Importance of Social Class System in Healthcare Name of the University Author Note
Added on 2020-04-07
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Nutrition and WellnessPublic and Global HealthHealthcare and Research
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Running head: IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL CLASS SYSTEM IN HEALTHCAREImportance of social class system in healthcareName of the studentName of the UniversityAuthor note
1IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL CLASS SYSTEM IN HEALTHCARESocial status and healthcare has been related as early as the history has been recorded.The people who had the proper hold of power used it to bring themselves proper care. Until now,the association between healthcare and social class has remained strong despite the fact that,there is an all over growth in the healthcare sector. The main reasons of the health inequality arethe unequal distribution of resources, power and wealth amongst the people. A recent study showed a harsh fact, which is the 20% of Australia’s poorest populationlives average six years less than the richest 20% (Andrew, 2013). Health can be described as acomplete process which not only the absence of diseases in the body of a person, but alsoincludes a person’s social, physical and mental well being. The term social status can be definedas a group of people who holds similar roles in the economic processes. The aim of writing this essay is to discuss and examine the relationship between thesocial statuses of people with healthcare inequalities. The purpose of the essay is to establish arelationship between the social factors and the healthcare system. The essay will also discusshow power and social strata/ hierarchy can influence the healthcare system. One can simply describe sociology as the study of understanding the basic approaches ofhuman society. It brings about a scientific approach towards several facts about society such asthe social change and development, the relationship between an individual and the society andthe concept of society, which shapes their beliefs and behavior in the long term (Ogden, 2012). Two major theories of perspective can be used to discuss the social inequalities in healthand healthcare system. These theories of perspective are namely, structural functionalism andMarxism. The structural functionalism theory explains poverty according to the context ofunequal reward distribution amongst the social groups according to social stratification (Bourke
2IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL CLASS SYSTEM IN HEALTHCAREet al., 2012). The unequal reward distribution is because, it is assumed that some social groupshave less skills and knowledge than the other groups and their contribution to the society isrelatively lesser. The functionalist approach says that the society maintains its stability. Thesociologist who supports this process has outlined a behavior pattern for the people who areconsidered as sick. They call it the sick role. They think not too many people must fall into thecriteria of falling sick. If they do, it will affect the social responsibility equilibrium. Usually thesick people calls out for their social responsibility as they stay at home and seek care. The peoplewho are not sick have to get out of home and continue the daily schedule (Cockerham, 2014). Ifa person refuses to consult a doctor to follow up the professional advice, it can be said that theperson is not sick. (Craig, Bejan, & Muskat, 2013)According to the functionalist approach,falling sick is not fully a biological process. People fell sick to maintain the continuity in thesociety and maintains others role in the society. The physician’s works as the gatekeeper in thisconcept as the doctor’s role is to check that if the person is really sick. If the person is really sick,the physician has to play a role to make them get better. It is up to the decision of the person thatto follow the all the instructions given by the doctor (Thomas, 2012). The Marxist theory explains the social class system according to the capitalist economicproduction system. The Marxist approach describes food, clothing and shelter as the basicapproach for living. The other production of commodities is regarded as capitalism. According toMarx, production of anything also involves social relations, which cause division of labor thatreflects the different social classes living in the society (Badland et al., 2014). This capitalisteconomic division influences the health outcomes of common people at two different levels.Firstly, health is very much affected in the production level either directly or indirectly such asthrough stress and industrial injuries. The process of commodity production gives rise to many
3IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL CLASS SYSTEM IN HEALTHCAREharmful pollutants, which pollutes the environment, and the long term consumption of thesecommodities comes with long term health consequence. Secondly, health is directly influencedby the distribution of income and wealth that directly influences people’s standard of living. Itdetermines their access to healthcare, educational opportunities, diet and their recreation. Social determinants theory states that the social determinants like the income, public policies andother health related services are not equally distributed among the varying social statuses. Thesocial inequalities also harm the health of the people who come from the backward community.This theory categorizes different levels of factors that are responsible for the deterioration of thehealth. The external factors of these levels include the socio-economic and the environmentalcondition in which the people reside and the internal factors like the genetic factors and thephysical condition. The theory provides the necessity of the social upgradation to reduce thehealthcare inequalities and the achievement of these purposes by adopting various informationand communication technologies between these people and the healthcare providers. The perspective of the specific determinants is that the effects and cause of the health careinequalities are mainly indirect and expose an individual to risk factors that are unknown andcause serious harm to the individual. The incomplete awareness of the effects that are harmful tothe health are significantly typical to the lower level of the social status. There is another perspective, which is called the conflict perspective is another approachwhich states that, the best way to understand the social behavior is to understand the tensionbetween the groups over the power. The social tension happens over the allocation of resourceslike money, house, service and political resources. The social tension leads the higher societywealthy people to get better access to have better healthcare treatment than the less fortunate
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