Moving from the centre to left shows the state of health getting worse, from the centre to the right shows health increasing. The treatment paradigm brings you back up to the neutral point and eliminates the symptoms of any disease. The wellness paradigm helps you move towards a high level of health and well-being. The wellness paradigm goes beyond the neutral point and encourages you to move as far to a high level of wellness as possible. It does not replace the treatment paradigm on the left side of the continuum, but they both work together. If you are ill then treatment is a very important factor, but don't stop at the neutral point, use the wellness paradigm to move towards a high-level wellness.
People often lack physical symptoms they may be bored, depressed, tense, anxious or simply unhappy with their lives. Being in such an emotional state could set off for a physical or mental disease. Negative emotional states can also lead you to abuse the body through smoking, binge drinking, and overeating. These could be attempts to substitute for other more basic human needs such as being noticed, respected, having a more supportive environment and a sense of purpose and meaning.
High-level wellness involves giving good care to your physical self, using your mind, expressing your emotions, being socially involved with those around you, and being concerned about your physical, social and mental health. In fact, it's not so much where you are on the continuum, but which direction you're facing.
AO1 (B):
You need to produce a comprehensive description that shows in-depth understanding of how two different factors affect health and well-being, giving a wide range of appropriate examples.
There are 3 different factors that influence health, them being; yourself as an individual, your immediate social and physical environment and your wider social and physical environment including the political environment. Some of these are;
Gender
Age
Body mass index (BMI)
Disability
Genetics
Ethnicity
Leisure facilities
Smoking
Binge drinking
Diet and Exercise
Housing
Social class
Financial status
Friends and relationships
Media
Healthcare provision
Air and noise pollution
Air, food and water quality
Government policies
As you can see from above there are a number of determents that can affect your health and call all either have good or bad affects.
This approach differentiates between individual and social factors, offering a diagram with layers which can be peeled away. The core of the diagram consists of inherited attributes relating to age, sex and hereditary factors. The inner layer suggests that health is partly determined by individual lifestyle factors, such as smoking, exercise and diet. Moving outwards, the diagram draws attention to relationships with family, friends and significant others within society. These are the actions of individuals and society affecting health. The next layer focuses on working and living conditions – housing, employment and access to healthcare services. The outer layer shows broader socio-economic, cultural and environmental forces such as economic development, shifts in welfare systems, political change, social forces and structures. These final two layers relate to the upstream determinants of health. Although it is not really shown in the diagram, there is potential for layer-to-layer interaction. For example, cutbacks in welfare services might adversely affect people’s access to adequate housing and thus influence their health.
Health can be affected by all different factors here is a case study about Beth and how health can be damaged by lack of available properties and poor housing quality.
Beth visits her GP with her daughter Molly who is 5, she has 2 other children ages 7 and 9. Beth is on Jobseekers Allowance and gets £210 a week for the 4 of them her bills come to £150 a week. They live in high-rise flats in a council estate, they have lived there nearly a year and it only has two bedrooms. Both bedrooms and front room are damp and mouldy and have condensation running down the walls, she has no carpets so the flat is very cold. The flats are also due to be demolished in 8 days and she has found nowhere else to live. Molly has developed acute bronchitis from the dampness of the rooms and is giving her severe chest discomfort. Beth and the kids have also been in and out of the doctors for months with constant flu, coughs and colds. Beth has started to smoke and drink more regularly from the stress of everything and has now been prescribed antidepressants.
Housing and stress can both affect health. For example in the case study Beth has lived in squalid conditions for the past year, her and her kids have developed all sorts of colds and flu’s and other illness’ as well as her youngest getting bronchitis. This was caused by the damp in her flat which breeds mould spores, and these can get into your lungs causing breathing problems and a high risk of getting flu and other respiratory illnesses. Stress also affects Beth’s health in this case study. She’s going to be homeless in 8 days and is a single mother with not a lot of money; this is causing her severe stress. She takes up smoking and drinking because of it. This can cause an increased risk of cancer as well as a probable cause of approximately 25 diseases and is very addictive. Excess alcohol use can lead to liver cancer and high blood pressure which can eventually lead to a stroke or heart failure and can influence regular injury and violence. All these factors influence health negatively.
