The Biomedical Model of Health and Illness
The most dominant theory in Modern Western medicine of health and
illness, held by many official health practitioners such as doctors,
consultants, and surgeons has been labelled the 'biomedical approach'
or by some as the 'biomechanical model'. The biomedical model presumes
that illness is always due to abnormalities in the body's workings. It
is the basis of modern Western medical practice. It works on the
theory that if a part of the body goes wrong it should be fixed or
replaced, in the same way that a machine would be repaired. It is a
reductionist view of illness. This means that it takes the simplest
possible cause of the illness and applies the simplest cure. It’s
unlike other models such as the social model as that looks to other
factors and focuses on them, such as culture, and social aspects.
The biomedical model has an emphasis on an Illness being treated and
hopefully cured, for example with the use antibiotics can be use to
treat infections. Biomedical treatments often involve the removal of
the cause, for example the virus or bacteria. The biomedical model is
based on the belief that there is always a cure and the idea that
illness is temporary, episodic and a physical condition. Modern
biomedicine rests upon two major developments, both of which remain
influential to this day. It is first important to consider the
Cartesian revolution, after the 17th century French philosophy René
Descartes. The Cartesian revolution encouraged the idea that the body
and mind are independent or not closely related. In this mechanistic
view, the body is perceived to function like a machine, ...
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...t social factors need to
be considered. However this “sick role” is a dangerous creation and
could lead to a subculture of “sickness” to which people are drawn to
because of the release from responsibilities. However this perspective
relies too heavily on the “over-socialised” concept of society. Not
everyone accepts and adopts the “sick role”, many would ignore the
role and soldier regardless, and for example many disabled people do
this.
Overall at this point the evidence presented seems to be inconclusive
and unable to support a specific model, within this discussion.
Therefore it’s concluded that there needs to be more of a joint model
of health and ill health such as the new realists approach, which
takes into account both medical and social aspects of health; giving a
more well rounded definition of health.
The controversy with community water fluoridation arises from moral, ethical, political and safety concerns with respect to water fluoridation. As far back as 1930, there was a relationship inversely between the levels of fluoride in drinking water and existence of dental caries. Any practice like fluoridation, which uses the public water supply to deliver the medicine violated the medical ethics. The ethical issues associated with the water fluoridation include- balancing risks and benefits, presence of any other interventions with the same outcome, the role of consent. Fluoridation violates the principle of informed consent. On the other hand, in public health practice the principle of beneficence has more weight than the principle of autonomy.
It is generally accepted within healthcare that to understand mental health we must adopt the biopsychosocial model. This model assumes that an interdependent relationship exists between biological, psychological and social factors which are involved in all aspects of mental health (Toates, 2010, p. 14). To be true to the model research must be holistic and not investigate the factors in isolation.
Firstly, as a GP, it is crucial to explore the biopsychosocial model of health. One must realise that biological, psychological and social factors all contribute to a person’s overall health. The social dimension cannot be ignored in Anne’s case. According to the World Health Organisation, the social determinants of health are ‘the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.’ (World Health Organisation. 2013) From the information provided, one could suggest that various social factors have contributed to Anne’s obesity. Anne grew up in a deprived area of the inner city. Growing up in a deprived area does not directly cause obesity, however, social determinants are known as causes of the causes of ill health. (WMA. 2011) Obesity can be caused by consuming too many calories, leading a sedentary lifestyle and not sleeping enough. (Christian Nordqvist. 2011) These, in turn, could be referred to as consequences of living in the inner city. Studies have shown that ‘inner city parents have high levels of anxiety about neighbourhood safety. While these concerns may not entirely explain the discrepancy in activity levels between inner city and suburban children, a safe environment is crucial to increasing opportunities for physical activity.’ (Weir, L.A., Etelson, D. & Brand, D.A. 2006) Similarly, it is possible that Anne’s socio-economic status has influenced her smoking since a person below the poverty threshold is more likely than somebody at or above the threshold to be both a current smoker and not to have quit. (Flint, A.J. & Novotny, T.E. 1997)
The socio-medical model takes the blame away from the individual in contributing to their bad health. This is a strength because the individual will understand the other factors that may have contributed to becoming ill. This is important as it will ensure the individual changes their lifestyle in order to ensure they don’t fall ill. This will make the individual feel empowered and important because they will be aware of how to avoid the illness instead of being given orders by a doctor who may not give information on how to avoid becoming vulnerable to the illness again.
