Talcott Parsons Sick Role

Develop personality, making illness an eventful experience; Forward movement of personality and other ongoing human processes in the direction of creative, constructive, productive personal community living(Meleis,

health is necessary to have when dealing with a life changing disease, most people cannot keep

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).

Nursing practice has revolutionized itself throughout the years. Today we realize the causes of current illnesses as complex and multifaceted (source). In past models, for instance the medical model, the approach was straightforward and neglected the patients active involvement in their care; the patient was viewed as the passive recipient and the doctor, an active agent that “fixed” their patients. ( source). New developed models since then, such as the biopsychosocial model, show us that care focuses on many factors. The model demonstrates understanding of how suffering, disease, and illness can be associated by many factors seen at the different levels in society and the medical sciences (source). Caring for each component is

Acknowledging how the patient perceives illness and health, helps in understanding the beliefs and how they relate with preventing

When someone is suffering or living with a chronic illness it can have a huge impact on them psychologically and socially. Chronic Illness is a condition that is prolonged in duration, usually more than 3 months and is rarely cured (DoH, 2012). Having to cope with a chronic condition might lead to life changes, such as dependency on others, loss of income, which can cause feelings of loss and reduced self-esteem. They can also report feelings of social rejection, poor healthcare and workplace termination due to their presenting condition (Earnshaw, Quinn, & Park, 2011).

In the world that we live in today, many people would find it difficult to imagine living in a world where medicine and treatment are not readily available. The replacement of religious explanations to medical and scientific explanations has become a means of social control. If a person is in pain, they can easily set up an appointment with a doctor and receive some sort of medical diagnosis. However, there are certain instances where a problem has not been medicalized, or recognized as a medical problem, and their issue will be dismissed completely. The movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest delves into the idea of medicalization and how it can be used for the good, or for the bad, in terms of the “sick role.” Medicalization in the

In modern society there is a general consensus that ‘good health’ is something that everyone wants to experience and that each individual knows what this involves. Because there are so many different definitions of health and ill health it can become a very complicated concept. Walsh (2011) states that “In sociological terms ‘health’ and ‘illness’ are contested concepts. This means that the general meaning of these words should not be taken for granted.

Medicalization, a concept developed by sociologist Irving Zola in the 1970s can be understood as an expansion of professional power over wider spheres of life, especially deviant behaviors, replacing religious and legal enforcers and their roles of social control. As medical professionals continually enlarge their jurisdiction, societal resources devoted to activities assumed by physicians also increase and physicians become gatekeepers for an ever-expanding number of social functions (Crawford, 1980). Irving Zola argues that medicalization in this sense is connected to the control of medical professionals and their tendency to generalize their expertise beyond technical matters (Zola, 1977). Medicalization also refers to the extension of the range of social phenomena mediated by the concepts of health and illness, often focusing on the importance of that process for understanding the social control of deviance (Crawford, 1980). Through medicalization, deviant behavior becomes defined in terms of sickness, and normalcy becomes defined in terms of health rather than social factors. Alcoholism, opiate addiction, obesity, problems with sexual functioning, and violence have all become matters for medical diagnosis. As a result of medicalization, our society has become increasingly concerned with disease prevention and health promotion, with more social activity being thought about in their relation to health. This results in mundane behaviours such as eating, drinking, working, and other leisure activities being judged, as prevention of illness becomes more spread out.

Parsons was surely right in accentuating the significance of people's great wellbeing for society's wellbeing, yet his point of view has been reprimanded for a few reasons. In the first place, his concept of the wiped out part applies more to intense (short-term) ailment than to perpetual (long haul) disease. Albeit quite a bit of his exchange suggests a man briefly enters a wiped out part and abandons it not long after in the wake of taking after satisfactory restorative consideration, individuals with constant sicknesses can be bolted into a wiped out part for quite a while or even for all time. Second, Parsons' discourse overlooks the actuality, specified prior, that our social foundations influence the probability of turning out to be sick

The aforementioned sentiment holds particular truth for patients diagnosed with CKD. CKD patients often experience a dramatic morph in their identity, and accompanying roles. As patients become attuned to the “sick” or “ill” role, relationships with families and friends are impacted. To elaborate, patients may no longer be able to assume responsibilities of a full-time working member of society, or not be able to work

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.

In terms of the negative aspect of health, an individual is regarded as healthy when not suffering from a particular illness or disease. Though “illness” and “disease” are used interchangeably, they are different (Naidoo & Wills 2000). Disease relates to biological malfunctioning, diagnosed by doctors, while illness refers both to the personal experience of the disease and its social implications. Therefore the negative concept of health is closely associated with orthodox medicine.

“Healthy individuals cannot survive when society is sick.” On the other hand, aspects of social structure influence health and illness. Social factors not only affect life expectancy, but the possibilities the one will experience diseases and in turn, the health care that they will receive.