1 Whose Health Is It Anyway Smith & Goldblatt Book 2 Chapter 2 Presentation: Dr. Faisal Al-Qahtani

2 Introduction The social and the natural:  Relationship in terms of health: Are we responsible for our health as individuals?  Agency factor Are there forces at work beyond our individual or collective control that fundamentally shape our health?  Structure factor Many different competing understandings of health and diverse ideas of the natural and the social in the UK:  How and why?

3 Natural Explanations Medical Conceptions of Health and Illness:  The relation between bodies and minds: Separate.  Body like a complex machine: studied in parts  Health and illness: Health is the absence of disease. Illness is located in the biology of the body.  Effective understanding is achieved by Scientific investigation  More emphasis on the biological structure of the body than on individual choice  Systematic study of events  Accumulation of facts  Emphasis on illness.

4 Social Explanations Social Class  Social class plays a crucial role in health and illness Lower social classes have a greater chance to get ill. Health and illness:  Both natural and social factors interact in health and illness Explanation  Analyses of health and illness focus on social factors: need of reconstructing economic and physical resources of society  However, medicine is central in delivering health care system.  Structural feature of society is emphasized: poor housing leads to poor health.  Emphasis on illness.

5 The Complementary Health Movement: Complex Interactions Holistic Approach:  Mind and body are inextricably related to each other and to the environment. Everyone has healing potential. Health and illness:  Holistic approach: feeling healthy means: establishing a balance of energies between our physical, emotional, and mental aspects of health rather than breaking body into parts.

6 The Complementary Health Movement: Complex Interactions Focus:  health rather than illness, and prevention rather than cure. Emphasis on treating the person rather than the illness.  people with similar symptoms might have different treatments. Therapy:  Creating balance between different forces: Biology, environment, and social organizations.  Therapists help individual initiate their own change. Effective understanding:  Difficult to investigate scientifically, so difficult to demonstrate efficacy of treatment.

7 The New Public health Multidimensional:  Mutli-factor model of health which proposes ill health as a result of inadequate health care provision Lifestyle or behavioral factors: psychological factors Social factors: environmental pollution biological factors Individual and collective factors

8 The New Public health View of Health:  a sense of well-being rather than absence of illness.  responsibility of health care professionals to provide adequate health services.  responsibility of government to provide safe environment.  responsibility of individuals to choose healthy lifestyles. Focus:  Providing positive health by preventing illness rather than focusing on treatment.

9 The New Public health Key components  lifestyle: Behavioral factors contribute to the health of the individual and society.  Risk: risk reduction is best enhanced by:  Encouraging individuals to reduce their health risks.  Supporting actions of organizations, communities, local, national, international, governments to reduce external risks and provide conditions under which individuals can be encouraged to reduce their own risks (e.g. No Smoking signs).

10 Questions & Comments