...P3 – Explain patterns and trends in health and illness among different social groupings. For this task I have been asked to produce a report to investigate which social groupings are most in need of health and social care services. To assist in the planning of care provision in my report I will be explaining patterns and trends in health and illness among different social groupings identified according to factors such as gender, social class, geographical location, ethnicity and age. SOCIAL CLASS AND PATTERNS OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS Social class is an intricate issue that consists of status, wealth, culture, background and employment. The association between social class and ill health is far from being straight-forward. There are many influences on health and one of them is social class. The Black Report on Inequalities in Health Care was commissioned by the Department of Health in the United Kingdom by Health Minister David Ennals in 1977. They wanted to point out why the NHS was failing to reduce social inequalities in health and to investigate the problems. Ennals would do this by analysing people’s health records and lifestyles from different social class backgrounds. Ennals found that the overall health of the nation had improved but the improvement was not equal across all social class backgrounds. The gap in inequalities in health between the higher and lower social classes was widening. Ethnicity “According to the 2001 census 8% of the UK’s population is...
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...Unit 7- sociological perspectives for health and social care P1 – Explain the principal sociological perspectives Sociological Perspectives | Main Points | Criticisms | Functionalism | Functionalist believe that just as the body functions through the efficient interrelationship of major organs and has disease, so the different institutions in society each have particular contributions to make. They work together and use methods of social control to deal with deviant members or groups, to ensure that society functions smoothly. Parsons (1902-1979) saw society as a system made up of interrelated institutions, which contributed to its smooth running and continuity. He thought that the main role of an institution is to socialise individuals and ensure that they understood the underlying values of their society and behave in acceptable ways. Murdock(1897-1985) did a study of the family, examined over 250 societies and concluded that in all societies the family performed 4 functions: * Sexual function which was allowed for the expression of sexuality in an approved context * Reproductive function which provided stability for the rearing children * Socialisation included the responsibility of teaching children the acceptable ways of behaving in society * Economic function meant that food, shelter, and financial security had to be provided for the family membersParsons(1951) argued that the family had only two basic functions which were: * The primary socialisation of children...
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...Using Item B and elsewhere, assess the view that an ageing population creates problems for society There are many different problems that an ageing population creates for society. There are many reasons why there is an increase in the ageing population, as Item B states “In common with many western societies, the United Kingdom has an ageing population. Rising life expectancy and a relatively low birth rate have meant that the average age of the population is rising”. Also the decline in fertility has led to an increased amount of people who are over the age of 65 and this poses many different issues within society. First of all, older people consume a larger proportion of public services. For example, they require more health and social care than other age groups. This is truer when it involves the old old’. The old old’ are usually seen as the 75 years old and older as many people see them as needing more medical and care attention. However, some people will argue with this as many people of ‘old’ age still seem to be in relatively good health. It is not just health services that the elderly generation needs more of, in addition to this, the ageing population may require changes to policies, provision of housing, transport and many other services. The number of pensioners also living alone, had led to an increase in one-person pensioner households (they now account for 14% of households). Most of them are female. This is because females generally live longer than males and...
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...50 every 8 seconds. Those age 65 and older now exceed 35 million, a number poised to explode. January 2011 ushered in the first of approximately 77 million Baby Boomers, born from 1946 through 1964 and are surging toward the gates of retirement (transgenerational). This growth will steadily increase and the population must be prepared to accommodate the aging population. According to the Bureau of Vital Statistics the aging population is the fastest growing population and will continue to increase. This dramatic growth in numbers and proportions, increased life expectancies, and energetic life styles, now enables us to live 20 to 25% of our lives in active retirement. Moreover, today's physically and intellectually active younger generations predict that tomorrow's elderly population will be better educated, healthier, culturally literate and, as individuals, more discerning consumers. Changes in Demographics Sustainable development means sustainable and healthy development of the whole human society on the basis of mutual coordination and common development of population, society, economy, resources and environment and under the guarantee of resources and with a benign environment. Its purpose is not only to satisfy demands of contemporary population, but also not to pose threats to development of later generations. Sustainable development is centered with human being and regards the overall development of human being or the society as its...
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...Unit 19: Applied sociological perspectives for health and social care Assignment 1: Social Inequalities. Within most known societies there are certain things that make it unequal. This means that the society experiences troubles because some aspects of it are making it uneven due to views, beliefs and attitudes being expressed and conflicting. This could occur because people view themselves as a higher social class than others. People who may be unlucky within societies could be the subject of prejudice. This is a term referring to a set of fixed attitudes towards a particular social or ethnic group. The people who project these views are usually unwilling to accept any different attitudes and cannot make sense of why this group of people are a particular way. For example a prejudice view would be that all Indian people living in the UK are here to take English peoples jobs and eat our food. This view would have been the norm for the person for so long that they cannot see how ignorant they were really being. Prejudice is a concept closely related to that of stereotyping. Stereotyping is where groups of people get defined into one category as if they all share the same personal characteristics or features. However, this is a negative concept for everyone is different and has individual qualities. An example of this would be that everyone wearing a hooded top is a ‘chav’ and you should assume you are going to get robbed or beaten up when you come into contact with them...
