Raising Awareness for Health Equality
The District health unit and Sudbury SDHU has established numerous plans/ initiative to enlighten and raise alertness towards health equality. The video Let’s Start a Conversation about Health… and Not Talk about Health Care at All. This video diverts attention from what society perceives health care problems are- doctor scarcity, hospital wait times, nurse scarcity, health care expenses/ cost- and prominences a new point of view. Awareness is drawn towards public health, fostering healthy demeanors, sustaining healthy environment and advocating for approaches to make health choice a simple one (Health Equality, n.d). In general the aim is to emphasize on equity and health prevention and this is achieved using analysis from the collective determinants of health indicated in the video and also from text book
Countless findings check listed in the video aligns with textbook. There are numerous health issues that our community is accosted with like: diabetes, cancer, asthma, heart disease, obesity and many more, ”countless of us are in poor health” (Health Equality, n.d). We are educated that if we maintain healthy diet, a dynamic lifestyle, stop smoking as well as decrease excess drinking-we can stop ourselves from getting sick” ( Health Equality, n.d ). There are many other elements that cause ill health that we mostly do not consider. There is a strong connection between an individual’s socioeconomic status and their health. Recent statistics reveal the higher your income levels the less you will get ill and the video does a substantial job in bringing that view forward. When you receive less income you are usually more stressed. Stressed about accommodation payment, family needs, transport, food and the checklist can go on. Stress is one of the principal cause of sickness.
On an individual level there are numerous forces that influence one’s health- activity, family, food, health care access, coping etc. health is the outcome of the lifestyle choice we make, the residence we can afford and the social aggravation we face. These elements are internally connected to the education we acquire, our gross pay, and employment we hold and our perception of community. And these elements are also impacted by external elements such as culture, public strategies, and economy (Health Equality, n.d). This is connected to what we have been taught in class. The video does a great job in communicating these health problems but they fail to be comprehensive with each factor stated.
The video examines health income through a materialist’s view. This is the viewpoint that stress that social determinants of health’s end results and how they are involved with social living conditions. The video does not indicate anything about the social comparison theories that are in the textbook. This is where persons contrast their living condition to others and if they sense they are wanting in any way they encounter levels of stress, envy that impact their health ( Raphael .D, n.d ) . The video indicates that the preferable your socioeconomic status the healthier you are and this is accurate. However, there are also conditions where individual have everything at their disposal to be healthy and earn a good income yet have poor health. This can be induced by poor lifestyles choices, genetics but can be linked with the social collation theories.
In the situation of Nadia from the video she was deeply suffering from asthma and got taken to the E.R again, she got taken to the E.R as a result of her smoking again, she began smoking again because she was stressed out about her accommodation molding, and she can’t manage to fix it because the company she is working for made some cutbacks and she was affected. Nadia is not educated enough to do anything else. This is a chain response. The ending in the video concerning what Nadia would require for her health were that she requires low-cost housing and food, the power to make healthy choices and efficient coping skills. The video additionally explains how she would require healthy lifestyle modifications, education to get a better employment, enough money for clothing and food, good work benefits and a secure community with good family and friends. Also, what the video did not mention that is in the textbook regarding Nadia’s case is that she could encounter race, gender and ethnicity inequalities. Perhaps even with the good education she got, she may not be able to have immense income because of income inequalities as a result of ethnicity and race. Which will be a worse situation because she will have to repay her educational loan and take her maintenance expenses from that income (Raphael.D, n.d). Or maybe examine this through another point of view and view the negative style in workplaces at the moment. The individuals making the higher incomes tend to overwork themselves, prompting stress as well and even if Nadia acquires a good education and better paying job she too might get overburdened and overstrained by the task responsibility (Raphael.D, n.d).
The average person watching the video would get it because the video does an excellent job in looking at the bigger idea of public policy issue. However, they would ignore that a video under the health equality resources do not mention anything regarding race, income and ethnic inequality neither does it cover individuals with high incomes overworking themselves causing elevated stress level as well. The information the video presents is concise and to the aim thus causing audience to feel like no information is lacking from the truth presented.