Health and Social Care

Task 1

1.1 Impact of Socio Economic Influences on Health

Social and economic factors like education, income and social connectedness tend to have a direct impact on health. These factors interact with each other in order to influence the health of the society (Schraufnagel and Schraufnagel 2017). In fact, due to the interconnectedness any improvement in one of them would lead to an overall improvement of health behaviors amongst individuals. The interconnection can be explained by the following examples. People having low income do not have access to nutritious food, proper housing facilities, education or safe working conditions. These have a negative impact on the health of such individuals (Mays 2016). Financial crisis exposes them to high blood pressure and complications of the circulatory and immune system. On the contrary, individuals with better income are not affected by health outcomes which result from dearth of material needs. The health of such individuals is affected by the demands which they are responsible to fulfil both at work and home (Seth et al. 2017). The extent of control and decision making power which such individuals exercise in such settings plays a significant role in determining their health outcomes. Similarly, societal structure also influences health based on distribution of public resources and goods. The distribution ratio impacts health of the society. People who live in disadvantageous conditions encounter health issues more than those who live with social support and are well connected with culture (Mays 2016). From the above discussion, we can conclude that social and economic factors have a bearing on the health of population. Since the nineteenth century it has been observed that difference in social class has impacted the health of British population.

1.2 Relevance of Government sources in reporting on Health Inequalities

Black’s Report

Black Report’s explanation of health inequalities is one of the most authentic contributions to the said debate (Burns et al. 2017). This report has identified four reasons behind social class difference in terms of health and has emphasized on the materialistic factor the most. The explanation provided by the Black Report is considered to be both fruitful and useful. It indicates the gap in the existing knowledge and put forth questions for future research. It is useful as it clarifies attempts for understanding the reasons behind class difference in health.

Archeson Report

This Report sought to examine the steps taken by the U.K. Government to tackle health inequalities. Scholars have considered this Report and its recommendations to have widespread impact on recognizing health inequalities. Some important aspects of the Report are as follows;

• It served as a prompt for newly introduced policies.
• It came up with several opinions in favour of dealing with health inequalities (Bartley 2016).
• It identified health inequality dimension in existing policies.
• It served as a reference material.

Health Survey for England (HSE)

It consists of a series of surveys about the health of the people of England. It intends to overall health of the people to England and also to address health inequalities (Frost et al. 2016). It is one of the most reliable sources in this regard.

1.3 Reasons for Barriers to Accessing Healthcare

In England the government has proposed several policies and legislations for improving the access to health. In this section of the report we shall discuss about the barriers to accessing healthcare in the United Kingdom. These are as follows;

Educational, Attitude and Psychological Barrier

Casual attitude towards health, psycohology which works on the principle that one ought to visit doctors only when they are severely ill is one of the prime reasons behind barriers to accessing healthcare (Kalich, Heinemann and Ghahari 2016). Education also plays a role in this context by educating the importance of accessing healthcare facilities in order to lead a healthy life.

Geographical and Physical Barriers

People who are diabled, elderly people find it difficult to access healthcare due to physical barriers (Burns et al. 2017).

Financial Barrier

Cost is also a common barrier which estops people from accessing healthcare facilities.

Language and Cultural Barriers

Some people have issues communicating with healthcare service providers. Some cultures prohibit people from visiting healthcare centers.

Task 2

2.1 Analyzing the link between the government strategies and models of health promotion

In a country, the quality of life of the people or health and social care standard depends highly on the strategies taken by the government of that country (Naidoo and Wills 2016). The government in every country takes some essential health care strategies to develop the health standard of the citizens. United Kingdom is not an essential in this matter (Gov.uk 2017). The government of UK has taken several strategies like, strategy of banning the press and TV advertising related to the tobacco promotion, strategy of increasing the tax rates on tobacco, strategy of providing advice to the people for healthy diet and influencing the companies to provide detailed information related to the calorie percentage on the menus (Evidence.nhs.uk 2017). These strategies of government have influenced the health promotion in the country. For example, the Food Safety Week arranged by Hammersmith and Fulham was highly influenced by the government’s strategy of providing health diet advise. Similarly, the health promotion model, which is titled as “Improving Our Public’s Health” arranged by Hammersmith and Fulham is also influenced by the government’s strategies and the Health and Safety Act 2012 (Lbhf.gov.uk 2017). Under this model, the organization has mentioned about six priority centers – reducing the rate of smoking, reducing child obesity, reducing substance misuse, improving the mental health, improving sexual health and improving the preventing services (Lbhf.gov.uk 2017).

