Introduction to Health and Social Care

Introduction to Health and Social Care
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................3
TASK....................................................................................................................................................3
1. Social determinants of health and its relation to health inequalities............................................3
2. Current health and social care policies and their application on London Borough of Lambeth 5
3. Contemporary public health provision in the London Borough of Lambeth which aims to
address inequalities in health...........................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................9
References..........................................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
Health and social care is a term that defined those services which are getting by the services
users from the health and social care providers (Alhatmi, 2011). In this context, social determinants
of health are those conditions in which people are born, grew, live and work. These types of states
have given the shape by different factors such as a distribution on money, resource and power at
regional and national level. Health equity and social determinants both have dependent on each
other (Bernard, 2013). The following report is based on introduction to health and social care and to
understand this, HIV in London Borough of Lambeth is taking into the consideration. The
objectives that will cover under the present study will current health and social care policies and
their application, contemporary public health provision and social determinants of health and their
relationship to health inequalities.
TASK
1. Social determinants of health and its relation to health inequalities
Demographic information of Lambeth
Lambeth is situated in South London, England which is part of Inner London. About to one
third of a million people have lived in this area which has the largest geographical area as compare
to the other area of London (Anderson and et.al., 2016). Lambeth is a small area on the south bank
of the Thames. As per the secondary research, it has been found that there have various ethnic
groups lived in Lambeth where major groups are White, Asian British and Black British. The
percentage of total White ethnic group is about to 57.09% where Asian British are 6.91% of total
population (Drummond and et.al., 2015). On the other hand, 25.61% people have Black British
from the entire population. Beside this, there are diversified community living in London Borough
of Lambeth where majority religion groups are Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh
etc. From the statistics of Office for National Statistics (ONS), it has been found that Lambeth is
one of the largest populations in inner London (Grajales III and et.al, 2014). The profile of the
people in that place is relatively young working age. The evidence shows that midden age of the
people is 31. On the other hand, 20% population of Lambeth is under the age of 20 from the entire
population (Clark, 2011).
From the research, it has found that the many of the people have faced various diseases in
which one of the is HIV. All age of people have passed from this and their care needs regarding this
is different. For example, the pregnant lady who is suffering from HIV has needed more attention
because it may be possible that this disease can be raised in the unborn child. So, it can be said that
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the HIV patients have required some special care and treatment (Brand, 2012).
Social determinants of health (SDH)
SDH is indicating those conditions in which people are born, grow, live and work. Along
with this there are several forces and systems that shape the daily life of a person and these are
development agendas, economic procedures and policies, social and political systems etc. Generally
it has known as SDH are most responsible for health inequalities (Earls and Myers, 2010). Some
SDH are neighbourhood and built environment, health and health care, social and community
context, education and economic stability. Economic stability SDH includes poverty, employment,
food security, housing stability etc. On the other hand, in education, the aspects cover are language
and literacy, high school graduation and early childhood education (Emerson and et.al., 2012).
Similarly, in social and community context, the areas includes are Social Cohesion, discrimination.
incarceration and civic participation. Beside this, in health and health care SDH, the criteria that
covers are access to health and primary care.
For London Borough of Lambeth, the selected social determinant of health is health and
health care (Glasby, 2012). The reason behind the selection of this SDH for the selected
geographical area is it has allowed the people to access the health care services equally. Along with
this, it has delivered the facilities to the users about the access primary health care services at any
time without any kind of barriers. It has also provided the basic health care services information to
the community so that they can aware about the diseases and know to get the treatment of this
(Heginbotham, 2012).
Relationship between health inequalities and social determinant of health i.e. health and
health care
It is very well known that social determinant of health influence health of people in both
positive and negative aspects. There have some forces which has shaped the life of the people either
in right or wrong direction (Jackson and et.al., 2011). On the other hand, health inequalities means
those avoidable inequalities in health between group of people in a country and between two or
more nations. The reason behind arising of various health inequalities is due to the inequalities
between the societies. Economic conditions and social as well as their impacts on the people have
explored the risk of illness and the action taken to prevent group of person to protect them from the
diseases.
There is a strong relationship between health inequalities and social determinants of health
(Keeling and et.al., 2013). In the case of London Borough of Lambeth, it has been seen that there is
a health inequalities in the society because of people have not aware about the spreading of HIV.
More than the half generation has young age and they are working in the companies. So, they have
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