Citizenship Community and Welfare in Healthcare: Role of Citizen Community in Welfare and Healthcare Policies in the United Kingdom

This essay discusses the role of citizen community in the welfare and healthcare policies in the United Kingdom. It also highlights the importance of rights and regulations of the citizens towards healthcare and welfare. The essay also covers the current situation of healthcare and welfare policies in the United Kingdom.

Citizenship Community
and Welfare
HEALTHCARE

Table of Contents
Citizenship Community and Welfare HEALTHCARE ..................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

Citizenship Community and Welfare HEALTHCARE
Citizen community refers to the possession by members of a community to a range of
cultural and Social right and responsibility (Ciasullo and et.al., 2021). Welfare of citizens have
an effective role in the field of healthcare. Rights and responsibility of citizens towards welfare
and healthcare provides an effective living standard that lead to the improvement of country
healthcare index. The concept of citizenship healthcare indicates the skills and understanding of
health by citizens and patients in the country. and It is concerned with skill of communication
with the clinic or hospital and healthcare planning, policies ad programs. This essay will aim the
role of citizen community in the welfare and healthcare and the importance of rights and
regulations of the citizens of the country. It will also discuss the current situation of healthcare
and welfare policies in the United Kingdom. The scale of the emergency response has been
extraordinary.
Citizenship community in the field of healthcare refers to the involvement of the active
citizens that are increasing the awarenesses about health issues, providing knowledge and
contributing towards the healthcare of the people (Johnson and et.al., 2021). The core idea of this
is to participation of citizens as giving their priority to their health and health care infrastructure.
Health care has become more prior to the people after the impact of COVID-19. As the virus
swept the world, countries rushed to take over the situation that were done by building new
hospitals, people were required to restrict their activities by the government and various
decisions were made by countries to aware the citizens and to keep them safe and healthy so that
they do not affect the impact of Covid-19 (Covid-19 recovery and resilience, 2021). It leads to
the increase of awareness in the citizen in relation to consume better quality of products and it
also led to the improvement in the awareness of the welfare and healthcare in the Country.
Activities taken globally in order to engage the citizens and patients in understanding and
making decisions related to the healthcare and welfare are implemented across the various
problems related to public health are and provision to the health care (Charlesworth and et.al.,
2021). This involvement of the citizens has two primarily drivers. First is to promote the
sustainable health and healthcare, publicly accessible evidence base. Second driver is the
consideration that has engagement of citizens is valuable, and promoting their responsibility
towards the interest of citizens. The engagement of citizens plays an important role as they are

the final consumers of the policies and healthcare products. They are engaged in various aspects
of their well being that include health care provision and health of people.
In order to discuss the engagement in public health, various initiatives are being taken on
different topics such as involvement of the public in development of biotechnology. (Williams
and Fullagar, 2019). Citizen were very much involved during the pandemic that was crucial time
for everyone and the support of citizen helped a lot to fight the deadly virus. It has become very
important for the citizen community raise voice for the better healthcare policies and
improvement in the health of citizens.
In order to discuss the engagement of citizens in health care provisions, implementation
are being done on different topics that include debates on the setting of priorities of the health
services that lead to the better utilization of the limited resources in the field of health care.
Difficult decisions were made to prioritize the public health issue. This process must include an
account of ethical convictions that explain, consistently and in publicly assessable form, the
rationale for the decisions.
Welfare of the people refers to the social needs of the citizens. Service welfare or
community welfare provisions refers to any the program that lead to the activities that provide
minimum requirement of the people. The role of citizen community also plays an important role
in the welfare of the people in the country (Wood and Logsdon, 2017). The purpose of citizens
to involve in the decision makings is to provide the poor and needed people facilities that helps
them to meet their basic needs such as right to education, removing injustice to the
disadvantaged people. Citizens are also involved in the social welfare with different methods
such as they participate in the social welfare groups and organizations. It creates different
advantages to the society and lead to the better development in the country. It also increases the
knowledge, skills and provide information to the people related to the health and education.
Social welfare is an important tool for the better of the society and solidarity. Many people are
actively involved in the activities to improve the social life of the people in the country. This
participation of the citizens create an huge impact on the development of the social life of the
citizens in the country.
Current healthcare system of United Kingdom has an effective impact on the living of the
citizens. The UK has government sponsored universal healthcare system that is known as
National Health Service (NHS). This system is majorly funded by people of the country in the

