Report on Contemporary Issues in Health and Social Care

This report delves into contemporary issues within health and social care, emphasizing the significance of information dissemination and the impact of media. It examines the crucial role of healthcare professionals in providing accurate and reliable information to the public, exploring various methods such as newspapers, television, and social media. The report analyzes how the presentation of information affects public perception and behavior, with specific focus on the case study related to elderly care. It further investigates issues like smoking addiction, discussing the social, professional, and governmental perspectives. Furthermore, it discusses organizational and social practices, including educational programs and regulations, aimed at addressing these challenges. The report underscores the importance of validity and reliability in health information, highlighting the need for critical evaluation of sources and the continuous evolution of healthcare practices.

Running Head: HEALTH CARE 1
Contemporary Issues in Health and
Social Care

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Task 1:
Task 1.1
Information is significant factor to develop the knowledge flow throughout the society and it has
many benefits. It is very important to inform the people and make them aware about the
prevention of diseases, health issues, habits, healthy lifestyle, available health care services and
rights of individuals for promoting the health among society people. The people need to become
aware about different issues related to public, like; resourcing, financing, standards, child abuse
and other abuses in health care, so that they can get and entitle for the health care services with
higher quality in a safe atmosphere according to the policies and standards (All, Fried and
Wallace, 2017). This essential information can be given to the people by health care
professionals through word of mouth, radio, newspapers, TV, documentaries, internet, nurses,
pamphlets, journals, educators etc. All these play a significant role in availing the information
related to health and social care to the public.
Moreover, there are some organizations of government and non-government organizations,
which have the liability of spreading the required health care information to public, like; Centre
for Disease Control, World Health organization, Health Protection Agency etc. For example, the
public must understand that where to make contact and whom to make contact, if they are abused
at health care centers. This essential information will enable and protect the people by offering
protection and assistance (Carpenter, 2010). Moreover, they should have the data related to
treatment modalities of cancer. This data can be made available via newspapers, journals, media
etc. But sometimes, the target customers fail to get the appropriate information or not able to
understand the messages in clear manner for directing to misunderstandings. In this way, with
providing information to people, it is also necessary to make sure that correct information is
spread to correct people.
Task 1.2
The essential information related to health can be disseminated to the people via different media
like; newspapers, TV, radio, social media, visual messages, newspapers, posters, pamphlets,
health websites, social media sites, leaflets etc. These are the major sources, which play an
important role in establishing awareness among public. With the assistance of tabloid
newspapers, like Mirror, Sun etc. internet and TV, Health websites, important information can be

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quickly provide to the groups of people (Cherry and Jacob, 2016). For example, the data and
information related to preventive measures from Obesity are instantly disseminated via
newspapers and the websites of healthcare centers and gyms and spas. These websites provide
the information regarding the remedies to the obesity and how people can avoid obesity. In this
way, these techniques communicating information are effective, but sometimes, this information
may create panic conditions among public by overstressing the figures and increase fear in the
population. This can be done for the promotion of website but it may have some negative effects
on the population by creating panic situations (Drummond, et al, 2015). These situations are
generated by newspapers, social media sites that promotes the fear to a specific circumstance,
like; AIDS, child abuse. So, it is necessary to assist the people to deal with this situation by
providing actual information, figures and facts via above-mentioned sources, developing
messages given to the public health, providing education through programs and campaigns and
seminars by taking assistance from government and non-government agencies.
Task 1.3
Communication the information related to health is necessary but more significant is the way of
dissemination and presentation of that information to the public. It may have a huge impact on
the behavior, attitude and thoughts of people and consequently the important information must
be spread by using most suitable source and manner as per the requirements of the audiences.
The needs and preferences change with different demographic characteristics, like; gender, age,
class and education etc. For example, elderly people prefer to use radio, TV, pamphlets,
newspapers etc., whereas to target the youth, the information providers can use social media
sites, like; Twitter, Facebook. For spreading information to the parents, posters, leaflets can be
used on different places, like; schools, childcare centers and females may get the information
through TV, magazines and via help of gynecologists (Glasby, 2012). Other component is style
of presentation of information by using pictures, colors etc. For instance, the information
providers can provide the information with the bright colors, pictures and cartoon pictures, so
that it can attract children.
Thus, presenting the information is a major factor to get the attention of people on elderly care. If
the social and health does not show the information properly on elderly care, then they will not
be able to influence the behaviors, attitudes and thoughts of people. The information providers

