Contemporary Issues in Health and Social Care Information Report

This report explores the critical role of media in disseminating accurate health and social care information, emphasizing the potential for both positive and negative impacts on public perception and behavior. It examines various media channels and techniques for communicating health-related data, including newspapers, social media, and television, while also analyzing the influence of factors like presentation style and demographic preferences. The report delves into contemporary issues such as smoking, highlighting the importance of reliable information sources and effective communication strategies to address public health concerns. It also discusses how the public assesses the validity of information, and how contemporary aspects of health and social care issues influence the development of care services. The report includes an analysis of the video "Dr. Google: Does DIY Diagnosis Work?" to further examine the role of media and the impact of information on people's lives.

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

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Introduction
Information is a significant source that has the ability to enhance constructive and positive
changes in the way, in which people live their lives. Health and social care plays an important
role in the society to offer effective medical care to the sick people. To provide the information
and data related to health and social care, media plays a significant role to present that
information. This report aims at focusing on significance of communicating accurate and right
social and health care information to the people to avoid the confusion and misunderstanding
through wrong information1. Sometimes, the effectiveness of this information depends on the
way, how media channels present the news to public.
The report includes the ways and techniques, which can be used to spread the health related data
to the people. It analyzes the different ways and channels of media along with their usage. In
addition to this, the impact of this information on behavior and attitudes of people will be
discussed and evaluated the ways, through which public assess the validity and reliability of
information. In the end, the effect of contemporary aspects of health and social care issues on
development of care services is included. The issue, which is taken into consideration here, is
“smoking”. In the context of social and health care, it is very important to understand that media
may have both negative and positive impact on dissemination of information related to health
care. Media is playing a vital role in the development of social and health care in United
Kingdom and worldwide.
Task 1:
Task 1.1
Information is an important factor to enhance the information current among the people of
society and it has various advantages to both service receiver and provider as well 2. It is very
significant to make the people aware and informed regarding the avoidance of diseases, habits,
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social and health issues, health care services and human rights to promote the health care among
public. Society should be aware about different problems and aspects of health and social care
such as financing, resources, different regulations and standards, sexual harassment, child abuse
and other issues in health care. Due to this, they will be able to avail the health care with proper
quality standards in secured environment as per the given standards and policies. This significant
information can be delivered to the public by heath care service providers via different media
channels such as radio, TV, word of mouth, online media, internet, journals, documentaries and
educators3. All these channels assist the health care professional in delivering the health and
social care information to the public domains.
In the United Kingdom, there are various public and private organizations that have taken the
responsibility to spread the needed social and health care data to general people. Some examples
of these organizations are such as; World Health Organization, Centre for Disease Control,
Health Protection Agency etc. The people should know that where they need to contact, when
they are abused at health and social care centers4. The government in United Kingdom is playing
an important role in assisting the society in resolving some contemporary health and social care
issues. Some of these issues are stated below;
Increasing results
The social and health care has to emphasize on the outcome of organization. It needs to give the
best efforts to get best and most appropriate results. Else, care will not be able to match the
competitive advancement in health care industry5.
2 K. Blais. Professional nursing practice: Concepts and perspectives. Pearson, 2015.
3 M. Baldwin. Social work, critical reflection and the learning organization. Routledge, 2016.
4 E. Benelli. "The role of the media in steering public opinion on healthcare issues." Health
policy 63, no. 2 (2003): 179-186.
5 P. Bennett, ed. Risk communication and public health. Oxford University Press, 2010.

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Financial immobility related
Financing is the most prominent factor for the social and health care organization. There will be
need of lot of money, so that they can match with the modern technology and development. To
overcome this issue, there are various non-profit organizations, which are offering these services
free of cost or on lower cost.
Increased cost of social and health care
With the technological development and changes, the cost of social and health care has been
enhanced. In this country, the government and non-government organizations are working to
control and manage these costs6.
In this way, the required information will allow and secure the public by providing support and
proper protection. Furthermore, the people should have different information related to treatment
of severe diseases such as cancer. By conducting research in UK, it can be stated that smoking is
the biggest causes of illness and death in the country. Every year, approximately 100,000 UK
people die due to smoking. So, the health care providers should try to give the information to
public about the smoking and its negative effects. This information can be provided through
online and offline media sources, journals, newspapers etc. Sometimes, the people fail to avail
the data or they are unable to understand the message that can lead the people to confusion and
misunderstanding. Thus, appropriate information should be reached to the people by the use of
clear and effective mode7. In this way, social and health care information can be reached to
public domain.
Task 1.2
Dissemination of information refers to communicate the information related to health and social
care to the public and society. To provide the information related to smoking properly, the
sources and ways of information are significant. In the absence of reliable and valid information
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sources, the dissemination of data will not be effective and appropriate. There are various
resources and techniques, which can be used to provide the health care information to society.
These different techniques are such as; newspapers, posters, pamphlets, radio, TV, social media,
health organizations’ websites, networking sites, visual messages etc. The above mentioned are
the foremost techniques that has a crucial role in developing awareness among people. After
gathering the information and data, it can be disseminated in different ways. With the help of
country’s newspapers such as Sun, Mirror etc., required information can be offered to society.
For instance, the information related to adverse impacts and preventive measures from smoking
can be disseminated through newspaper and magazine articles, health care centers and gyms. In
the United Kingdom, there are various websites of health and social care organizations, which
provide the information related to smoking and they encourage the people to stop smoking.
Television advertisement may be the most effective way to disseminate the information, through
which it can introduce a warning video via small television program, leaflet, radio program etc.
In addition to this, the government organizations can conduct seminars on the health and social
care issues. as a result, these communication techniques are impactful, but this data can create
some stress full situations to the population. These media sources and techniques have some
adverse effects on the people by developing some panic conditions. These conditions can be
raised from social media sites, newspapers, which enhance the fear to some severe diseases
cancer, child abuse, AIDS etc.