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...introduces the role of the person-environment perspective to study issues relevant to aging. Due to an increasing interest in understanding the process of aging and the changing demographics of the world, including the United States, gerontology is a growing field. More and more people in the U.S. are living beyond age 65 or even 85, with these "oldest old" as the fastest growing age group among Americans. The population of older adults in the U.S. is also becoming more ethnically diverse, although elders of color generally have a lower life expectancy due to health and economic disparities. The growth of the older population has raised questions as to whether our nation is prepared to meet the health care and social service needs of this group and their families. Given the growth in the number of older adults, society needs to address the public policy issues related to aging, including assessing the appropriateness of current policy and exploring innovative policy to meet the changing needs of older adults. Researching policy and social issues related to aging poses some challenges to gerontologists. The important question centers on being able to distinguish age differences from cohort differences. Improvements in gerontological research, such as the use of longitudinal studies and sequential designs, have been made, but more exploration is needed. LEARNING OUTCOMES You should be able to: Define aging, gerontology, social gerontology, and geriatrics Describe the...
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...2010, we had about 14% of Canadian seniors (those age 65 and older) and by 2036, this percentage will increase to about 25% (Canadian Institute for Health Information, 2011). We do not live only in an aging world but in a society in which older people are healthier and more active as compared to past aging population. The effects of population aging permeate all spheres of social life; work, the family, politics, economy, housing and health care. However, there lies a strong belief that the aging of Canadian population will certainly lead to an increase in the cost of providing the current level of health care in Canada because health care costs are much higher for seniors, and this financial burden will be more acute in some provinces due to provincial differences in the age structure and population health (Health Canada, 2006). This paper will discuss the various aspects of aging of population that can result as a threat to the Canadian health care system in terms of cost and health care facility usage by the elderly. Also, the social and demographic structures of aging that limits the living rights of aging population will also be mentioned. Ageism is a social Construction: “Old” age or becoming a senior does not happen overnight when a person turns 65. Rather, the meaning of being old is socially constructed and these labels are assigned to everyone on the basis of stereotype about those who reach a chronological age of 65. Also, cultural elements create verbal and visual...
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...Unit 7: Sociological perspectives for health and social care Contents No. | Title | Page no. | 1 | P1: Explain the principal sociological perspectives | 3 | 2 | P2: Explain different sociological approaches to health and ill health | 4 | 3 | P3: Explain patterns and trends in health and illness among different social groupings | 5-7 | | Bibliography | 8 | P1: Explain the principal sociological perspectives Functionalism- The functionalism perspective is the main rule in society and sees society in different ways. Functionalism sees society as a system of highly interrelated parts that work together harmoniously. The main role of an intuition was to socialise with individuals and to ensure that they understood the underlying values of their society and behaved in acceptable ways. This ensured that was order in society. An example of the functionalist approach is that they view society as a body and each part has a function for society to work harmoniously. Marxism- Marxism perspective is a structuralism model. This approach was produced by Karl Marx. He also thought that individual behaviour was shaped by society, but then he realised the economic system was the definition of society and people’s place within it. He then identified that in the industrial society of his time there were two social classes. The bourgeoisies/capitalists– the small powerful group who owned factories and the employments and the proletariat– a much larger poorer group of “worker”...
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...Throughout my assignment I will be looking at many elements of the sociological spectrum which go hand in hand with the element of health and illness. These things will include the introduction of social groups and looking at their statistics. “A social group is a collection of people who interact with each other and share similar characteristics and a sense of unity. A social category is a collection of people who do not interact but who share similar characteristics. For example, women, men, the elderly, and high school students all constitute social categories. A social category can become a social group when the members in the category interact with each other and identify themselves as members of the group.” - Anonymous, 2014. No only will I be looking at the social elements, but how it links in to health and trends in illness to find out just how the can both relate. Things such as Morbidity rates (the counted statistic rate in which disease appears in the population). Not forgetting other patterns in health including mortality rate known to be the amount of deaths calculated per annum along with many other rates that can effect the illness of social groups and reasons as to why and how these rates may effect them. As previously mentioned before a social group is a collection of people who interact with each other and share similar characteristics and a sense of unity. A social category is a collection of people who do not interact but who share similar characteristics...
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...2010, we had about 14% of Canadian seniors (those age 65 and older) and by 2036, this percentage will increase to about 25% (Canadian Institute for Health Information, 2011). We do not live only in an aging world but in a society in which older people are healthier and more active as compared to past aging population. The effects of population aging permeate all spheres of social life; work, the family, politics, economy, housing and health care. However, there lies a strong belief that the aging of Canadian population will certainly lead to an increase in the cost of providing the current level of health care in Canada because health care costs are much higher for seniors, and this financial burden will be more acute in some provinces due to provincial differences in the age structure and population health (Health Canada, 2006). This paper will discuss the various aspects of aging of population that can result as a threat to the Canadian health care system in terms of cost and health care facility usage by the elderly. Also, the social and demographic structures of aging that limits the living rights of aging population will also be mentioned. Ageism is a social Construction: “Old” age or becoming a senior does not happen overnight when a person turns 65. Rather, the meaning of being old is socially constructed and these labels are assigned to everyone on the basis of stereotype about those who reach a chronological age of 65. Also, cultural elements create verbal and visual...