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will give the information on above mentioned sources and make them aware about the health
issues and their preventive measures.
Task 2
Task 2.1
After looking at the case study, it can be stated that media plays different roles and one of the
major roles is informing the public about current health and social issues. There are different
sources and ways, which are used to deliver the information related to health and social care. The
major sources are such as; Television, leaflets, educational campaigns etc. Television has been a
famous source for collecting the data. So, information on the health and social care issues can be
delivered through television. Televisions can conduct the educational programs and inform the
population about the behavioral changes and adverse impact. These media ways are the most
effective and efficient as researchers have described that the number of television audiences has
been grown and there is a high possibility of delivering the information to public. Social media
sites are the most used media ways that primarily affect the behavior and attitudes of people.
These ways shape the attitudes and opinions of people and have large impact on their attitude
and behaviors (Glasby and Dickinson, 2014).
Moreover, internet is also an effective and efficient way for spreading the information to a large
population as people are actively engaged in using internet, social media sites and its
applications with the development of technology. Public needs to know about the adverse impact
of health and social issues to create awareness for prevention. Government and non-government
agencies can provide the information on social media, as it is the modern media for informing
the public about the health and social care issues (Gulliford and Morgan, 2013). By looking at
the social media sites, the people will take next step of taking action to heal the issues, when they
have proper awareness. In addition, media can adversely affect the behaviors and attitudes and
develop negative opinions about some heath issues, as stated in the given case study. It can lead
the people to become more panic in that particular situation. The given case study can impact
the opinion of people about the elderly care.

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Task 2.2
Validity and reliability are two major factors in delivering the information related to health and
social issue, i.e. elderly care. Reliability is the consistency and accuracy of providing the
information and data. Moreover, validity is the process by which trustworthy information is
found out. The reliability and validity of media information can be analyzed by looking at where
the information is coming from and who is providing the information and how the data has been
offered (Hesse, et al, 2005). There are different sources of information, for example; government
sources, from religious and political agendas etc. The people should know that the information
from government is more reliable than the information received from another group. There are
many cases, when the media can provide the information non-reliable, inaccurate and invalid.
The health care professionals, who are providing the health care information, verify the
correctness of data. The data users will have the totally assurance about the reliability and
validity. The government agencies also communicate the users of information about the validity
and reliability of given information. It has been stated that the government is creating awareness
among population to make sure that they use correct and more reliable data. Information users
can assess the validity of data by comparing the source with other sources of information. It will
give them opportunity to recognize any expired or invalid data that is provided by health care
professionals (Figueras & McKee, 2012).
Task 3
Task 3.1
There are various issues related to health and social care in the country. These different issues
shape different perspectives of health and social care issues. For this discussion, the chosen issue
is the smoking addiction. For this issue, the research is conducted by using many sources of
information and data is collected from internet. Moreover, the information is also gathered from
analytical methods by health care professionals. People, who are influenced by the health issues
due to smoking, have the addiction. So, they confront the difficulties when considering the
prevention measures. There are different perspectives towards this health and social care issue.
Social perspective on smoking addiction is that children and minor persons start smoking if they
see adults smoking (Folland, Goodman and Stano, 2016). Moreover, health care professionals

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have different perspective of fighting against different health problems due to smoking. These
people are conducting researches and studies to find the effective treatment to smoking and
related health problems, caused by smoking addiction. Government is also have different
perspective that implements health care campaigns and takes health and legal action to reduce
the extent of smoking issues.
Task 3.2
The above-mentioned perspectives from the issues of health and social care have been altering
with the passage of time. Change is very common for each and every service business in the
world. So, these perspectives regarding social and health care have been looking for a continuous
change as the attitudes, behaviors and thoughts are changing. In the perspective of health care
professionals, they utilized unstable and low cost experiments that had less possibility of
attaining estimated outcomes. The perspective of heath care professionals is changing with the
time. Health care professionals are using unstable and low costs experiments, which have the less
possibility of getting estimated outcomes (Green, 2007).
Now, these people develop the information based experiments and researches to given the
reliable information. The affected peoples, who have the addition of smoking, have different
perspective and it is changing with the passage of time. For handling this, society has only
source, i.e. health care professionals. By developing modern health care education, they manage
more knowledge and information and in this way they are able to collect more reliable and valid
information. So, the public can get more reliable and valid information regarding the health and
social care. Now, these professionals are based on more scientific methods, so they are emerged
as a major source of information over the time span (Hunter, Goodie, Oordt and Dobmeyer,
2017).
Task 3.3
The area of health and social care includes various practices. Under the issue of smoking
addiction, there are numerous organizational and social practices, which have been introduced
throughout the years. The authorities in health care department have introduced different
practices for providing education to the people. It is more related to the smoking issue as the
education is the fundamental step of executing prevention measures. Cessation of smoking
begins with the education about health (McClimens, et al, 2012). Under this, health care

