Contemporary Issues in Health and Social Care - Module Essay

This essay critically analyzes contemporary issues in health and social care, examining the influence of global, cultural, economic, and political contexts. It explores how globalization, including migration and disease spread, impacts healthcare. The essay delves into cultural factors like beliefs and practices that affect patient care and health outcomes. Economic instability, including unemployment, housing insecurity, and poverty, is shown to create health disparities. Political determinants, such as policy decisions and funding priorities, also significantly shape health and social care. The essay emphasizes the need for understanding these factors to address health inequities and improve healthcare delivery. The essay also includes figures illustrating hospital admission rates and NHS expenditure projections.

Running head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Health and social care both play an important role in the healthcare sector. Health is a
state that comprises free from all diseases and the ability to live in a given environment
(Pleasant et al. 2016). Poor social care affects the health of an individual and ultimately
causes stress in the long term. Stress leads to continual insecurity, anxiety or poor home life
and can lead to premature death. A contemporary issue means the current trend or issues
around the surroundings. Such issues can be care of older adults, standards of hospitals,
financial funding priority, or any government influence (Barry and Yuill 2011). This essay
aims to have a clear understanding of contemporary issues influencing health and social life.
It will cover the influences of global, cultural, economic and political factors. All these
factors lead to negative aspects in health and social care that lead to health disparity, health
inequity or uneven distribution of funds in the particular sector. Each section will give a brief
overview of how these factors were changing health and social life.
Globalisation is generally referred to as an integration of culture, governance,
economic, and inter-linked environmental development (Perraton 2019). Globalisation has
created multiple issues in health and social care. People connecting globally has increased the
diseases by spreading across the continents. The major infectious diseases that are spreading
rapidly from one geographical area to others are HIV(Human immunodeficiency virus),
Ebola, SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome), west Nile and Marburg virus. These
diseases are spreading because of migration or international travel or human behaviour or any
other phenomena (Cockerham 2017). Another major issue generates from globalisation is
illegal to trade such as in drugs or any counterfeit medicines and often illegal trafficking of
people. All these are the consequences of globalisation (Cohen 2014). Additionally, it also
creates issues in solving or formulating international policy. Global governance has come
into action for delivering health care and promoting social life.
Globalisation brings many changes and it can be categorised in three-factor that are
spatial, temporal and cognitive change. Spatial change refers to people moving from one
geographical region to another. As per United Nation, around 232 million people were
migrating internationally. It is also stated that south-to-south migration is generally seen as
compared to the south to north. World tourism organisation has declared that around 1.087
billion people have arrived worldwide (Hanefeld 2015). Trafficking of people or drugs,
smuggling, these are the consequence of globalisation (Mninde-Silungwe 2017). People
move to developed countries or high-income countries lead to an increase in migration. Thus
promoting infectious disease simultaneously. Healthcare professionals moving to developed

2CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
countries for a stable income or any competitive advantage can cause issues in poorer or
developing countries. Lack of skilled healthcare professionals will have a direct impact on
society. Another factor is temporal change; it will result in the spreading of diseases. In the
era of modernisation, people are going under the pressure of multitasking. Starting from
preparing food to order deliveries or any such, it slowed down the normal lives. At this speed,
the diseases are also travelling around the world within a few spans of time. Lastly, a
cognitive change that are the result of influencing. Advertising agencies or consultancy firms
bring these changes. National health policymakers are finding difficulty in formulating and
implementing policies in their particular region as these changes have processed the thoughts
of people. Few contemporary issues generate from these changes are contemporary societies
that have their policies or ideology or forming any religious groups (Hanefeld 2015).
Culture referred to a system or group of behaviour and thought shared by a similar
group of people. It is a set of defined behaviour by customs, food, literature, rituals, ethics,
ideas, language, dress, behaviour and music (Lazzeretti and Capone 2015). Cultural factor
such as child marriage or early marriage contributes too many problems in health as well as
in social life. For illustration, restricting some food will affect their dietary preferences
(Taylor and Guerin 2019). Not every human belief on the medication the physician is
providing. If the patient do not corporate according to medication, then it will lead to a
serious complication in the treatment. Few people also do not want to accept preventive
measures such as vaccines or birth control measures. Many people from remote areas
especially female patient do not discuss their symptoms or any other factor to their physician
or any interpreter physician. Many health professionals believe that recognising cultural is
very crucial as if one fails in doing so will encounter many other issues in working practices.
Some of the diverse backgrounds of cultures are Caucasians, Asian Americans, Latinos and
Native Americans (Lupton 2012).
For better understanding for healthcare professionals, culture is categorised into two
segments that are individualistic and collectivistic. Both segments give a different view on
health and social life. Collectiveness values family or has a great impact on group values
whereas individualistic can make their own choices. Cultural factor affects judgements of
illness and health. Culture also acts as a barrier in treating a patient and not illness. Due to
cross-cultural, people have a different perception of their health preferences. For illustration,
if a particular culture or a particular group of people has good knowledge of medicinal plants.
However, it does not mean that the entire group member knows this knowledge and these

3CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
healers are only recognised if anyone visits them and seeks help. These healer therapies differ
from each other. In the same manner, physicians or any healthcare professionals approaches
are different from each other and can widely differ from country to country or worldwide. For
example, people of Germany can state low blood pressure as sickness or French people may
invest government funds for health on homoeopathy (Bury 2013). Linguistic and cultural
differences among healthcare professionals and healthcare seekers can result in
miscommunication. This miscommunication leads to decrease patient satisfaction or
disempowerment and poor quality of care. There are cases where not making eye contact is
often considered as respect; however, on the other side healthcare professionals may think
that patient or health seeker is depressed (Taylor and Guerin 2019). Another scenario is if a
physician or any healthcare professional does not treat with injection is considered, as they
are not examining the symptoms seriously. These were the multiple cases and scenarios that
leads to cultural competence is very crucial in any nation to overcome the issues in health and
social life.
Economic factor plays a very crucial role in influencing health and social life. This
factor leads to many contemporary issues such as a decline in the quality of clinical care and
vulnerable environments. Firstly, it can restrict to follow healthful behaviours. Healthful
behaviour includes a proper nutritious diet or able to avail and access healthcare from any
healthcare institute. Due to economic disadvantage, people may not be able to supply food to
their families. That is the reason for not being able to receive a healthy diet. Economic
disadvantage also influences the ability to receive a low quality of health and social care.
People with low income and education are immune to receive a healthier life (Kuklin and
Vasilyeva 2015). Economic instability or economic disadvantage comprises multiple
indicators such as unemployment, housing insecurity, food insecurity and poverty.
Employment is directly proportional to or related to the health of a person. If the amount of
unemployment rises then premature death and illness rises too. Many studies stated that
premature death or mental illness or any chronic diseases are mostly seen in the unemployed
people. People in this category also cultivate unhealthy behaviours like increased intake of
alcohol or drugs and a decrease in any physical exercise or activity (De Goeij et al. 2015).
Suicide rates are increasing with the rate of 55.8% in the region of Greece and the major
reason are unemployment rates, public debts and others (Madianos et al. 2014). House
insecurity magnifies the outcomes of health and social life. Health and social life are created
by a person where he or she lives. People often seek financial help from the financial

4CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
institutions for housing or sometimes invest their entire savings to buy a house. The higher
debt increases the burden that leads to severe health consequences. The consequences can be
insufficient sleep, mental illness, higher blood pressure, risk in respiratory conditions and
many others. All these will lead to suicide, homicide or premature death (Ruhm 2016). Food
insecurity is the major factor and important factor of health and social life. Instability in the
economy results in a society where people are not able to eat. A healthy and nutritious diet is
the solution for positive health and social life. In the US, around 50 million people are facing
food insecurity. Food insecurity results in many negative health outcomes such as poor
health, chronic disease, malnutrition and multiple risks of health behaviour (Gundersen and
2015). The major element of economic instability or disadvantage is poverty. Poor income
and low poverty rate hugely affect the health of an individual, or it is directly proportional to
poor health. People under poverty face poor health and have a worse social life. They
indulged in unhealthy behaviour such as eating unhealthy, drinking, being inactive and
smoking. Thus resulting in consequences like physical, social and mental health. Children
residing in the UK are likely to die in the first year of their life due to poverty (Wickham et
al. 2016).
Political factor plays a crucial role in influencing health and social life. Political
determinant should focus on policies, practices and transnational norms across every segment
that affects social care and health. The basic reason for contemporary issues in health is due
to the uneven distribution of resources, money, and power. Deficient of political will is the
major and basic factor influencing contemporary issues (Kickbusch 2015). The democracy
deficit in many countries influences negatively decision-making. North Korea is the best
example to understand democracy deficit country. This deficiency means restricting power
and low transparency makes it difficult for an actor to take responsibility (Hare and Monogan
2018). The policymaker does not consider international institutions such as funds or
guidelines to promote health and social life. The political decision affects the health policies
of any nation. Health policy is incoherent and generally create difficulties for integrating
foreign policy. Building a weak framework results in a low understanding of global health.
Therefore resulting in low-quality care. Political leaders should include the quality of
wellbeing and elaborate on this domain to increase quality care. The political decision also
results in public policy formulation, and financial funding is a major factor in delivering good
health and social life. Imparity in funding priority or low funding will decline the quality of
care. Low funding will result in a delay in supplying medicines in remote areas and unable to

5CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
services old medical equipment. Health has increased the interest of people at a larger level,
and that is the reason healthcare professional has urged health to be in the top priority of the
political agenda (Kickbusch 2015).
Another factor creating a huge impact on health and social care is the increased aging
population in the U.K. Increased in the aging population results in an increase in the number
of admission in the hospital. In figure 1, the highest proportion of admission in the age
ranging between the age of 80 and 84. Depending on the age, the length of stay in the
hospital varies from 2.8 days to 7 days. The NHS, along with the social care organisation in
the UK, is facing astounding growth in the cost of looking after elderly people within the next
few years. Figure 2, NHS will need to rise the expenditure as the rise in the ageing population
is drastically growing in the coming years. With the necessity of raising the cost, NHS needs
to meet the overloaded along with the overburdened growing number of elderly people (Jones
2016). As a result, it influences economically on NHS. Politically, the government needs to
take initiative to invest and increase the allocation of budget in NHS. Due to globalisation,
the migration of people has also affected the rise in the ageing population.
Figure 1: Admission of in-patient by age band
Source: (Jones 2016)

6CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Figure 2: Population in millions by age group
Source: (Jones 2016)
It can be concluded from the above discussion that health and social care are
interlinked to each other. This essay has advanced knowledge by understanding all the factors
that bring changes and affect directly on health. There are multiple social challenges like food
insecurity, poverty and others that have a huge impact on living a healthy life. There can be a
proper framework to address or facilitate the delivery of health care with the help of the
government or any non-government actor. This essay also examined the cultural factor
affecting health in multiple ways and hence all the healthcare and clinical experts need proper
training. Financial funding in the sector of health is very much necessary to generate quality
care. With the increased rate of the vulnerability of globalisation in health, the public health
provider and services need to be strong. There must be balanced coordination between all the
stakeholders of healthcare to live a healthy social life.

7CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
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