Emphasizing Biological Dimensions in Diagnosis

Discuss the difference between biomedical and social models of health, illness and disability. UAC 1.1

The biomedical model prioritises the biological and physical aspects of the illness and disease. It is the medical model that doctors, health professionals and physicians use to conduct the right diagnosis and cure for a disease (Brown et al. 2019). The biomedical model of illness and disease allows doctors to use modernised technologies as well as treatment for carrying out the diagnosis of each illness accurately and fastening the cure of that health condition.

The biomedical model has evolved for many years leading to the improvisation of medical science, processes and technologies .this model supports the improvement in the disease management process, cure and treatment process (Estrada et al. 2019). For example, the invention of vaccination for COVID 19 is based on the biomedical model. This model is useful in medical science for analysing the biological and physical factors that impact the health and well-being of people. According to Bryukhanova et al. (2020), the biomedical model focuses on the treatment and diagnosis of a disease by analysing the lifestyle, age, gender, height, blood pressure, body temperature bod cholesterol and blood counts. While treating any health condition doctors use the biomedical model to analyse the physical factors such as diet, good habits, the environment and genetic factors. By analysing these biological and physical factors doctors and health professionals can identify the possible risk factors and cause of the particular illness which assist them to develop the relevant care plan for that patient. On the contrary, Farina and Lavazza (2020) argued that the reasons for a disease are not the major and central aspects of the biomedical mode rather it prioritises the management and prevention of any health condition.

As suggested by Forstner (2022), the biomedical model of health and illness concentrates on the illness, disease and disability of people thereby returning their physical health to the pre-disease state. The Biomedical model is useful in prolonging the life expectancy of people by managing their health condition and developing self-management skills in them. As mentioned by Johnson et al. (2022), the Biomedical model is useful in improving medical science thereby making the safe use of medicine in patients to improve their physical health. According to Liu (2022), the Biomedical model focuses on improving medicine administration and medicine management which allows doctors and nurses to ensure that the right dose or right medicine is administered to the patient's body to treat the illness.

The social model of health is the approach that views illness and disease as the outcome of the social process and consequences (Mills and Reed, 2020). This model emphasized the different sociological factors which influence the health and well-being of people such as, The social model of health believes that the interception of different aspects such as social position, income level, social status, education, culture, gender, housing employment and working condition make an integrated influence on person’s ability to live a healthy life (Mills and Reed, 2020). According to Moth (2022), the social model of health focuses on the holistic health of people where physical, emotional and psychological well-being is considered. As mentioned by Pears and Gross (2021), the social model of health emphasizes considering the social, political, environmental, economic a physical factors that are related to the health and well-being of people. Many researchers suggested that the social mode of health presents an in-depth understanding of the health condition by conducting all possible angles of well-being rather than only focusing on the physical or biological aspects.

This model highlights the concept of health inequalities in society based on social factors (Rocca and Anjum, 2020). Based on the Social model of health, the indigenous people and children in the UK are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases such as diabetes and respiratory illness as compared to the non-indigenous people (Brown et al. 2019). This is because lower income level, social position and lack of education that the ethnic community in the UK face as compared to UK-born people.

The social model of health views health as the consequence of the interrelation of the above-mentioned sociological factors (Bryukhanova et al. 2020). Because of this mode people having a good education, and good income level are respected in society and grab a good social status which improves the way they receive health and social care services (Farina and Lavazza (2020). On the contrary, people with a lack of education and poor socio-economic condition do not have the affordability to afford a healthy lifestyle which makes them highly prone to illness.

Differences

The major difference between the Biomedical and social models of health is that the biomedical model of health focuses mainly on the physical and biological factors that influence health (Forstner, 2022). On the contrary, the social model mainly focuses on the social, physical, environmental, political, cultural and socio-economic aspects that influence the health of people. According to Johnson et al. (2022), the biomedical mode of health is useful in the modern medical science where doctors and heat professional use this model to determine the physiological parameters of a person and the biological condition which assist doctors to understand the risk factors and possible cause of the illness. The biomedical model is useful in the disease management prevention where the health professional and nurses use the concept of this model to make an accurate diagnosis and cure of the health condition.