AO1 (C):
You need to show an in-depth understanding of the differences between the medical and social models of health and well-being, when explaining in detail why individuals often fail to conform to health education advice. You will need to make clear and accurate conclusions about the medical and social models of health and well-being.
There are two models of health, social and medical. The Medical Model of health tries to treat people through the use of medicine. It doesn't take into account the social and emotional factors of how the illness or disease was caused or what it was brought on by.
It looks at the medical cause of the problem. The social model recognises the important factors that influence health such as poverty, education, housing and lifestyle it doesn’t look for a single physical cause of the illness or disease but sees that there is many factors that can contribute to it. The social model thinks improving social issues could improve our health.
The medical model of health looks at the individual and describes bad health or illness as the presence of disease and ill symptoms as a result of physical causes such as injury or infections. It doesn't look at social and mental factor of health. The social model of health looks at how society and our environment affect our everyday health and well-being; factors such as are social class, poverty, poor housing, diet, pollution and income. Also the medical model concentrates only on the individual, the social model doesn’t only concentrate on the individual but those around us too.
Glynn Vernon has cerebral palsy. He was in a wheelchair and had spasticity in his arms so was unable to write. He couldn’t talk very well so people found it had to understand him. His intelligence was still there though, he could read by the time he was sick. And applied to go to university but his tutor said he wasn’t sure if that was possible as he was disabled and there were no access for him. He wanted to get married to his wife, Jill but a vicar said he couldn’t marry him in a church as sex was an important part of marriage and he felt like Glynn wasn’t capable of it. Glynn and Jill also wanted kids but Glynn was infertile this really hurt them, they went to see about IVF treatment but the counsellor said she feels Glynn only wants a child to equip for the needs he couldn’t do, so wouldn’t grant it. This upset Glynn and Jill even more; they split after 7 years of marriage. He had no one to care for him then and he professionals wanted to put him into a home. He refused and said he wanted to stay in his own home, they granted him a care worker who now has to help him wash and go to the toilet. He now owns his own small business within computer programming.
This case study shows that people may not want to heed to health advice as they don’t listen to what you want and do what they ‘think’ is best for you when really you’re the only one that knows. I.e. Glynn and Jill wanted a child, but they were denied as they thought Glynn only wanted to live his life through their child’s. This was not a true and caused a lot of stress in Glynn and Jill’s marriage eventually causing them to split up. So when the professional said they wanted to put Glynn into a care home he may have thought no you were wrong the last time. I want to stay! And he did and managed to open a small business and provide for himself even with a disability.
AO1 (D):
You need to give a comprehensive description of two ways in which an individual’s quality of life is affected by ill-health.
James is 12 and suffers from ADHD. The school he goes to feels they cannot cope with his behaviour anymore. He has troubles with his attention span, he fails to complete tasks, can’t stay organised and is always losing his books and pencils and becomes distracted very easily. He also has problems with hyperactivity he is excessively fidgety, climbs about when it is not appropriate, excessively talks, and is constantly on the go. Teachers are finding it hard to keep up with him as well as the other children. He finds it hard to make friends as he’s very socially shy. They are now sending him to a specialist ADHD school with other children with ADHD, he doesn’t want to go. He says he wants to stay at ‘normal’ school. His mum is also getting very worn out and stressed by his bad behaviour.
James ADHD affects his quality of life by the education he’s getting sent to a specialist school which he does not want to go to as he likes the experience of a state school. It also affects his learning and may not get very good grades as he can’t concentrate which will affect him getting a job or getting into college/university later in life. His ADHD also makes him very shy, he struggles to make friends. So socially may not be getting the support and fun that you get with a friendship. He may feel lonely which could cause his ADHD to get worse and become depressed. James ADHD affects his mum as she’s getting very stressed, this could lead to smoking, binge drinking or drug use. The same for his teachers as well. The people in his classes could be finding it very hard concentrate when he is playing up and the teacher focuses their attention on James, this can affect the other children’s learning and possibly cause them to start behaving badly.
