism theory, outlined the behavior required of people who are considered sick. In summary he believed they are exempted from their normal, day-to-day activities. Yet they are
During 1951 Parson was the first to debate about the sick role. According to Parson, there are the few expectations which need to be met before considering individual sick. Firstly, individual should not cause their own health problem an example could be by eating a high-fat food which leads to overweight and linked to type 2 diabetes. An individual receives a less sympathy. Secondly, individual who is sick must adamant to get well otherwise will see as faking the illness. Thirdly, an individual illness should be confirmed by a physician so they can follow the instruction. The relationship between the physician and the patient is hierarchical where the instruction is provided by the physician and followed by the
Outlined within this essay are two sociological theories which have been investigated this will be in conjunction with a contemporary health issue. This then will be related to how the individual’s lifestyle and social class to give the reader a better understanding of this health issue.
Overtime, sociology has played an essential role in the aid of healthcare policies and procedures, along with playing a fundamental role in one’s understanding of health inequalities. This paper explores how sociology has played such a role in healthcare, whilst including discussions regarding the influence of social structures and inequalities in the health of an individual, their family and community, with the topic of health variations between social classes being the main focus of the discussion. A structured overview, review and evaluation of a specific health policy in the UK will also be provided within this paper. Sociology in healthcare. Sociology can be defined in a number of ways, due to its almost limitless scope (Denny, Earle,
Everyone goes through stages of life and everyone goes through them differently, there are some people that will go through life and not have any problems. While there are some people who will go through life and then will get a disease that will slowly kill them. Does getting a disease in old age make it harder for a person to live the rest of their life out? The functionalist perspective would best explain the expected outcomes, because it tries to help out society and make sure there is some stability.
The biomedical model of health has been criticised because it fails to include the psychological and social causes relating to an individual’s medical illness or health, looking only at the biological causes (Giddens and Sutton, 2013). Therefore, sociologists being aware of the impacts of social structure and lifestyle on health have put in various efforts to place the study of ‘the social’ at the core of health and healthcare examination.
Pincus, T., Esther, R., DeWalt, D.A., & Callahan, L.F., (1998) Social conditions and self-management are more powerful determinants of health than access to care. Ann Intern Med. 1998 Sep 1;129(5):406-11.
Healthcare is intriguing. The health and wellness of people always has been intriguing and always will be. My background in healthcare came as an environmental pass down with a father as a Registered Nurse and a mother in healthcare management. It was inevitable that the journey of healthcare started being instilled without my knowledge of it, as a young child. A constant learning in the health sciences and management directed my way. By the start of college, the intrigue lead to compassion, lighting a fire for the administration of healthcare. This calling spurred by a great woman, my mother, who is a national redesign award winner by the Bureau of Primary Healthcare in Health Disparities. These footsteps down her similar path with careful guidance, but not to be confused with an easy path.
Health as a Social Construction In my essay, I aim to find out why social construction affects the health of our society. Ill health may be defined as 'a bodily or mental state that is deemed undesirable'. This means that health is the condition of the body both physically and mentally. Social construction of health refers to the way health varies from one society to another.
The purpose of this essay is to discuss the health pattern and function of the Boodie’s family in an effort to achieve optimal health outcomes. Assessing the entire family is important. “A family functions together and if at any point there is a member with a dysfunctional health pattern, then the whole family is affected” (Edelman, 2014). “Family members are the first influence on a person’s view of health. They function as support systems for one another, assist with providing basic human needs and define both acceptable and unacceptable values and behavior” (Lecture 4, 2011). The collection of data on assessment of this family will be used through the nursing process and critical thinking to arrive at the best diagnoses and intervention to promote health and wellness in this family. In order to obtain the necessary data required, the nurse needs to follow a proper health assessment guide. “Gordon’s 11 functional health pattern serves as a framework, data is collected and assessed, allowing for the application of nursing diagnosis and interventions that encompass a holistic view of the client” (Lecture 4, 2011). The Gordon’s Functional Health Pattern seemed to be the most effective assessment guide and as such was used to assess this family.
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.
Functionalists believe that society is a structure that functions via interrelating parts, each with its own role. If an individual is sick then they become a deviant to the structure that is society. Deviant means that it is not the norm and does not fit in with society. To get around this the functionalist perspective uses the sick role. An individual can take on the sick role in order to be excused from their usual duties until they are well-enough to resume them.
The notion of health is contextual and an interactive, dynamic process between person and environment (Schim et al, 2007). Both wellness and illness are conceptualized by the ‘person’, existing on a continuum across the lifespan (Arnold & Boggs, 2001).
Introduction: For this essay I am going to critically discuss the biomedical model as well as the social model of health and how they both relate to the lay perspectives on health and illness.
The processes of life were being born, growing old, having illness, and death. In our life, we suffered from different sickness. It was a good reason for the absent from school, work or other daily working activities. However, in the view of a sociologist, the people who were in the sick role, they were regarded as having committed a crime and it was treated as deviant behavior (Peter & Meredith, 1998). In the structural functional model, people took various tasks and role in society or in different institutions. These were dependable with the structures and norms of the society. Did sickness have any effective elements in society? This paper would describe the concept of sick role and the application in the nursing practice (Parson, 1979).
Sociology of Health and Illness The sociological approaches focus on identifying the two sociological theories. We critically analysed the biomedical model and doctor-patient relationship. We also evaluated how the medical professionals exercise social control and the medical professional’s contribution to ill health. The difference between society and health is studied by sociologists in relation to health and illness.