HLSC120: Society, Culture and Health - Reflective Writing Assessment Answers

Use this proforma to organise your response to the reflective assessment task. Use the steps as headings and write in paragraphs below the headings; this is not an essay task. All your sources should be referenced using APA style. Ensure that you use all the factors from the SI template in completing this reflective writing task. You do not need to use all four factors in every Step of this proforma.

Step 1

Carefully choose one topic from the Reflective Learning and Writing Assessment section of the unit outline to guide your reflection. Write the topic here:

Step 2

Using the Gibbs Reflective Model (1998) and the ACU academic skills reflective writing resource, reflect upon and analyse your knowledge, experiences and observations in relation to your chosen question from Step 1.

Step 3

Next, identify and cite one of the readings, articles or videos from the eModules and discuss how this resource helps you to expand and deepen your original reflections on this topic.

Step 4

Using the sociological imagination template, answer the original question you identified in Step 1, using Germov (2014) and a minimum of four other academic sources (e.g. journal articles, research reports) to support your answer. Locate these academic sources through your own information search. (1000 words)

Step 5

Finally, choose one of the Graduate Attributes (at the front of the Unit Outline) that is most relevant and explain how answering this eModule question has helped you to develop this Graduate Attribute. Reflect and analyse on your thoughts and feelings on the original question in the light of your research.

Step 1

Reflect on how you would compare and contrast your own definitions of health and illness with the definitions of health and illness you would provide for a group of low socio-economic status people living with a chronic illness and or disability.

Step 2

Using Gibbs Reflective Model (1998), reflection in context of health and illnesses is as follows:

Description: If you ask me, health and illness has a different meaning for people living across different sections of a society. For people living in underprivileged or disadvantages section, basic health services are the most essential part to manage their life. They need improved accessibility and low cost medical care to attend to their health woes. Though there are some permanent loopholes in the health care facilities in remote areas, people rely more or less on the limited health services made available.

Feelings: I have observed growing discontent about the current state of health care services and other illnesses plaguing the system and it’s pretty clear that people are suffering. As the infrastructure is poor and effective medical services are haywire, people with low socio-economic status are likely to feel helpless about the dismal state of the health care services.

Evaluation: Given the current standards of health care services in rural sector, I feel there is dire need to introduce immediate solutions to improve the infrastructure. Lack of investment in rural health care has made things all the more difficult for the people. With little attention paid to the quality of doctors and other necessary staff, I feel its hard for the existing number of employees in hospitals to manage the growing demand for health care.

Analysis: Based on the observations and further evaluations, I feel tangible actions are required to be introduced in rural health care model.

Conclusion: From the discussion done above and my own observations, I feel rural health care should be improved with effective solutions suggested. It will help in dealing with regular and rare medical illnesses.

Step 3

I have conducted extensive research in order to find relevant sources that can help me understand how health and illness is perceived by others. Every individual has its own perception about what constitutes health and illness and hence the differences can be observed in the expansive academic literature. As cited by Willis and Elmer (2007), health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. When it comes to health, it doesn’t confirm the absence of a disease. In other words, just being medically fit does not negate the possibility of the disease in a near future. This was the popular traditional medical concept used during the first half of the 20th century. There are many health concerns related with non-physical conditions, dietary issues, lifestyle etc. For instance, excessive work pressure in office can be really taxing. This may not show immediate impact on the wellbeing of an individual. However, in long term, it may have serious consequences on the mental health and may further spread into physical concerns. Thus when it comes to public health, I feel there are many parameters to be considered to ascertain the actual meaning of health. Of all, I would say mental health for instance has a fundamental role in assessing the quality of life. However, defining mental health can get complicated, and requires deep evaluation before anything can be said about it. A sound mental health ensures that an individual functions effectively both in his personal and professional life. It be noted that mental, physical and social functioning depend on each other. There are fair chances that health and diseases exist together. Health and illness are mutually exclusive in case if health is defined in a restrictive way as in the non-existence of disease. Thus acknowledging health as a state of balance includes the individual himself, others and the immediate environment combine together in order to make legit improvements. Through the evaluation of the secondary resources, I found that there are many contexts around health and illnesses which are to be factored in so as to define them. However, I have my doubts if there could be a fixed definition for all the people.

Step 4

3.1.1. Health has been given comprehensive attention from academic researchers over years. Earle (2007) stated health to be an abstract concept which can be hard to understand. Given the surmounting complications in the health care sector, it can be hard to get an insight of the modalities involved in health services. There have been many studies done to understand the concept of health in different sections. When it comes to defining health, the combined role of mental, social and physical wellbeing has to be taken into consideration. Illness is any form of health inadequacy which affects the usual functioning of an individual. As shared by Balog (1978), just like health, its difficult to define illness to improve the understanding. Though illness can be determined with the level of physical, mental and emotional functioning of an individual, it can become difficult to elaborate on the agreement related with the definition of what is proper functioning and what characterizes a deviation from normality.

