Health: A Social Phenomenon Essay -- Health Care

IntroductionWith movements made by the governments and medical professionals of developed countries in the interests of giving patients more choice, the definition of wellnessy, particularly in contemporary society, has become subjective (Freemantle and Hill 2002, Armstrong 1995, Bury 2008, Van Krieken et al. 2006 379-380). Variations in interpretation appear between groups divided along socio-political, demographical lines, or change surface between individuals themselves (Freemantle and Hill 2002 864, Heath 2005 954, Blaxter 200044, Van Krieken et al. 2006). This ambiguity has underscored debates and conflicts in recent years between patients, academics, politicians, and medical practitioners on issues of medical berth, the extent of involvement in the decision making process over personal health as well as the health of others related to them through social structures and institutions (Van Krieken et al. 2006, Blaxter 2000, Bury 2008, ovalbumin 2002). This essay will attempt t o illustrate how health is a social phenomenon through the examination of power and inequality. It will focus on the social causes and effects of medicalisation and how the attitudes and positions people occupy in society influence their medical needs. This essay will also highlight some of the challenges faced by the societies around the valet de chambre in addressing medical inequality. Medical dominance and medicalisationAccording to Foucault and Illich (in Van Krieken et al. 2006 351-352), doctors and the medical profession have traditionally been empowered by their knowledge as the authority that society defers to with regards to the definition of disease and health. With improvements in medical technology as well as the advent of the hospital, an evolution... ...London SAGE.Broom, D.H. and Woodward, R.V. (1996) Medicalisation reconsidered toward a collaborative approach to care in Sociology of Health and Illness, 18, 3 357-378.Freemantle, N. and Hill, S. (2002) Medicalisati on, limits to medicine, or never enough money to go around? in British Medical Journal, 324 864-865.Foucault, M. (2003) The Birth of the Clinic, London Routledge.Heath, I. (2005), Who needs health care- the well or the sick? in British Medical Journal, 330 954-956.Moynihan, R. and Smith, R (2002) Too much medicine? in British Medical Journal, 324 859-860.Van Kreiken, R. Habbis, D. Smith, P. Hutchins, B. Haralambos, M. Holborn, M. (2006), Sociology Themes and Perspectives (3rd ed), French Forest Pearson Longman.White, K. (2002) Race, Ethnicity and Health in An introduction to the sociology of health and illness, London SAGE.