Health And Society

Table of Contents

Introduction.

Patient’s background.

Social determinants of health.

Social determinants in the scenario.

Recommendations.

Conclusion.

Recommendations.

Introduction to Health And Society

The report tends to discuss the social determinants of health in context to the considered case of Mrs Poole. For the better patient management and optimum patient care, it is crucial to familiarise with the concerns of the patient. The patient’s concerns will be discussed in the considered study. The impact of social determinants of health will be discussed and effective recommendations will be formulated considering the case scenario.

Patient’s Background

The patient Eileen Poole is 74 years old female. She had been brought to the emergency department with the concern of deformity swelling in the right wrist. She is rather a mobile person, does not use the aids for mobility. She had a fall, which caused reduced movement, pain, swelling and deformity. She was a Scottish by birth, and moved to Australia in her younger age. She married to Jim, lived married life happily for 51 years and had two children. Her husband died six months ago, from then, the patient lives alone in her house at Wiimali, a rural town, 4 hours away from Sydney. Her children Jason and Lauren lives away from the house. Eventually, there is not one to take care of her health and wellbeing at her house. As her husband was extremely close to her, she became lonely and lost interest from food and her wellbeing after the demise of Mr. Jim. They used to have enjoying time together, the memories of the good time negative affected the patient. However, she is also connected to Luren, and talks over phone calls regularly. She is interested in gardening and household activities, which keeps her engaged.

Her bones get affected easily as she is a patient of Osteoarthritis. Mrs Poole is the patient of type II diabetes, and consumes glucovance as medication. She had undergone bilateral knee replacements five years ago, which recovered through physiotherapy. She consumes panadol to control her osteoarthritis. Her eyesight is low, she suffers from hypertension and higher cholesterol. She is a self-dependent person. Her loneliness had resulted to depression; she commenced the antidepressant medication, such as Sertraline. She has risk of cardiovascular disease due to high cholesterol, for which she consumes atorvastatin and candesartan. Her pain score was 3/10.

Social Determinants of Health

The social determinants of health are the social and economic factor that impact the health of an individual and impacts the group and individual differences of the status of health (Nayebpour, & Koizumi, 2018). The physical environment, social environment, economic status and environment of health services accumulate social determinant of health (Baker et al., 2017). As suggested by Bakkeli, (2016) the employment of an individual, income, savings, medical bills of an individual could impact the health status and access to healthcare services. For instance, people who could not earn enough for their livelihood could not afford the healthy and nutritious food for their health and wellbeing. Again, patients whose caregivers stay away are likely to be lonely and helpless to support their health assistance. The social support and social unity and integration significantly impact the health (Rahim, Suksaroj, & Jayasvasti, 2016). For instance, if there is not unity in society and people are not empathetic to each other, the patients are likely not to get social support for early recovery. However, in an integrated society, people help and support each other to avail the healthcare access, they arrange for ambulance, medication, blood and necessary clinical supports. As opined by Jones, Norwood, & Bankston, (2018) for the better health condition, the community engagement is crucial.

According to Henning-Smith et al., (2018) the housing, geographic location, transportation availability enormously impact the access to the health services, which impacts the health condition of an individual. In the less developed area, where the transportation is not frequent, the patients face difficulty in achieving healthcare access. The racism, existence of discrimination regarding race, ethnicity, language, gender is the crucial social determinants. For instance, in the society, which discriminates people based on their colour is likely to provide less health services to the discriminated people. In America, the indigenous people avail unsatisfactory health services, which are not favourable for their health conditions (Temple, & Russell, 2018). Education, literacy are major social determinants in context to health (Rowlands et al., 2015). For example, a child belonging to illiterate parents are likely to live in unhygienic condition. Hunger, availability and access to food could impact someone’s health (Shim, & Compton, 2020). If the nutritious, healthy food is not available and a person is to rely on unhealthy readymade food, which is not good for health, the health condition might deteriorate. Stress is another social determinant, which deteriorates health conditions.

To sum up, the social determinants influence the health condition, improvement of health, access to healthcare and availability of healthcare support. In favourable social condition, the health of a patient could improve, while in an adverse social setting, which results stress, the health condition may deteriorate too. Thereby, the social determinants are significant in patient care and clinical outcomes.

Social Determinants in The Scenario

Social support

In the present scenario, the social support had played a major role. Mrs Poole lives alone; her children are not there to take care of her. After the fall, she was unable to arrange public transport by herself. Her society, being kind to her arranges the ambulance. It could be assumed that she lives in such a society where people support each other. However, she has no one to talk or spend good times with. Loneliness has resulted depression and hypertension. Her children live distant, hence they could not monitor the physical condition of Mrs Poole routinely.

Food

The access to healthy and nutritious food is most crucial social determinant of health (Shim, & Compton, 2020). If food is not available, the patient’s health condition and wellbeing is deteriorated. The patient is old aged; she needs special attention to food which contains vitamin, calcium, protein, minerals (Rompelberg et al., 2016). The patient is diabetic hence she needs to avoid food with higher content of Fats. As Wiimali is a small town, there is less availability of superior quality of food and medicines. The death of her husband has reduced her interest and appetite for food. Less food consumption decreases her immunity and strength and resilience.

Stress

Stress impacts the biological process, which results in the development of disease. The patient is completely alone; hence she has lost her interests. Stress has increased her blood pressure and heart beat. Hypertension is also caused by stress. Not limited to this, the increase of stress has resulted to depression. She is likely subjected to cardiac disease. Her nursing and medications are to be provided considering her blood pressure, hypertension and heart beat rate. It could be said that stress has caused negative impact on her health.