The contrary to the biomedical model, the Social model of health is used by the social care professionals ((Mills and Reed, 2020). By using this model, the social care workers emphasize all the possible factors that impact health and well-being rather than focusing only on biological factors. According to Liu (2022), as compared to the biomedical model the social model of health is more useful in that assists service providers to make an in-depth understanding of a broad range of sociological, sociocultural and socioeconomic factors that intelligence the illness and health rather than only considering the physical and biological condition.

Moreover, the as compared to the biomedical model which allows doctors to focus only on the physical health of patients, the social model of health emphasizes of the holistic well-being of patients by improving their physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual well-being.

Outline and evaluate the views on mental illness offered by the structuralism approaches.

The sociological structuralism allows the modern mental health practitioners to analyse the mental process by considering the basic elements such as feeling, emotion and thoughts (Johnson et al. 2022). Structuralism approach is founded by the Edward Titchener. Sociological structuralism approach is useful for analysing the mental experiences of a mentally ill patients. The mental health practitioners use the structuralism approach to understand the feelings, thoughts, mental approach and the psychology of patients with different mental illnesses. This structuralism model is also useful in modern mental health to manage and prevent the health outcome of mental illness by main the positive transformation of a person's thoughts, emotion and mental status. The sociological structuralism defines mental illness as the state of mind that affects a person's thinking, emotional perceiving and judgements to the extent that she or he needs the medical treatment or care in the best interest of own or other people (Moth, 2022).

Structuralism approach can be used to discuss the mental health by presenting the first school of thoughts in psychology and its link with sociology. Structuralism sociological approaches present the mental health as the interaction of the basic elements of the sensation, emotion and thoughts with social factors such as fender, class, race and ethnicity. (Pears and Gross, 2021). The structuralism approach believes that mind is the sum of the different underlying parts which interconnected and interrelated with one another to form a mental state. Structuralism sociological approaches suggested that, the mental health strongly associated with the sociological aspects such as gender, class and ethnicity. This approach suggested that people with lower social class and minority ethnic community are more likely to have the poor mental health as compared to the richer peers.

According to Rocca and Anjum (2020), structuralism sociological approaches demonstrate the mind by considering each mental elements just like the chemist classify different chemical element on the periodic table. The structuralism believes that the mind is influenced by the inner processes in which the thoughts, perspective, judgement, emotion and thoughts of people interact with one another (Bryukhanova et al. 2020).

The structuralism is different from the Functionalist approach in terms of analysing the mind. As compared to the structuralism which focuses on the inner psychological process and the interrelation, the functionalism approach emphasizes the purpose of consciousness. The only limitation of this structuralism approach is that the use of this approach in modern mental health science is sometimes very subjective which leads to poor reliability and accuracy in the result (Liu, 2022). This model believes in understanding on the structure of mind which sometime is very difficult for mental health practitioners due to presence of complex mental health condition. In that case rather than understanding the mental structure, the mental health practitioners must go with the possible treatment and therapies that can be used to support the positive behavioural and psychological transition of the patients. Moreover many critics suggest that, the structuralism approach is highly concerned with the inner process and internal mental status of patient but does not consider the related factors such as the physical and biological, social and environment aspects that also influence the mind.

Outline and evaluate the views on mental illness offered by the social constructionist approach:

The social constructionist approach views the mental illness as the consequences and the outcomes of poor social engagement and lack of social interactions of persons (Pears and Gross, 2021). This approach believes that both the physical and mental health of a person is influence mainly by the way the person interact and communicate with the surrounding society. Based on this perspectives, there is a social norm regarding person health which believes that persons who are socially active thereby performing all the social functions and activities, have the stronger mental health condition as compared to the social inactive persons.

