1. Foundation degree in care studies
Sociological Perspectives

2. To understand the key views of ill health
Sociological Perspectives
Learning Objective:
To understand the key views of ill health

3. Sociological Perspectives
Illness is experienced by an individual.
You are not able to feel what another person is feeling.
It is their own experience.

4. Sociological Perspectives
Therefore, illness is a subjective feeling.
It is associated with changes in the body, expressed as pain or discomfort.

5. Sociological Perspectives
If you decide to see a doctor, you will describe these feelings, then the doctor will check the areas for signs of abnormality, eg: swelling, raised temperature.

6. Sociological Perspectives
If these abnormalities are found, a diagnosis is made.
On which sociological model you have studied for Task 1 is this diagnosis made?

7. Sociological Perspectives
Have you heard of the term “Man Flu?”
This is an example of perceived differences in the experience of illness.

8. Sociological Perspectives
Models of disability provide a framework for understanding the way in which people with impairments experience disability.

9. Sociological Perspectives
They also provide a reference for society as laws, regulations and structures are developed that impact on the lives of disabled people.

10. Sociological Perspectives
There are two main models that have influenced modern thinking about disability: the medical model and the social model.

11. Sociological Perspectives
In the medical model, disabled people are seen as the problem.

12. Sociological Perspectives
They need to change and adapt to circumstances (if they can), and there is no suggestion that society needs to change.

13. Sociological Perspectives
This model reflects the World Health Organization definition of disability.

14. Sociological Perspectives
The social model has been developed by disabled people.

15. Sociological Perspectives
In their view disability is caused by the barriers that exist within society and the way society is organised, which discriminates against people with impairments and excludes them from
involvement and
participation.

16. Sociological Perspectives
This model reflects the UPIAS definition of disability.

17. Sociological Perspectives
Our society often considers disability to be a tragedy for the individual and a burden for the family and society.

18. Sociological Perspectives
This is based on an individual or medical approach to disability. This model focuses on the lack of physical, sensory or mental functioning, and uses a clinical way of describing an individual's disability.

19. Sociological Perspectives
There are certain 'norms' in development and in functioning against which the person is judged. This model leads to a dehumanising view, where only the nature and severity of the impairment is important, together with the extent to which the difference can be put right or minimised.
Which sociological model does this remind you of?

20. Sociological Perspectives
It defines and categorises disabled people by their impairment, and it casts the individual as the victim or problem.

21. Sociological Perspectives

22. Sociological Perspectives
Many disabled people have rejected this model. They say it has led to low self-esteem, undeveloped life skills, poor education and consequent high unemployment levels.

23. Sociological Perspectives
It has also resulted in the segregation of disabled people, thus breaking natural relationships with their families, communities and society as a whole.

24. Sociological Perspectives
Disabled people have arrived at a different model to help understand the situation. They are challenging people to give up the idea that disability is a medical problem requiring "treatment", but to understand instead that disability is a problem of exclusion from ordinary life.

25. Sociological Perspectives

26. Sociological Perspectives
The social model locates the "problem" outside the disabled person and therefore offers a more positive approach because:

27. Sociological Perspectives
It doesn't "blame" the individual or turn them into the problem

28. Sociological Perspectives
It doesn't "blame" the individual or turn them into the problem
It involves everyone in identifying solutions

29. Sociological Perspectives
It doesn't "blame" the individual or turn them into the problem
It involves everyone in identifying solutions
It encourages co-operative problem solving

30. Sociological Perspectives
It doesn't "blame" the individual or turn them into the problem
It involves everyone in identifying solutions
It encourages co-operative problem solving
It removes barriers for others as well as disabled people, that is, it is an equal opportunities model

31. Sociological Perspectives
It doesn't "blame" the individual or turn them into the problem
It involves everyone in identifying solutions
It encourages co-operative problem solving
It removes barriers for others as well as disabled people, that is, it is an equal opportunities model
It acknowledges disabled people's rights to full participation as citizens

32. Sociological Perspectives
Consider the two questions below that could appear in application forms.
1- What is your impairment? Please tick one of the boxes below.
2- Do you consider yourself to be a disabled person?
Which question is motivated by the medical model and which by the social model?

33. Sociological Perspectives
The first question is medical based, as it asks about impairment and seeks to label the student by that impairment. The second question is social model based, as it is asking about identity and self-classification.
Watch the following film, see how labelling can impair peoples’ functioning.
Part 1 Part 2