has become the norm for them because of their living conditions. They may not be able to afford medical care, and it is possible that they are not well educated, so they do not understand the severity of leaving a medical condition untreated. For these reason they may never seek medical attention. In contrast, someone who is of a higher class will be better educated on what to do when they feel ill. They will most likely seek medical help right away, because to them illness is not the norm. They can also afford private medical care if needs be.
to actually fix the problem, so in most cases it has effects that we cannot
The physical dimension of health includes the factors of diet/nutrition, exercise/fitness levels, immunity and body type/weight. It is also decided by the individual’s lifestyle, habits, attitudes and values towards health and physical activity.
Health as Expanded Consciousness In this final paper, I propose to meticulously evaluate Newman’s theory of Health as Expanding Consciousness (HEC). This process will be completed by utilizing the literature available on Newman’s theory, and the guide expressed in Parker and Smith’s (2015) chapter A guide for the study of nursing theories of practice. I will demonstrate how this theory has influenced my personal life, my life as a student, and my nursing practice, and I will also include examples from my life to further validate this.
The model of addiction etiology that best describes why people get addicted and how best to help them is biopsychosocial model. The biopsychosocial model, first developed by cardiologist Dr. George Engel, is today widely accepted by the mental health professions. The biopsychosocial model describes addiction as a brain illness that causes personality and social problems. The biopsychosocial model lets us to make solid and accurate differences between substance use, abuse, and dependence. It also allows the signs of addiction to be recognized and structured into progressive stages.
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.
The Mind and the Physical Body Since the times of Plato and Aristotle, the argument of dualism and mutualism of the mind and body has been in existence. Dualism has been the driving force behind the existence of the mind/body problem and has been by far the majority view due largely to the influence of Descartes. In recent times, modern medicine has taken a shift towards mutualism. Outside stimuli, as perceived by the mind, affect the body either beneficially or adversely. While the body as an organism has the capacity to heal, evidence proves that the mind expedites recovery.
In this assignment I am going to discuss what being healthy is to me, I will discuss three models of health, Biomedical, Bio sociological and Holistic. I am going to compare the three models discussing the positive and negative impacts that they have on health and society. I will compare what health is to other organizations such as the NHS (national health service) and WHO (world health organization) applying them to a model of health.
What is health psychology? Health psychology is a field of psychology that was introduced in the late 1970’s to examine the causes of illnesses and to study ways to promote and maintain health, Also to prevent and treat illness and improve the health care system. Health is define as a positive state of physical, mental, and social well-being that changes in degree over time it’s not simply the absence of injury or disease. There are contributing factors that affect a person health weather its stress, substance abuse, nutrition, exercising and losing weight and even pain can be contributor to your health and how it is affected.
Applying Newman’s Theory of Health as Expanding Consciousness to the nursing paradigm demonstrates her concepts of health and illness as part of a greater whole and each person’s unique experience as a major factor in that person’s health and illness. In relating her theory to the nursing paradigm, it is important to understand that Newman believes “that we cannot isolate, manipulate, and control variables in order to understand the whole of a phenomenon” (Harris, 2009, p. 220). Her theory emphasizes the whole of the experience of the person who is the patient.
Conceptual Framework A person’s health is affected by a lot of factors like choice in medical care, insurance, social status, environment, diet and so on. To derive a model for health-related behaviors, I begin with a broadly used theory from Grossman (1972). Grossman introduced the concept of health capital and used the idea that each individual is a producer of health. That is, people can invest in their health and stock up on their health capital by adding up medical care, food, education, etc. to achieve better health outcomes (Grossman, 1972). People increase their medical care to get better health.