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professionals conduct the smoke cessation programs at public places, so that they can educate the
people about the health issues caused by smoking. This local practice by government directs the
health care service to make efforts on smoke cessation.
There are some social practices, which are different from above practices. Population will have
to comply with the rules and regulations imposed by government while consuming the tobacco
related products. For example, the people are forced not to sell tobacco products to minors
(Mbogo & McGill, 2016). There are various other prevention strategies and programs, which are
introduced by the society and community groups. Care for Life is one of the major and most
popular programs that are run for preventing the smoking among people. It is very effective as it
is changing the behavior in the society. It is giving ideas and forcing the people to quit smoking.
These are the practices, which are effective and significant for eliminating the negative impacts
on health and social care issues.
Task 3.4
The above mentioned perspectives have been affected by different factors during the years. For
this discussion, the selected issue is smoking addiction. The social perspective of Smoking has
been affected by the business processes of tobacco companies. Looking at the economic and
financial fact, each and every company wants to increase their profits and revenues, so that these
companies are also trying to enhance the promotion of their products via society. Due to this,
health care authorities are facing issues when they are fighting for preventing the smoking. The
people, who want to quit smoking, will get affected by different social factors. They can be
advised by other smokers and forced to continue this. The health care system has warned the
smokers about the cancer risk and other health related problems, caused by smoking.
In addition, enhancement in rules and regulations are playing important role in modifying the
perspectives of government on smoking addiction (Meingast, Roosta and Sastry, 2006). It has
been altered these practices to eliminate the risks, caused by tobacco and related products.
Growth of health care services has influenced the perspective of health care professionals on
smoking and tobacco. Now, they are able to recognize the risks and challenges and health issues
of smoking. They are emphasizing on reducing the use of tobacco products.

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Task 4
Task 4.1
Local issues are accountable of many international and national issues. Attitude at national level
is affected by the domestic attitudes and behaviors towards different perspectives of health and
social care. There is an effective relation between local attitude and national attitude. There are
some factors, which affect the attitudes of people, who are living in different areas. These factors
are such as; cultural factors and social factors. For example; people, who are staying in rural
areas don’t wish to change their social and health care services. As per survey in the country,
different people have both the positive and negative responses towards health and social care
(Morris, 2006). There are many regions in the country and all the care centers are not offering
the services in effective manner and with higher quality, so perception and attitudes of people is
different and changed according to the services, which they have.
Heath and social care offerings is a sensitive area as it is associated with the human life. There
are so many issues, which are confronted by the public health. The government has introduced
some strategies to deal with the issues. For example, having excess weight is the major reasons
behind diabetes, cancer and heart disease. To eliminate the issues related to health and social
care, the society and its people should work towards finding a solution and better treatment.
While disorder start to spread the national productivity has also affected and it step by
step decreases.
Task 4.2
In some of the issues of health and social care, public overact on the things. It is very essential
that attitude and behaviors of public should be analyzed and reliability and validity of their
response would be measured in some specific cases, like; obesity. National Health Service
Organization has offered various services to the public and given attention on the related issues
of health and social care (Munn-Giddings, and Winter, 2013). There are many health issues but
obesity is regarded as a widespread problem. This is the issue, which can be seen in adolescents
and children in various parts of developed and developing nations. There are different group,
like; health care professionals and government are working creating awareness among
population and conducting health care programs for encouraging the people towards healthy food
products. For developing the public behavior and attitudes towards social and health care issues,

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media sources have important role. For educating the people about health issues, government and
health care government require implementing strategies for public and consider the behavior and
attitude of people regularly. The government is using various methods for dealing with the
situations of obesity, like; the government has launched anti-smoking program to make the
people aware about its adverse impacts (Pope, Ziebland and Mays, 2000).
Task 4.3
Contemporary thinking in health care services has developed the practices in the industry. For
the chosen issue, i.e. smoking, the thinking has caused various changes in the health care related
to health issues. Providing education regarding social and health care is very essential to
overcome the issues related to health. There may be different consequences, if the public do not
develop contemporary thinking and change old thinking about social and health issues (Pugh,
and Duffy, 2013). Media sources play an important role in reflecting the issues related to health
and social care. For instance, the quality of health care services for old people is not good and
they offer poor services to senior citizens. It will be considered a contemporary issue in health
and social care.
For changing the attitudes and behaviors of people towards these issues data provided to people
related to health and social care has assisted so much. The reports of media on health inequalities
will also impact the opinions of population. For instance the population staying in the rural areas
doesn’t have effective and proper health care facilities, so their issues will not be solved easily.
They still follow the old and traditional methods for treating their diseases (Triggle, 2010).
Lower level of education about health care is the main result of contemporary thinking.
Nowadays, public is busy in their jobs and they need to give more attention to health issues and
it increases the demands for health and social care services. The health care authorities and
government play an important role in executing standards of social and health care services.

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