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...Confronting Ageism”, by Todd D. Nelson discusses a relatively new term, coined by Robert Butler in the late 1960’s, called ageism and how the negative stereotypes are affecting the health of older adults who believe in these stereotypes. Ageism is bias against, solely, someone’s age. Furthermore, the article discusses ways to improve the health of older adults through recommendations for specific solutions. Ageism affects the cognition or memory of older adults (middle-aged and older). Based on the research this article cited, older adults remembered negative stereotypes significantly less than positive stereotypes. Also, middle-aged adults, who are aware of these negative stereotypes against their age, did...
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...Age Discrimination and Age-Based Rationing of Health Care Crystal LaShae Hunter HMP671 – Ethics in Health Care - Fall II 2015 (Week 6) Valparaiso University Author Note: “I have neither given, received, nor have I tolerated other's used of unauthorized aid." Age Discrimination and Age-Based Rationing of Health Care Health care as a social good, requires a tremendous amount of a nation’s expenditures; and health care is not the only social good that a nation must consider, there are also the social goods of defense, education, public health, and infrastructure, to name a few. In the United States alone, the percentage of the GDP spent on health care over a three year period, from 2011-2013, averaged 17.066% (17.1%, 17.0%, 17.1%, each respective year) (The World Bank Group, Inc, 2015). In retrospect, despite the passing and subsequent implementation of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, with the final aspects of the bill effective January 1, 2015, the ever-rising cost of health care may never truly subside, as the nation’s baby boomers continue to age and subsequent chronic conditions often associated with aging such as coronary artery disease, diabetes, and certain cancers increase with the aging population. In fact, according to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (2015), Medicare accounted for 20% of total US health care expenditure in 2014, growing 5.5% and expected to “accelerate after 2015” in direct correlation to the expected increases in use of medical...
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...spoken or taught in today’s society. About half of people in the world have a mental health disorder, yet most people don’t know what it really means to have a serious health problem. There are numerous theories on why these disorders happen; additionally, some disorders in the world are still a mystery to the science community and also millions of people share these personal experiences through writing. What is Mental Health and its comparison to Mental Illness Numerous people in today’s society have yet to fully understand what mental illness is; therefore, they really need to understand the meaning of the word. According to the article “What is Mental Illness,” mental health is foundation for thinking, communication, learning, self esteem, and it also plays a key role in close relationships. Sadly people with mental illness suffer with thinking skills, learning new things, expressing emotion, and it also causes problems in their social lives, but this does not mean that people with disorders can’t manage their lives on their own....
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...Different governments have age limits for legal consumption of alcohol. In most western states, it is illegal for individuals below 18 years of age to consume alcohol. Other countries have an age limit of 15 years (Miller, 2010). All governments have reasons for setting this age requirements for alcohol consumption. For example, some argue that raising the legal age limit may not have an impact on society if people do not have the will to stop irresponsible drinking. Others argue that raising the legal age limit would allow individuals to drink when they are mature and responsible (Kolander, 2011). This would reduce chances of irresponsible drinking. This essay aims at discussing the legal age for alcohol consumption and whether it should be raised. According to reports from several police departments, most youth consume alcohol when they have not met the age limit. This implies that raising the age limit is effective albeit dutiful parenting (Miller, 2010). The need to raise the age limit, therefore, becomes crucial in curbing the negative effects caused by alcohol consumption. However, altering the age limit does not provide a conclusive solution to challenges of alcohol consumption. Governments can also create awareness in schools through program initiatives that educate children on the negative impacts of alcohol. Religious and social groups can collaborate with the governments on this aspect so as to make it effective. Secondly, raising the age limit for consumption of alcohol...
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...& Aging: Implications for Health & Quality of Life in Older Persons published by the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Introduction "America is aging rapidly. At the beginning of the twentieth century persons over sixty-five years of age constituted approximately four percent of the American population, whereas they now represent more than 12 percent of all Americans. By the year 2020 this group is expected to increase to nearly twenty percent of the population (U.S. Census Bureau, 1990). When expressed in absolute numbers, the statistics are equally impressive. In the United States today there are currently approximately 36 million people over the age of 65. "This number is expected to almost double to 70 million by the year 2030 (Geographic Profile, 1993). Even more remarkable is the increase in the number of the very oldest members of our society The 'old-old,' that is, individuals over the age of 85 years, constitute the most rapidly growing segment of society (Shephard, 1997). By the year 2030, it is anticipated that over eight million Americans will be 85 years of age or older (Fowles, 1991). There can be little doubt that such a dramatic increase in the number of older adults will have far reaching implications for society. Advancing age is associated with predictable sensory, motor, and cognitive changes, many of which have the potential to impact an older person's ability to function effectively in society (Chodzko-Zajko, 1996). Fortunately...
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