How Does The Medical Model Have Power?

People who experience a disability are some of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups within our society. This essay will explain what disability is and what it means to have a disability. Disability can often be seen as a form of social deviance, and so, because of this, the disability community can be othered and excluded within mainstream society. This essay will give examples of how othering occurs and how othering could be avoided, when working as a social worker with people with disabilities. Social workers have an extremely important role in the lives of people with a disability. Social workers are often a person with a disability’s voice and advocate and they need to set an example for

“The medical model is presented as viewing disability as a problem of the person, directly caused by disease, trauma, or other health condition which therefore requires sustained medical care provided in the form of individual treatment by professionals. In the medical model, management of the disability is aimed at a "cure," or the individual's adjustment and behavioral change that would lead to an "almost-cure" or effective cure.” (Langtree, 2012)

In the sociology of medicine Parson (1951) regarded medicine as functional in social terms. By tackling the person’s problems in medical terms the tendency towards deviance that was represented by ill health could be safely directed, until they could return to their normal self. (Lawrence 1994: p 64-65: BMJ 2004: Parson cited in Gabe, Bury & Elston 2006, p 127).

Throughout history society has had many views on individuals with physical and health needs, consequently impacting the way they live. In the article, “The Discovery of Hyperkinesis: Notes on the Medicalization of Deviant Behavior,” it discuses the Pharmaceutical Revolution, and how psychoactive drugs were being produced to suppress, what society felt, was deviant behavior (Conrad, 1975). This article is a good example of how society has created ‘disabilities’ for people with health needs. The article also expresses how children who act out, or have parents and schools members feeling they are exhibiting deviant behaviors, are considered to have medical conditions. Many people in today’s society don’t have the time or patience to learn about individuals with physical and health needs, thus giving the medical world more control over, ‘disability.’

In health and social care there are various acts, procedures and systems that are executed to guarantee the health and security of all people and workers. Within the reference of health and social care context will consider on the impact of enactment and national guidelines and clarify how they advance and expand the privileges of service users. These will incorporate "The Human Rights Act 1998, The Data Protection Act, The Care Standards Act 2000 and the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) in paper will likewise represent how different components, for example, communication, policies and procedures play a critical part in enhancing and boosting the privileges of service users of health and social care services.

Crazy by Pete Earley and a series of class videos highlight the tension between access to care and the right of refusal for mental illness patients. Core themes and patterns in the material show the difficulties between state governments and local resources. Each film and book explores the availability of voluntary community-based treatments; personal and professional ethics regarding the individual choice to refuse treatment; and community demands for consumer safety and others.

All people are unique, individual and different. But fundamentally all humans on the planet have a fundamental human right to make the choices they want about their life and the way they live it. In the social care setting, this means the people we support too. However, although not providing support in a person centred way takes away and individual’s rights, it also means we are not meeting the needs if the people we support and it means there are no established boundaries of what the people we support need support with and what they can do for themselves.

The purpose of this assignment is to identify the theories, values and philosophies of care pertaining to own area of practice, describe how the personalisation agenda supports individual choice within service provision, demonstrate understanding of codes of practice and methods of service monitoring, describe the process of marginalisation/stigma and societal responses to de-valued individuals and groups including user involvement and advocacy and finally describe and discuss the principles and process of protecting vulnerable people. Confidentiality and anonymity will be preserved throughout the essay by following the Skills for Health and Skills for Care (2013) Code of Conduct for Healthcare Support Workers. Philosophy means the study of

In this essay I will analyse the concepts of health, disability, illness and behaviour in relation to users of health and social care services. I will take a look into how perceptions of specific needs have changed of time. I will also include the impact of legislation, social policy society and culture on the ways that services are made available to individuals with specific needs. This will include me analysing the needs of individuals with specific needs, explain the current system for supporting individuals with specific needs. I will also evaluate the services available in a chosen locality for individuals with specific needs.

The conceptualisation of medicine as an institution of societal control was first theorised by Parsons (1951), and from this stemmed the notion of the deviant termed illness in which the “sick role” was a legitimised condition. The societal reaction and perspective was deemed a pillar of the emerging social construction of disease and conception of the formalised medical model of disease. Concerns surrounding medicalisation fundamentally stem from the fusion of social and medical concerns wherein the lines between the two are gradually blurred and the the social consequences of the proliferation of disease diagnosis that results from such ambiguities of the social medical model.

Despite the response to disability varying greatly between times, places and cultures (Barnes, 2012), there is no doubt that disability has an immeasurable impact on people’s lives. Disability affects an individual’s identity and their ability to work, socialise and be involved in society. In this essay I will discuss how approaches to disability have changed over time, specifically how approaches to disability have developed in recent centuries. I will start by discussing the medical model before moving on to its direct challenge in the social model. Finally I will discuss responses to the social model, in particular the biopsychosocial model.

The labelling theory are the actions of individuals who are labelled or seen as deviant. The theorist Becker suggests labelling theories which is to look beyond by just the norm-breaking act but instead focuses on how society view people who are deemed as deviant in this case physically disabled and reactions from society whether it is good or bad. Physical disability is when a person lost full or partial loss of their bodily functions. Labelling perspective is still relevant in our society and for society to be able to look beyond the norm breaking; society needs to develop an understanding about the difference between ‘disabilities’. Stigma labels may produce the deviant behaviour that is being condemned and therefore individuals can ‘become’ the thing that they are ‘labelled’ as. ‘Stigma are bodily traits, marks or features that are in some way unusual’. Which can occur as a consequence for social rejection.

This essay will focus on the biomedical and social model of health. It will be critically discussing both models using supporting theories and highlighting the limitations of each. This essay will also discuss and analyse how both models relate to lay perspectives on health and illness.

Prior to the course, Perspectives on disability, my understanding of disability was a fundamental, concept of disability, in which I knew it existed, and also have seen and interacted with people considered to have a disability. I never took a deep look at all the social and political factors that exist within the spectrum of disability. This course has allowed me to examine all aspects of disability, which has changed my view and approach of what a disability is and how it is viewed. "Historically, disability has been viewed fundamentally as a persoal tragedy, which has resulted in diasbled people being seen as objects of pity or in need of charity. They have been subject to descriminatory policies and practices in which the predominant images of passivity and helplesness reinforced their inferior status"(Barton 4). Uncovering the framework of disability, by studying the historical, soicial political and educational standpoint, I see the intricacies in which gives me a greater understanding and awareness of the topic.

The treatment of physical and mental problems has undergone a rapid change in the past few decades. An increasing number of bodily and behavioural symptoms now have a recognised medical diagnosis and corresponding treatment. Sociologists have attributed these changes to the process of medicalization, wherein “non-medical problems come to be defined and treated as if they were medical issues” (McLennan, McManus & Spoonley 2009: 271). Medicalization is an ongoing, gradual process which occurs through the social construction of new diseases by groups such as health professionals (Conrad 2007: 4). It can be argued that medicalization is an active and passive process by which diseases are constructed in an attempt to find treatments for patients; and that diseases can be ‘socially’ constructed as well as ‘corporately’ constructed by companies to create a profitable market of consumers. At the micro level of society, medicalization in the Western world has been influenced by liberal notions of individualization which has extended to some parts of the health sector. At the macro level, medicalization has been buoyed by the process of the professionalization, expansion of state monopoly over the health profession and religious and political social movements. Although some academics argue that the medicalization of society is less significant than the process of “de-medicalization”, there is clear evidence that the process of medicalization is intensifying and outstripping the rate