Health

Case study analysis: Hypertension and anatomical system

Discussion of three models

Biomedical Model

Biomedical model focuses on physical aspect of the patients, disease and illness that the patients are suffering for. It is a medical model through which the patients are successfully diagnosed and the health care professionals provide effective care and treatment so that the patients can overcome their health issues. It has two parts, one is diagnosis and other is intervention. Through diagnosis, the professionals can diagnose the disease or illness through doctor’s observation and other tactics such as X-rays, ultrasound, blood test, scans, etc. On the other hand, intervention is mainly the actions taken by the doctors and other health care experts in order to improve the condition of health (Weiss, and Lonnquist, 2017).

Traditional Model

The traditional model of health includes the patient’s care, primary nursing and opinion of the doctors. It differs from diagnosis, actions, treatment, work allocation, patient centric care and clinical decision making. Traditionally, the doctor’s opinion is the major concern of the human being and all the people follow the rules said by the doctors. Traditional model of health mainly includes the primary care tactic to treat the patients.

Alternative Model

Alternative model of health are the practices that have healing effects of medicine but which are not proven. The therapy is based on religion, superstition and super natural energies. There is no such scientific prove of such treatment.

Evaluation of the models

The models of health are useful to understand the way of treating the patient’s traditionally as well as in the recent years. All the models are different from each other as per their treating strategies and diagnosis practice.

The biomedical model is effective to diagnose the patients with care and take effective actions for improving their health condition. The advantage of biomedical model is that it increases life expectancy and improves the quality of lives of the social communities. Through proper diagnosis, the health care professionals can diagnose the exact problems of the patients and it further provides them a scope to treat them carefully by utilising the latest technology. Hereby, in the recent years, technological advancement is advantageous where the biomedical treatment is growing rapidly and the health care professionals are able to develop patient centred care. The main disadvantage is it depends on the efficiency of health care professionals (Weiss, and Lonnquist, 2017).

The traditional model of health care is totally different from biomedical model and the main advantage is that the doctors are highly experienced and they can identify the health issues of the patients by communicating with them. The disadvantage is that it may be not effective for the patients and it further raised the numbers of death traditionally (Loseke, 2017).

The alternative model of health is like heeling practice, homeopathy treatment etc. where there is a risk of poor efficiency to treat the patients with care. The result of such treatment is totally unpredictable and unproven. Hereby, the alternative model of health is not strong enough to treat the patients with quality care and treatment.

Comparing the three model of health, it can be stated that the biomedical model of health is on f the best practice as compared to the traditional and alternative model of health in order to provide the best treatment and social car to the human being. Through these practice, the patients must be diagnosed properly by the health care professionals for acknowledging the actual health needs of the individuals (Turner, and Holton, 2014). Moreover, the biomedical model is also beneficial where the health care professionals try to work in partnership and share ideas to develop effective strategy to treat the patients so that they can improve their current health problems. The life expectancy can also be improved through implementing the biomedical model of health and thus it can be concluded that the biomedical model is effective rather than other two models of health where the patients are diagnosed well and get proper treatment as per their health needs.

Talcott Parsons’ (1952) idea of the ‘sick role’

As per the Talcott Parsons’ (1952) idea of the ‘sick role’, the term Sick role refers to the pattern of behaviour expected of someone who is ill. According to Talcott Parsons’ (1952) idea, the person who is classified as sick in the society, they can avoid the social responsibilities like looking after their family, going to school or college. The Sick role has two rights; one is lack of accountability for illness and exemption from the normal social roles. It also has two obligations such as they try to get well soon and they seek the assistance of qualified individuals. As per the ideas of sick role, the person who are considered as sick, they try to get well soon and want to get proper medical advice and treatment to lead normal lives like others in the social communities (Turner, and Holton, 2014). On the other hand, the overall society excuses that sick person from normal social activities and provides support to the sick people.

Illness seen as a form of dysfunction

According to the Talcott Parsons’ (1952) idea of the ‘sick role’, illness can be seen as a form of dysfunction as the people are suffering from physical or mental health issues which exclude them from normal social behaviours and responsibilities. The dysfunction in the human body indicates illness and sick role and hereby, illness can be seen as dysfunction (Turner, and Holton, 2014).

Functionalist views of society

Functionalist view of society is mainly an interconnected system like human body with different parts depending on the function. In this same way, the society has social institutions which are internally connected and heolp to develop social body such as schools, families, institutions and police etc. As per the views of Talcott Parsons’ (1952) idea of the ‘sick role’, human body depends on the functionality of different parts of the body like heart, lungs, brain etc and in the same manner the social development is necessary as per the functionalist view of social theory.

Alternative view to Parson’s

Eliot Freidson’s view can be considered as alternative views of Talcott Parsons’ (1952) idea of the ‘sick role’ as there are variations of sick role depending on the level of illness of the person. As per the views of Freidson, illness level in not objective, but it is a reflective social norms and cultural tradition.

Differences from Parsons’ view

Eliot Freidson’s view indicates that conditional sick role, illegitimate and unconditionally legitimate sick role. As per the view of Freidson, the sick people in the society are treated on the basis of the seriousness of their disease, whether it is stigmatized or not. The examples of stigmatised disease are such as mental health issues, obesity, smoking, alcohol and drug consumption and Aids (Rogers and Pilgrim, 2014).

Health and illness are socially constructed terms.”

Health condition of an individual depends on age, personal circumstances, life style, environment and culture. Health can be considered as social construction where there are different social and cultural interpretations and perceptions of the social communities regarding the health status of the people. For example, the pregnant women are discouraged from driving and dancing due to the fear of harming the unborn baby as well as they are also discouraged from drinking alcohol and smoking. This is the example of socially constructed health illness of the pregnant women where society believes that it is harmful for them to drink alcohol, drive, dance and smoke as these activities can be harmful for her unborn baby. On the other hand, the illness is also socially constructed where the society develops the perception regarding the level of illness of an individual. For example, disability is the social experience of impairment where the illness can reshape the activity and identify of the individual (Cockerham, 2015). The examples of religious view under the social construction of illness are faith on healing activities, fire-cupping, coin rubbing and seizures. Society mainly blames the people who are suffering from cancer, obesity and heart disease and in this regard this incident of illness is also socially constructed.

On the other hand, mental imbalance, lack of participation in making right decision and alcoholism are also the examples where the society set the rules that the individuals are not well. As per the social construction of health and illness, people believes that there is high influence of society, culture, economic and environmental factor son the health of an individual. Being sick is also defined by the society where the society provide support to the sick people and they try to excuse them from normal behaviours and social responsibilities (Loseke, 2017). Medical knowledge is also constructed by the society for which people mainly blame the victims who are suffering from cancer or obesity, they thought that the life style of the patients is main factor that lead the individuals to some serious illness. Hereby, both the health and illness can be social constructed where the social communities set the standard of stigmatised disease as well as they define illness as the means of culture and behavioural meaning.

References

• Cockerham, W.C., 2015. Medical sociology. London: Routledge.
• Loseke, D., 2017. Thinking about social problems: An introduction to constructionist perspectives. London: Routledge.
• Rogers, A. and Pilgrim, D., 2014. A sociology of mental health and illness. London: McGraw-Hill Education.
• Turner, B.S. and Holton, R.J., 2014. Talcott Parsons on Economy and Society (RLE Social Theory). London: Routledge.
• Weiss, G.L. and Lonnquist, L.E., 2017. The sociology of health, healing, and illness. London: Routledge.