2.2 Explaining the role of professionals in meeting the health promotion targets of the government

Health care professionals in different health care organizations play a vital role for meeting the government’s target of maintaining the health standard in the country. If the example of Hammersmith and Fulham is considered, it can be identified that the doctors under the organization are very effective during the health promotion campaign. They provide their priceless time to educate the common people regarding the healthy diet, safe-drinking and against smoking (Lbhf.gov.uk 2017). At the same time, they provide proper treatment and needful suggestions to every patient and their family members. This helps meeting the target of building healthy diet habits of the people and reducing the number of smokers in the country. On the other side, the nurse and other staff members provide proper care to the patients and they are very friendly with the patients and every person comes to the organization (Lbhf.gov.uk 2017). This friendly behavior of the staff members helps understanding the actual problem of the patients, which is essential especially for the patients, who are suffering from the mental problems.

2.3 Discussing the role of routines in promoting healthy living

Promoting healthy living is a time-taking activity and it requires regular practice. According to Moore, Jones and Alemi (2016), adopting the healthy living standard becomes easier if a person follows a proper routine. A routine can guide the persons about what essential activities they must do daily, when they must do the activities and how activities can be done. Routine creates the habit within the human being. A proper health routine can help the people to have good and timely sleep, it improves the digestion system and creates a habit of taking healthy food at specific time (Naidoo and Wills 2016). Routine helps the people fulfilling the requirements of human body. Moreover, routines improve the daily lifestyle of the people.

Task 3

3.1 Explaining the relationship between health beliefs and theories of health behavior

According to Livi, Zeri and Baroni (2017), there is a direct relationship between the health beliefs and the theories of health behavior. Among all theories of health behavior, the Health Belief Model describes the health behaviors of the human being. In the other words, people can understand the health beliefs of the human beings, if they follow the Health Belief Model of health behavior (Smart Richman, Blodorn and Major 2016). This particular model states about six factors, which describes the health beliefs of the people. These factors are – perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, self-efficacy, perceived barriers and cues to action (Aflakseir 2016). The Health Belief Model helps to understand how behavior of the human being in context to the health-related matters changes based on their beliefs. For example, if a person has the perceived belief that drinking lemon juice everyday helps to reduce the body weight, then that person will drink lemon juice every day (Hayward et al. 2016). Similarly, if a person thinks that eating sweet on daily basis causes diabetics and so he or she stops having sweet every day, then it can be said that the behavior of the person is influenced by perceived barriers.

3.2 Discussing about the possible effects of potential conflicts with the local industry on health promotion

If there are the potential conflicts between the local industry and the health care organization related to the health promotion, then this may negatively affect the health promotion of the organization (Hollak et al. 2016). Due to the potential conflicts, the interest of the staff members of the health care organization may reduce. It may also happen that the people in the local community, who are appointed at the local industry refuses to join or support the health promotion done at their locality because of the fear of losing the job. At the same time, due to the potential conflicts, the health care organization may also face difficulties to start the health promotion activities (Leischik et al. 2016). On the other hand, the potential conflict between the health care organization and local industry may also affect the sales of the industry. For example, if the business of the local industry is related to tobacco and the health care organization does the promotion against smoking, then the sales of the industry may reduce.

3.3 Explaining the importance of proving health-related information to the public

In this recent era, with the increase in level of pollution, the number of diseases has also increased in the world. Therefore, in this situation, it is one of the most important duties of the health care organizations and the government of the countries to provide the health-related information to the common citizens of the countries (Ye-Ebiyo et al. 2016). Providing the health-related information is important because it helps to create consciousness among the common people regarding their health. At the same time, proper health-related information can motivate the people to follow a healthy diet and systematic routine in their daily life. It may also protect the people from unknown diseases.