The strengths of social constructionist approach are its assists the modern mental health practitioners to understand the roles of social factors on influencing mental wellbeing of people. According to Rocca and Anjum (2020), the social constructionist approach allows the mental health practitioners to promote a positive social engagement and interaction between the mentally ill patients and sociality which will contribute to the emotional and mental well-being of the patients. The social constructionist approach is useful in terms of considering the roiled of society and its elements in improving the mental health of patients (Pears and Gross, 2021). The mental health practitioners use the social constructionist approach in the psychotherapies and mental health care plan for developing a healthy and positive relation of patient with the surrounding society. Moreover through developing the good social relationship with patients, mental health practitioners can improve the decision making, problem-solving and interactive skills of mentally ill patients which improves their ability to adapt to social changes. Moreover through improving social interception and engaging mentally ill patients with different social activities, this social constructionist approach allows patients to share their thoughts pain issues with the surrounding people thereby recovering the emotional and psychological support.

The major limitation of the social constructionist approach is it only prioritises the social viewpoints and social norms in influencing the mental health of patients but it ignores the other vital factors such as the physical health, socio-demographic factors socio-cultural factors and the family environment that also pose important influence on person’s mental health (Estrada et al. 2019). Social constructionist approach sometime pose barriers on mental health practitioners to create the relevant mental health care plan. This is because considering only the social factors is not sufficient enough to make any effective clinical intervention rather mental health practitioners need to consider all possible influencing factors to mental illness.

Compare and contrast two sociological views on the role of medical professionals in society.

The Functionalists have the consensus viewpoint towards medical professionals. Functionalists believe that all the groups in the society including the medical professional work together synergistically for maintain a healthy balance in the society and keep the society functional (Farina and Lavazza, 2020). The Functionalism viewpoints believes that medical professionals such as doctors nurses show the altruistic behaviour which put other people in the society before themselves and meet all the personalised health need of people to keep the society active. Parson and Barber were the two well-known Functionalists who believed that doctors are the elite and most important medical professionals who help the people in the society who are ill (Johnson et al.2022).

Parson’s Sick Role theory mentioned that doctors comply with and follow all the codes of conducts and medical ethics to provide the best quality care and health support to members of the society thereby helping the society to meet its functional pre-requisites (Liu, 2022). The pre-requisites include the primary an elderly socialisation, good healthcare facilities and social engagement of people. The Risk Role theory presents the fact that, the sick role members in the society must follow the social interaction, rights with proper obligations. The doctors and medical professionals act as the major gatekeeper who allow the sick role members to get the necessary healthcare support and become fit to adapt to the society.

The major criticism of the Risk Role theory is that, not all person can adopt the sick role. Many people are there in the society who have a tendency to ignore different personal blames within the sick role thereby exempting people who suffers from self-induced disease such as alcoholism. Risk roles also neglect the roles of people who suffer from chronic and fatal illness such as HIV and diabetes.

On supporting this view Moth (2022) mentioned that, the high standard of skills training and trust that a person need to possess to be a doctors pose barriers on other people to pursue this profession. Another major criticism regarding the functionalist view is that, doctors are not altruistic at all rather they are the medical professional for gaining high reputation and money. As mentioned by Estrada et al. (2019), in modern healthcare, doctors’ prime need is money which compel them to provide the high quality treatment to rich people and neglect the poor people thereby contributing to the health inequalities in the society.

As compared to the Functionalist approach, the Marxist approach demonstrates that the doctors act as the agents of the social construction which benefits the capitalist society (Farina and Lavazza, 2020). The Marxists believe that doctors work on improving the social capital by maintaining the steady and healthy workforce. Marxist approach demonstrates that he medical model of health and illness is nit useful in cure and prevention of illness. Therefore the Marxists suggest that medical professionals must focuses on the social model where they can consider the holistic health and wellbeing of a person. Marxists also believe the NHS contribute to the capitalism because the NHS professionals provide the healthcare services to every citizen in the UK. The NHS focus on creating a healthy workforce to provide the high quality care to all people by creating the productive and healthy workforce (Forstner, 2022).

Marxists believe that the Sick Role theory also contribute to the capitalist society rather than contributing to the social welfare (Moth, 2022). This is because Marxists believe that, the risk role theory sent the person back to their work and pressurises them to put the contribution to the capitalist society by improving their health and wellbeing. The doctors are the major person or ‘gatekeeper’ who dominate sick role (Farina and Lavazza, 2020). Doctors focus on the consistent flow of the capital into the society by involving sick role member back to their work for ensuring that the overall surplus value is consistently being made to profit the society.

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