3.1.2 Academic researchers have explored for years to define health and illness, and in the due course, have come out with different views and rationales. Whilst health can be explained in terms of the medical complication or the area of concerns for instance body, heart, kidney etc, illness is often determined the way the person gets affected by it. Balog (1978) defined that there are three major views of health namely the traditional medical concept, the World Health Organization concept, and the ecological concept. Though the traditional definition defined health as absence of any disease, it was severe criticized by researchers. The traditional view of health was based on the assumption of dichotomy between health and illness which as per Hinkle (1961) may not be necessarily the case. Going further, Segre and Ferraz (1997) stated that WHO definition indicates a level of perfection which can be highly unrealistic and hard to achieve. Within a function-oriented perspective, health can be defined as the state which allows individuals to conduct their duties and responsibilities in their full capacity (Oberteuffer, 1960). As with health, illness has been an active point of discussion within the academic fraternity. Though medical professionals have different opinion about the symptoms of an illness, there is no exact paradigm which defines illness. As per the vast pool of academic literature, there is surmounting evidence indicating to the presence of five major parameters that define the model for determining illnesses. And these parameters include identity, Time-Line, Consequence, Cause and Cure (Skelton & Croyle, 1991). Hence illness can be expressed or explained in the terms of these parameters which are crucial to cover the vital aspects of illness and its impact on the suffering persons.

3.1.3. Health for an ill person can be the capacity to move and function as per his or her own choice and that too without depending on any person. One may explain health and illness in medical terms, for a layman, it just elaborates on the explicit symptoms of the disease. Illness is the inability to function in the usual capacity during the optimum health. As diseases can be very complicated, this calls for unveiling a wide range of symptoms and effects expressing the extent to which the person is suffering. It covers the physical, mental and emotional repercussions an individual person may suffer due to the illness. Chronic illness can be defined as a considerably long phase of illness which escalates the level of suffering. There can be various ways through which chronic illness can be defined such as social, financial and emotional factors. For instance, any individual suffering from chronic illness will have financial resources dwindling. This can impact not just the person but the immediate family. There can be numerous impacts due to financial pressure exerted due to chronic illness such as loss of job, drop out from school etc. It all depends on the socio-economic status of the individual that the financial repercussions can be used to define the chronic illness. The illness can be defined in terms of the emotional impact it has on the person and those living with him or her. Those suffering for a long period of time are likely to be emotionally vulnerable and exhausted about their illness. On the other side, sound health improves the physical, mental and emotional quotient of a person. For the same, health can be defined by the contentment level experienced with the life. In a nut shell, health and illness from a layman perspective are expressed in generic terms covering its impact on the overall life and the family.

3.1.4 Health and illness can be defined in many ways and for most of the people, it includes the immediate symptoms on the physical, social and mental wellbeing. There is no major difference between the definitions of health from both the perspectives. On the other hand, illness can be defined in terms of the medical concern, and not just in terms of the symptoms. The repercussions only depict the extent to which the person is suffering. However, defining illness in terms of the medical complication or issue clearly defines the body part or the context of the illness for the person. For instance, cancer is an illness but for an ailing person, it is predominantly expressed in terms of the potential side effects. So there is a tangible difference between the two perspectives. Illness doesn’t always mean that you have to be bedridden or lack of movement. Often, it is emotional stress which doesn’t come on surface unless it impacts the physical condition. In that case, illness can be defined on more or less equal level, thereby eliminating the scope of any difference between the two perspectives. Whilst health just goes on to show the overall wellbeing of an individual, the other perspective expresses health in terms of overall happiness and contentment with the life. In a nut shell, health may have negligible or little difference in definition, but illness can be expressed by the exact medical condition unlike the negative repercussions felt by a sufferer.

Step 5

The selected attribute is demonstrating respect for dignity of each individual and for human diversity. This assignment has compelled me to accept the variety in different perspectives explaining health and illness. As humans experience diversity in multiple terms, it impacts their thought process and hence they define health and illness in distinct manner. This emodule has allowed me to investigate the study and evaluating the different concepts about defining health and illness. This improves the understanding and enhances the scope to get an improved understanding about differences in the perception. Though there can be different views to health and illness, at the core, lies a common objective to express the current state of body and mind. This only goes on to attract the attention of concerned medical researchers to exert more efforts for defining health and develop more perspectives. As health and illness are generally spoken about, its hard to define them in fixed terms, concepts and other explanation. Even from the literature studies, there are different models through which people have expressed health and illness. But there is lack of coherence in the medical fraternity to bracket health and illness. Of all, one of the reasons involves the connection between health and illness and socioeconomic status of individuals. All the questions allowed investigating the origin of the terms ‘health and illness’, and its subsequent journey in the medical field. In context of the ongoing research, the questions are suitable to pin point on the relevant sections of the research to lay down the foundation for drawing proper and functional conclusions to satisfy the research objectives and long term goals.