Step 1 Thave been asked to compare and contrast my own definitions of health and illness compared to the definitions I would provide for a group of low socio-economic people living with a disability. I was told to use the Gibbs Reflective Cycle (1998), for this exercise. I decided to focus on Indigenous Australians living with a disability for an example of a low socio-economic class. Step 2 My first thought on this reflection task was that I the definition of health and illness that I would provide for myself compared to what I would provide for a disabled indigenous person would be the same.
Defining health seemed very simple to me. I see it as being free from disease and being emotionally well. I strongly believe in human dignity and treating all people equally, so for me, providing different definitions of health and illness for different groups of people seemed unethical. What was good about this this reflection task was that reinforced in me the idea of treating all people, no matter what background or social status, with dignity and respect. It was also good in that it eventually began to get me thinking about how | came to have the definition of health and illness that I do.
What was not so good was that, initially, I was failing to see the full picture. I was thinking about the situation very theoretically and looking at it from only my perspective, not looking at it from the point of view of an indigenous person. What I was failing to see was that my definitions of health and illness have largely been shaped largely by my upbringing, family life, culture and social structure. Reflecting on this matter has shown me that I really need to be more aware of what factors have played a role n my definitions of health and illness.
I also need to think about whether or not my own definition of health an illness is actually suitable for an indigenous person living with a disability. Maybe my own is definition which may be centred around my western culture is not entirely suited to all cultures. Next time I would I would like to try think about how and why Thave certain definitions for health and illness so I can then analyse whether or not those definitions are suitable for other groups of people.
By using the sociological imagination template from Germov (2014), in step four, I was really helped to come to a better understanding of how sociological issues can impact our definitions of health and illness. Step 3 One of the readings from e Module three on ethnicity, health and multiculturalism by Julian (2014), helped me to expand on my original reflections. It made me realise that defining health and illness is much more complicated than I had first thought. The chapter talks about How the definition of health and illness will vary from culture to culture and even over time.
One example is how the biomedical definition of health and illness is very prominent in Australian society but not necessarily in other cultures. I realised that my definitions of health and illness are based largely on this model. Like the biomedical definition, my definition is centred around the absence or presence of disease and what the “medical experts” of our day are promoting (Weiss & Lonnquist, 2015). It also highlighted to me how defining health and illness is often centred around what is considered “normal” to us.
This is something that can change overtime. The reading talks about how there are diseases that were once considered normal in Australia but are now seen as serious illnesses. I began to think that maybe the way we define health is a lot more subjective than I had first thought. After reading this chapter I began to reflect again about my definitions of health and illness and I started to see that, subconsciously, I actually have much more complicated definitions than I had realised.
In the first step I stated a very imple definition of health but I realised that even that definition could mean different things to different people. Being emotionally well could mean one thing to me and another thing to someone else. Step 4 Using the sociological imagination template that Germov (2014) recommends, I was able to look at the historical, cultural and structural factors that have shaped my definitions of health and illness, as well as look at what could be improved in my definitions and practices. I think historical factors have played a bigger role in my definition of health than I first realised.
I mentioned earlier that | would provide the same definition of health for myself as for an indigenous person. This indicates that I have the attitude that my western definition of health is the ultimate definition and should, therefore, be provided for everyone. It is probably because historically in Australia, the western biomedical approach to health and illness has had pre-eminence above any traditional approaches (Thompson, 2014). This model primarily focuses on the biological aspects of health and illness (Ravindran, & Myers, 2012).
The traditional Aboriginal approach to health, however, incorporates cultural, social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing into the definition of health (Thompson, 2014). Besides emotional wellbeing, I have never really considered these issues when defining health. Cultural factors also strongly influence the way we define and perceive health (Wade & Halligan, 2004). One example in my case is how diet is a part of my definition of health. My cultural background has played a role in what I think is actually a healthy diet.
My background is entirely British and I grew up on a traditional British diet of meat and two veg (Childs, & Storry, 2013). Although I am aware that the traditional British diet may not be the healthiest one, it has been such a big part of my life that when I think of a good healthy meal it is nearly always meat and two veg that comes to mind. It is easy to think that a healthy western diet is based on science and therefore healthier than most other traditional diets. Although other cultures have not had as much access to scientific information as the western world, they have other ways of developing healthy diets.
For example, a traditional Aboriginal diet is vastly different from mine, but not necessarily less healthy. Through trial and error, Aboriginal people discovered foods that made them stronger and healthier and passed that down through the generations. Their food was also normally very fresh and unprocessed (Albala, 2011). It is clear from this that it would not be a good idea for me to force my ideas of a healthy diet on an Aboriginal person as they may want a different diet that is just as healthy. There are also structural factors that have played a role in my views of health.
My family life, school life and church life have all influenced the way I would define and perceive health and illness. Partly due to my family life, the way I define health is somewhat different to the way I perceive it. For example, I would define health as being free from illness and pain, however, I do consider myself healthy even though I am quite prone to illness and I live with chronic pain. This is probably due to the influence of growing up in a robust family where none of us would complain about illness or pain. In my family life and school life, I grew up doing a lot of sports such as hiking, tennis and volleyball.
I feel like if I could not do these things I would not consider myself healthy. The ability to be active and independent is a huge part of being healthy for me. From the point of view of a disabled Aboriginal person though, they actually might not have the ability to be active in this way and might have a different perception and expectation of what health is. The primary critical factor I identified was that I need to develop an understanding of how and why my definition of health and illness may not be suitable for an Aboriginal person living with a disability.
I had originally thought that providing a different definition of health for someone from a different socioeconomic class would not be ethical. However, with more research and reflection on the issue I realised that there are many factors in my personal life that have influenced my perception and definition of health. In most cases, an aboriginal person living with a disability would have had quite different historical cultural and structural factors in their life that have influenced their perception and definition of health.
The more I reflected on and researched this topic, the more | began to see that the biomedical and the traditional Aboriginal approach to health both have benefits. I also realised that the mistake I originally made is common in Australia and could be negatively impacting the health of many indigenous people (Wikander, 2002). I began to think that I and others in the healthcare sector, need to be more proactive in promoting Aboriginal cultural awareness and trying to incorporate their perceptions of health and illness into healthcare delivery.
Wikander (2002), believes that Aboriginal health will not improve until their beliefs on health are merged with western beliefs in healthcare delivery. I believe that I can benefit from incorporating some of the Aboriginal perceptions of health into my life and likewise, Aboriginal people could benefit from aspects of the western biomedical approach to health. Step Five The graduate attribute I think I developed most by completing this question is graduate attribute 1. This attribute is about demonstrating respect for the dignity of each individual person and for human diversity.
Showing respect for the dignity of each person is something I always try to follow and believe is very important. However, having completed this question, I can see that respecting human diversity is something I have overlooked. I said at the beginning of this assignment that I would provide the same definition of health and illness for a group of low socioeconomic people as I would for myself. I mentioned that this was largely because I strongly believe in respecting human dignity and treating all people equally.
I think my heart was right in the right place but I was failing to understand how important it is to also respect human diversity. As I continued to reflect on the topic I began to see that a low socioeconomic group of people might have a different perception and definition of health and that my own definition, therefore, might not be suited to them. From now on I want to treat all people fairly and respect their dignity while recognising that they might not want to be treated exactly the same way as I want to be treated. This will help me to demonstrate true respect for human diversity.