Recommendations on Health And Society

Social support

The patient is less engaged with the society. For the good mood, she needs to increase the home based services. The patient could join clubs or NGOs that work for social wellbeing. She needs to talk to neighbours and make friends to increase her social network and ensure she will avail social support when needed. (van Bakel, van Oudenhoven, & Gerritsen, 2016) Mrs Poole could go to the park and start conversation with people to widen social network. As she is more close to her daughter, she could visit her place. She could interact with health professionals, it will work. The engagement in charity acts could be beneficial for social support.

Food

The patient is required to consume the healthy food for the faster recovery of health condition. Considering the diabetes, the patient is required to consume cereals, whole grain bread, green leafy vegetables, and legumes, such as peas, lentils and beans. She needs to consume fruits and vegetables (Rompelberg et al., 2016). Low-fat dairy products will be good choice. She is required to avoid sugar, saturated and trans fats, and extra salt. Fibrous food, healthy carbohydrates should be in her diet list. The negligence of food could bring drastic results for her health (Rompelberg et al., 2016). She needs to intake food as per chart and maintain the timing for food. Liquid diets, juices and adequate water are required to be taken for faster recovery of health condition.

Stress

Mrs Poole could increase her mindfulness for better stress management. Her engagement with gardening is good for managing stress. However, she needs to try other creative activities too. Regular simple exercise and meditation are good for her health and wellbeing. She needs to be active within her community and the different cultural activities for managing stress. The face-to-face communication with her close person, neighbours or family and friends will allow her to express her concerns, avoid loneliness and become light hearted (Butler, 2017). She could join the group of caregivers and talk her emotions out to reduce the stress.

Conclusion on Health And Society

Social factors such as social integrity, discrimination, food, stress and community support regulates the health condition of people. In the considered scenario, Mrs Poole is highly impacted by social support, availability of food and stress. Some factors have supported her to survive, while some of them are creating risk for health and wellbeing of the patient. In conclusion, the effective management of social determinants could improve the health condition and clinical outcomes.

References for Health And Society

Baker, P., Friel, S., Kay, A., Baum, F., Strazdins, L., & Mackean, T. (2017). What Enables and Constrains the Inclusion of the Social Determinants of Health Inequities in Government Policy Agendas? A Narrative Review. International Journal Of Health Policy And Management, 7(2), 101-111. https://doi.org/10.15171/ijhpm.2017.130

Bakkeli, N. (2016). Income inequality and health in China: A panel data analysis. Social Science & Medicine, 157, 39-47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.03.041

Butler, A. (2017). Social Determinants of Health and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Type 2 Diabetes in Youth. Current Diabetes Reports, 17(8). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-017-0885-0

Henning-Smith, C., Evenson, A., Kozhimannil, K., & Moscovice, I. (2018). Geographic variation in transportation concerns and adaptations to travel-limiting health conditions in the United States. Journal Of Transport & Health, 8, 137-145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2017.11.146

Jones, H., Norwood, C., & Bankston, K. (2018). Leveraging Community Engagement to Develop Culturally Tailored Stress Management Interventions in Midlife Black Women. Journal Of Psychosocial Nursing And Mental Health Services, 57(3), 32-38. https://doi.org/10.3928/02793695-20180925-01

Nayebpour, M., & Koizumi, N. (2018). The Social Stigma of Selling Kidneys in Iran as a Barrier to Entry: A Social Determinant of Health. World Medical & Health Policy, 10(1), 55-64. https://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.255

Rahim, F., Suksaroj, T., & Jayasvasti, I. (2016). Social Determinant of Health of Adults Smoking Behavior: Differences between Urban and Rural Areas in Indonesia. Kesmas: National Public Health Journal, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.21109/kesmas.v11i2.1237

Rompelberg, C., Heringa, M., van Donkersgoed, G., Drijvers, J., Roos, A., & Westenbrink, S. et al. (2016). Oral intake of added titanium dioxide and its nanofraction from food products, food supplements and toothpaste by the Dutch population. Nanotoxicology, 10(10), 1404-1414. https://doi.org/10.1080/17435390.2016.1222457

Rowlands, G., Shaw, A., Jaswal, S., Smith, S., & Harpham, T. (2015). Health literacy and the social determinants of health: a qualitative model from adult learners. Health Promotion International, dav093. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/dav093

Shim, R., & Compton, M. (2020). The Social Determinants of Mental Health: Psychiatrists’ Roles in Addressing Discrimination and Food Insecurity. FOCUS, 18(1), 25-30. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.focus.20190035

Temple, J., & Russell, J. (2018). Food Insecurity among Older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. International Journal Of Environmental Research And Public Health, 15(8), 1766. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081766

van Bakel, M., van Oudenhoven, J., & Gerritsen, M. (2016). Expatriate contact with a local host: an intervention to increase social support. Human Resource Development International, 20(3), 215-235. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2016.1248720

Remember, at the center of any academic work, lies clarity and evidence. Should you need further assistance, do look up to our Nursing Assignment Help

Get It Done! Today

Upload your assignment
  • 1,212,718Orders

  • 4.9/5Rating

  • 5,063Experts

Highlights

  • 21 Step Quality Check
  • 2000+ Ph.D Experts
  • Live Expert Sessions
  • Dedicated App
  • Earn while you Learn with us
  • Confidentiality Agreement
  • Money Back Guarantee
  • Customer Feedback

Just Pay for your Assignment

  • Turnitin Report

    $10.00
  • Proofreading and Editing

    $9.00Per Page
  • Consultation with Expert

    $35.00Per Hour
  • Live Session 1-on-1

    $40.00Per 30 min.
  • Quality Check

    $25.00
  • Total

    Free
  • Let's Start

Browse across 1 Million Assignment Samples for Free

Explore MASS
Order Now

My Assignment Services- Whatsapp Tap to ChatGet instant assignment help

refresh