country. Citizens are entitled to healthcare under this system, but also have other options such as
to buy private health insurance. The plan of National Healthcare System is always ready for
debates on providing more facilities to the people and patients in the hospitals that incudes
services like increasing the number if hospitals and beds for the good of the patients and society.
According to the study of seven industrialized countries, healthcare system of United
Kingdom is known as the most efficient system in the world (Carroll and Frakt, 2017). The
major 5 concepts of performance include quality of service, efficiency in the hospital operations ,
and healthy life of the people. Current system of the United Kingdom also has disadvantages or
side effects to the participation of the government in the field of healthcare. It lead to the major
reduction in the healthcare weakness functions in the system of healthcare. The tight control of
the government on the medical expenses lead to the lack of medical resources in the countries.
The budget of the government in always low as the issues are rising day by day in the countries.
Availability of medical facility free of cost to the citizen lead to the extensive and excessive use
of these medical services. It increased the long lines in the medical service institutions and
hospitals.
Welfare benefits in the United Kingdom is majorly included of .different groups majorly
are counted as 5 that are cash advantages, health benefits, housing, education and personal social
services The responsibility of the education system in the United Kingdom lies with the central
government, local governmental and other professional interests (Kumar and Nayar 2021). The
central government offer the legislative framework for schools, local government generally focus
on the organization of schools in the area and professional interest end to influence the
curriculum and testing procedures. But the ground reality of these social welfare is different
people do not get proper education as poor people cannot afford it. Facility are provided by the
government t help the disadvantaged people but these people are unable to take advantage as
they are discriminated by the local officials who are supposed to provide these benefits to the
citizens.
It is necessary for the citizens to involve in the social welfare and healthcare of the people
as these advantages are not implementing on the grounded level of the country. People are still in
need of their healthcare and other services that should be provided by the government for the
development of the country (Usher, Durkin and Bhullar, 2020). Many aspects in the field of
healthcare are forgotten by the government of United Kingdom that include disable people were

forgotten during the pandemic as their health were ignored by the hospital and government.
Most of the disabled people claimed that their disability had worsened and more than 2400 said
routine, often vital and medical appointments had been cancelled during the pandemic (Clegg,
2021). Therefore, citizens community took stand for the disabled people and helped the country
in effective fighting with the Covid-19. Health care services were needed to improve there were
shortage of hospitals and beds in the country as many people were affected by the impact of
Covid-19. Citizens of the country have responsibility to take part in the development of the
society.
Mental health had become a major issue during the pandemic as people were getting
depressed due to the lack of social contact and anxiety were also the major issue due to the
impact of Covid in the country. Physical health gained much focus as compared to the mental
health as it was a necessary requirement during the pandemic. The priority was given to the
physical health by the health services in United Kingdom. It leads to the burden on mental health
of the people and social workers that were helping the people that were infected by the Covid-19
virus. (Heponiemi and et.al., 2020). Health and social care staff also faced mental stress due to
their work and spotlight has been placed on their well being in the wake of the crises. 500 of
1000 healthcare staff reported that their mental health had deteriorated since the start of Covid-
19 pandemic. Younger worker were majorly faced mental health issues during the pandemic
(Kwong and Marshall, 2020). It also affected the citizens of country. Steps were taken by the
people to decrease the mental health and issues related to the social and mental health were
discussed with the help of social media. People increased engagement on such platform to reduce
the stress and depression. Society were encouraged to help each other during that crucial time.
Citizen communities in the United kingdom also took major steps related to the social welfare
such as they help the migrants and poor by serving food during the pandemic.
Rights of citizens also plays an important role in citizen community welfare and
healthcare. Legal obligations of the people considers the availability of safe and portable water,
sanitation, food, housing, education and health related information. A citizen of United kingdom
has right to get information about the health care and process of operation from the healthcare
staff (Moreno and et.al., 2020). Such rights of the people lead t the insurance of safety and
provide a good health infrastructure in United Kingdom. The health infrastructure of the country
is very well maintained as National Health Service has been the most effective health system in