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Thus, it is essential to support the public, so that they can handle these adverse situations by
spreading the real and accurate information and figures on smoking. Using above techniques, the
correct information can be provided by creating messages to public health and conducting
education programs. These techniques will be very effective for health care service professionals
and providers to reach the public domain and disseminate the relevant health and social care
information8.
Task 1.3
Communicating relevant information is an important component to get the attention of people on
a major contemporary issue in UK, i.e. Smoking. It is very necessary to deliver the information,
but more important is the technique and way for presenting and disseminating of that health care
information to people. These ways of communication may have a large effect on attitude,
behavior of people and therefore the required data should be disseminated by the use of most
appropriate ways and sources according to the needs of people. These preferences and
requirements of people are changing with the changes in the demographic variables such as; age,
gender, education and class9. For instance, old-age people preferably use television, radio,
newspaper and radio, while to target the younger generation, information givers can prefer to use
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social media networking sites such as; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. For providing health
and social care information to parents, leaflets, posters can be utilized on several places like;
child care centers, schools, offices. Moreover, females can avail this information through
magazines, fashion magazines and through the help of lady doctors (gynecologists). Apart from
this, other factor is the style of displaying the data by the use of images and colors. For example,
health care professionals can give the relevant information by using pictures, bright colors and
cartoon pictures that can attract the attention of children10.
In this way, presentation of information is a major component to get the attraction of young
people and other people on the issue of smoking. If the information of social and health care will
not be shown appropriately, it will be unable to affect the attitudes, behaviors and thoughts of
targeted people. Thus, health care information providers will use the above mentioned ways to
provide the relevant information to influence the behaviors and attitudes of people.
C., Brownson, A. Ross Graham Colditz, and K. Enola Proctor, eds. Dissemination and
implementation research in health: translating science to practice. Oxford University Press,
2017.
Task 2
Task 2.1
After watching the video “Dr. Google: Does DIY Diagnosis Work? “, it can be stated that
different types of media sources play a significant role in people’s lives. One of the foremost
roles of media is to provide the information to people about the social and health care issues. As
discussed above, there are various ways that can be used to convey the data of social and health
care. The major sources are like educational campaigns, leaflets and television. The video link
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shows that 95% people in UK search for their disease symptoms online and seek for the solution
from Google. From the video, it can be analyzed that use of Google can be both good and bad for
the people11. Visiting a doctor will always be beneficial and there will nothing that will go
wrong, but there may be something wrong in taking assistance from Google. Apart from this,
internet is an effective way for disseminating data to a larger population that is actively using
internet. People are using social media networking sites and mobile applications to create
awareness about the adverse effects of smoking and prevention measures12.
In this context, it can be stated that media sources play an important role in presenting the
information to the people. Mostly, the importance of this information to people depends on how
the media sources show the information to population. It can have both negative and positive
effects on the display and presentation of data that is related to health and social care. The
positive information can influence the behavior and attitudes of people adversely, if it is not
presented in proper way13. On the other side, negative data can be shown in positive manner.
There are some components such as presentation style, media channels, sound and visual effects
have large impact on people behaviors and attitudes as these can change their behaviors.
Moreover, it can transform the manner people perceive a specific habit or condition. For
example, by displaying the images of different patients with final stage of cancers and defining
their weakening stage, fear can be raised against dangerous habits like smoking. Overemphasis
of the figures and facts may lead the people to moral panic in the community that is a feeling of
fear in the population related to health and social issues considering it as the threat to well-being
11 Cameron, Ailsa, Rachel Lart, Lisa Bostock, and Caroline Coomber. "Factors that promote and
hinder joint and integrated working between health and social care services: a review of research
literature." Health & social care in the community 22, no. 3 (2014): 225-233.
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of society. Thus, the way of presentation and communication has a huge impact on the behaviors
and attitudes of people in society14.
Task 2.2
Reliability and validity are two major components in providing information that is relevant to
contemporary issue of social and health care i.e. Smoking. Validity is a mechanism, through
which truthful information is received and reliability is the accuracy and uniformity of giving the
information and data to public. It is not very difficult to analyze the reliability and validity of
health and social care information. It can be evaluated by considering the place from where the
data is generated and the person who is providing that data. In United Kingdom, there are various
sources of health care information such as government and non-government organization’s
websites, political and religious groups, community welfare groups etc. It is totally
understandable for the UK people that information coming from government resources is more
reliable and valid information from other groups. There may be some situations, where the online
and offline media sources can give inaccurate, invalid and non-reliable data on health and social
care15.
Health care service providers, who give the data on social and health care, authenticate the
correctness and validity of that data. The users of information will have complete assurance
about the reliability and validity of received data. In this country, the government is making
efforts to create awareness among people that they should use the reliable and correct
information. Data users can evaluate the validity and reliability of information by comparing the
media with other information sources. It will entail the opportunities to identify the invalid
information, which is given health service centers and professionals. Public lawsuit against
tobacco sector is one of the best examples in United Kingdom. As an outcome of lobbying and
14 Cherry, Barbara, and Susan R. Jacob. Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management.
Elsevier Health Sciences, 2016.
15 Cowlishaw, Sean, and David Kessler. "Problem gambling in the UK: implications for health,
psychosocial adjustment and health care utilization." European addiction research 22, no. 2
(2016): 90-98.