Continue your exploration of Hand Hygiene in Healthcare with our related content.

Task 4

Reference list:

Aflakseir, A., 2016. The Role of Health Beliefs Model in Predicting Prostate Cancer Screening in a Group of Men Over Age Fifty in Shiraz. Zahedan Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 18(6).

Bartley, M., 2016. Health inequality: an introduction to concepts, theories and methods. John Wiley & Sons.

Burns, J., Conway, D.I., Gnich, W. and Macpherson, L.M., 2017. Linking families with pre-school children from healthcare services to community resources: a systematic review protocol. Systematic Reviews, 6(1), p.50.

Evidence.nhs.uk. 2017. NICE Evidence Search. [online] Available at: http://www.evidence.nhs.uk [Accessed 7 Mar. 2017].

Frost, A., Wilkinson, M., Boyle, P., Patel, P. and Sullivan, R., 2016. An assessment of the barriers to accessing the Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) in Afghanistan: was the BPHS a success?. Globalization and Health, 12(1), p.71.

Gov.uk. 2017. Welcome to GOV.UK. [online] Available at: http://www.gov.uk [Accessed 7 Mar. 2017].

Hayward, R. D., Krause, N., Ironson, G., & Pargament, K. I. (2016). Externalizing religious health beliefs and health and well-being outcomes. Journal of behavioral medicine, 39(5), 887-895.

Hollak, C.E., Biegstraaten, M., Baumgartner, M.R., Belmatoug, N., Bembi, B., Bosch, A., Brouwers, M., Dekker, H., Dobbelaere, D., Engelen, M. and Groenendijk, M.C., 2016. Position statement on the role of healthcare professionals, patient organizations and industry in European Reference Networks. Orphanet journal of rare diseases, 11(1), p.7.

Kalich, A., Heinemann, L. and Ghahari, S., 2016. A Scoping Review of Immigrant Experience of Health Care Access Barriers in Canada. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 18(3), pp.697-709.

Lbhf.gov.uk. 2017. LBHF. [online] Available at: http://www.lbhf.gov.uk [Accessed 7 Mar. 2017].

Leischik, R., Dworrak, B., Strauss, M., Przybylek, B., Schöne, D., Horlitz, M., Mügge, A. and Dworrak, T., 2016. Plasticity of health. German Journal of Medicine, 1, pp.1-17.

Livi, S., Zeri, F. and Baroni, R., 2017. Health beliefs affect the correct replacement of daily disposable contact lenses: Predicting compliance with the Health Belief Model and the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Contact Lens and Anterior Eye, 40(1), pp.25-32.

Mays, G.P., 2016. Public Health Systems and the Social and Economic Determinants of Health: New Directions for Research in the US Context.

Moore, S.M., Jones, L. and Alemi, F., 2016. Family self-tailoring: Applying a systems approach to improving family healthy living behaviors. Nursing Outlook, 64(4), pp.306-311.

Naidoo, J. and Wills, J., 2016. Foundations for health promotion. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Schraufnagel, D.E. and Schraufnagel, A.M., 2017. The Influence of Social and Economic Conditions on Respiratory Health. In Achieving Respiratory Health Equality (pp. 27-38). Springer International Publishing.

Seth, A., Tomar, S., Singh, K., Chandurkar, D., Chakraverty, A., Dey, A., Das, A.K., Hay, K., Saggurti, N., Boyce, S. and Raj, A., 2017. Differential effects of community health worker visits across social and economic groups in Uttar Pradesh, India: a link between social inequities and health disparities. International Journal for Equity in Health, 16(1), p.46.

Smart Richman, L., Blodorn, A. and Major, B., 2016. An identity-based motivational model of the effects of perceived discrimination on health-related behaviors. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 19(4), pp.415-425.

Ye-Ebiyo, Y., Kitaw, Y., Girma, S., Desta, H., Seyoum, A. and Teklehaimanot, A., 2016. Study on health extension workers: access to information, continuing education and reference materials. The Ethiopian Journal of Health Development (EJHD), 21(3).