the world. It is done with the help of rights and policies related to the better healthcare system
United Kingdom such as Free medical services to the people of the country it helps the citizens
to treat themselves at affordable cost. It is necessary to treat patient at affordable cost because
such facility improve the economy of the country as healthy people contribute more to the gross
domestic product of United Kingdom.
Human health is the most concerned topic of all time as it the crucial part of the human
being life. Healthy life is important to every person. It includes physical as well as mental health.
Both are necessary in order to live effectively and happily. The government of United Kingdom
is contributing a lot for the health care but there are other things that also needs to be focused by
the government. It is also a responsibility of citizens to aware the people about health priority
and make them to spread the need of change in the society. Although people are bringing change
with the help of digital tools and campaign are operated by the NGO in the country to make the
citizen healthy.
The need healthcare and rising other social issues are necessary for every country as
improves the knowledge of people in the country and contribute to the sustainable development.
People are more active in relation to the welfare and health care of the society. They contribute
to the improvement of the people who are in need and make people aware about the person who
needs financial or healthcare help with the help of social media (Bradby, Humphris and Padilla,
2020). Citizens also contribute d donate digitally to help others. It creates a positive impact on
other, and they also create awareness about the healthcare. The need of mental health awareness
has become very important these days. The major reason behind that is that the cases regarding
mental health are increasing day by day. Issues of mental health in teens are increased a lot more.
Efforts are also taken to reduce the impact of mental health such as government and other
institutes provides various implications that can be taken when in need and the institutes were
open to reduce the mental health issues in the country. Involvement of citizens reduce the
burden of the government. Different steps were taken by the people of the country to reduce the
impact of mental health that had become the major issues during the covid and it also leads to the
suicidal thoughts the increase in the depression in the people lead to the involvement of the
activists in the awareness of mental health and spered the knowledge related to the mental health
various people were helped with the initiatives taken by the people with the help of social media.
Many doctors also took online appointment in order to reduce the impact of metal issues in the

country. It created a lot of help to the government and saved a lot of lives in the country. The
role played by the citizen communities during the harsh time of Covid was very helpful to the
people of United Kingdom that were being suffered with the mental health issues.
Social welfare is also a major part that has involvement of citizen community it helps the
country and the people that are needy in various ways as a social welfare system provides
financial aid to individuals or families in need in a society (Social Welfare System, 2021). It is
often funded by the citizens of the country and government, social welfare programs are
designed to cover cost of food, housing, healthcare, childcare for the people that are unable to
take benefits of basics requirements. Most social welfare system have a list of eligibility
requirements for individuals who wishing to receive the financial support, it helps the system to
remove the people who are taking unnecessary benefits from the services. Citizen and
communities in UK are helping the government in various ways to meet the basic requirement of
the people that include welfare and healthcare. Different initiatives are taken in order to make the
development of the people that contribute to the development of the country.
From the discussion in the essay, it can be concluded hat the role of citizen communities
plays an important role the field of welfare and healthcare of the country. It referred to the active
people that were involved in the awareness about health issue and welfare of the society. Public
health involved initiatives that have been taken to range of topics such as engagement of the
citizens in the development of the biotechnology in the country and health care provision,
engagement initiatives were taken by people to a wide range of topics that include debates on
how health services set priorities given limited resources. National health services took major
steps to develop healthcare of the citizens that include free medical services in government
hospitals. Covid -19 created a great impact on the mental health as well as physical health of the
people in United Kingdom. Citizens of the country took various steps to help others and people
that were in need .

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Ciasullo, M.V., and et.al., 2021. An open innovation approach to co-produce scientific
knowledge: an examination of citizen science in the healthcare ecosystem. European
Journal of Innovation Management.
Johnson, S., and et.al., 2021. Impact on mental health care and on mental health service users of
the COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed methods survey of UK mental health care
staff. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 56(1), pp.25-37.
Charlesworth, A., and et.al., 2021. What is the right level of spending needed for health and care
in the UK?. The Lancet.
Williams, O. and Fullagar, S., 2019. Lifestyle drift and the phenomenon of ‘citizen shift’in
contemporary UK health policy. Sociology of health & illness, 41(1), pp.20-35.
Wood, D.J. and Logsdon, J.M., 2017. Theorising business citizenship. In Perspectives on
corporate citizenship (pp. 83-103). Routledge.
Kumar, A. and Nayar, K.R., 2021. COVID 19 and its mental health consequences.
Usher, K., Durkin, J. and Bhullar, N., 2020. The COVID‐19 pandemic and mental health
impacts. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 29(3), p.315.
Moreno, C., and et.al., 2020. How mental health care should change as a consequence of the
COVID-19 pandemic. The Lancet Psychiatry.
Bradby, H., Humphris, R. and Padilla, B., 2020. Universalism, diversity and norms: gratitude,
healthcare and welfare chauvinism. Critical Public Health, 30(2), pp.166-178.
Heponiemi, T., and et.al., 2020. Digital divide in perceived benefits of online health care and
social welfare services: national cross-sectional survey study. Journal of medical
Internet research, 22(7), p.e17616.
Online references
Covid-19 recovery and resilience, 2021. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/covid-19-recovery-resilience-health-and-
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Clegg, R., 2021. Disabled people forgotten during Covid, BBC research reveals. [Online].
Available through <https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-57652173>
Kwong, E., and Marshall, L., 2020. Emerging Evidence of COVID-19's unequal mental health
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<https://www.health.org.uk/news-and-comment/blogs/emerging-evidence-of-covid-19s-
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Social Welfare System, 2021. [Online]. Available through
<https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/social-welfare-
system/>
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