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informing the people about the tobacco hazards, its usage has been declining all over the world16.
The foremost reason behind this is that the media along with the government authorities have
introduced a campaign with appropriate and accurate information. In this way, the reliability and
validity of information can be evaluated effectively.
Task 3
Task 3.1
After reading the given scenario, it can be stated that Geoff is facing different health issues, i.e.
depression, alcoholism and diabetes. All of these issues create different perspectives in health
and social care industry. Diabetes is one of the major issues, which are faced by Geoff in the
case. This issue is taken into consideration here and different perspectives about this issue are
analyzed. For any social issue, there may be different perspectives such as national bodies,
service providers, service users, local media sources, regulatory and government bodies, health
care practitioners etc. To analyze the issue of Diabetes, an extensive research is organized by the
use of different sources and techniques of information and essential data is gathered from
internet sources17.
Furthermore, the data and information is collected from diagnostic methods by health care
service providers. The population, which is affected by Diabetes health issue, has a chronic state
that is associated with the high level of glucose (sugar) in blood. Incapability of the body to use
the insulin can cause diabetes to the person. The forecasted prevalence of diabetes in adults
between 20 and 79 years worldwide is 390 million and it is estimated to influence 600 million
people by the year 203518. In the context of this disease, there are several perspectives from
different related persons. Social and biological perspective of Diabetes is that it is an inherent
16 Diabetes, U. K. "Facts and stats. Diabetes UK, London." (2015).
17 Dickinson, Helen, and Janine O'Flynn. Evaluating Outcomes in Health and Social Care 2e.
Policy Press, 2016.
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disease. This perspective indicates that if your family members have diabetes, then it can be
transferred in your body.
Furthermore, health care service providers have diverse perspective for the patients, who are
fighting against health issues related to Diabetes. These are the people, who are making
researches to discover the effective treatment of Diabetes and other related diseases. According
to their perspective, diabetes is caused by the immune system damaging the cells in pancreas
which create insulin. It causes diabetes by the reducing the insulin in the body. These are the
people, who are making researches to discover the effective treatment of Diabetes and other
related diseases. After making research, the doctors suggest that patients should intake the food
that controls the blood sugar. As per their perspective, performing physical exercises on regular
basis can assist in preventing diabetes. These exercises can increase insulin sensitivity of Geoff’s
cells. It will assist Geoff to overcome the Diabetes disease. It can improve the health conditions
of Geoff.
Sources for Diabetes Prevention

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As the treatment of Diabetes is very expensive, so government is making several efforts to
reduce the costs of treatment19. Government has different perspective, which conducts various
health care programs and campaigns. In this way, each and every related person has different
perspective regarding health and social care issue, i.e. Diabetes.
Task 3.2
Diabetes is the chronic state of an individual, which usually occurred due to higher amount of
sugar in human blood. The decrease in insulin in blood is the major reason of Diabetes. The
above-stated perspectives are changing with the passage of time. Change is a common
phenomenon in each and every field all over the world. So, different perspectives of health and
social care have been seeking for a constant change with the changes in behaviors and attitudes
of people. The point of view of health care professionals is changing and they are using low cost
and unbalanced experiments, which had very few possibilities of achieving forecasted results20.
These personnel conduct the experiments on the basis of information to give the valid and
reliable data. Moreover, the perspective of service users is changing with the increased demands
of health care services. Other factors, which are changing their perspective towards Diabetes, are
lower employment opportunity, restriction of budget, increased costs of treatment etc. In UK,
there is an increase in the social services because people are becoming focused on residential
care. Furthermore, diabetic patient has different perspective that is also changing with the
passage of time. Government and health care centers can develop health care education program,
which will enhance their knowledge about the disease. By this, people can get more valid and
reliable data regarding this health and social care issue, i.e. Diabetes. Currently, these service
providers are offering services by the use of scientific methods, so that they are able to become a
major information source over the passage of time21.
J. S Drummond, Michael F., Mark culpher, Karl Claxton, Greg L. Stoddart, and George W. Torrance. Methods for the
economic evaluation of health care programmes. Oxford university press, 2015.
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