HSC210: Health Sociology - Written Assessment on Health Issues

This homework assignment for HSC210, a Health Sociology course, addresses several key topics in the field. It begins by exploring post-modernist perspectives and their implications for health practice. The assignment then delves into the persistent challenges in Indigenous health outcomes in Australia, despite increased funding, providing relevant examples. It examines psychiatry as a form of social control through sociological theories. The benefits and limitations of e-health are discussed, alongside the influence of ideology and politics on health outcomes, using the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) as an example. The application of functionalist theory in healthcare is analyzed, highlighting its assumptions and limitations. Medical dominance within the Australian healthcare system is explored, followed by an explanation of the concept of discourse and its relevance to health and biomedicine. Finally, the assignment considers multiculturalism and how health needs may differ for immigrants and refugees compared to those born in Australia, touching on their access to healthcare services, language barriers, discrimination, and living conditions.

Question 1
What insights do post-modernist perspectives provide and what might this mean for health
practice?
Post-modernist is a prominent perspective which tends to state that, how society has
progressed over the era which is beyond modernity. Post-modernist cultural values have
affected the medical care and the relationship between the physician and the patient.
Postmodernism is considered to be as the method of sociology which puts emphasis on the
uncertainty and quick change within the society. This is a perspective which tends to mainly
focus on the reality of the person, denies statement and also claims to be true for all the
individuals. The post-modernist perspectives tends to argue that, because of endless changing
and choice the culture and work. Providing high degree of significant medical care to make
the accurate diagnosis and also focuses on establishing prominent rapport with the patients.
The post- modernism states that, the illness experience is not linear (Bentley and et.al., 2016).
Experiences of the individual person is a myriad of cultural, social, economic and physical
context. Postmodernism attitude within the healthcare is prevalent. They tend to highly
believe in the individual responsibility to attain health, hold consumerist value, rejecting
medical authority, preferring natural products over various chemical drugs.
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Question 2
Despite increases in funding, explain why in Australia, Indigenous health outcomes are still
an issue? Provide examples to illustrate your argument.
The indigenous group of people are increasingly facing various health issues which mainly
includes cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and respiratory disease which results in
unacceptable gap within the life expectancy. The Aboriginal and Torres group of Australia
are usually influenced by the various key social determinants which tends to influence health
of the indigenous group within Australia (Jatrana, Richardson and Pasupuleti, 2018). There
seems to be high degree of increase within the funding, the prevalence of major biomedical
and behavioural health risk factors among the indigenous group of Australia results in poor
health outcomes within Australia. For example, Aboriginal and Torres group of Australia are
indulged within various behavioural risk like poor nutrition, smoking, physical inactivity,
excessive amount of alcohol consumption and domestic violence. are considered to be key
risk factors which largely result in poor health outcomes. The indigenous people have low
education, poor socio- economic, social isolation, family breakdown, poverty, debt, crime, etc
also results in lower health outcomes among Aboriginal people of Australia (Smith, Adams
and Bonson, 2018). Increase in funding to improve the health outcomes of the patient does
not influence the positive health outcomes of the patient because of the daily unethical
behavioural practice which impacts the health outcomes of the patients.

Question 3
Psychiatry can be viewed as an institute of social control. Draw on sociological theories and
examples to discuss this statement.
The psychiatrist who tends to work within the judicial group which helps in improve the
sanity and medical condition of the patient. The psychiatry is considered to be as the key
form of the social control. The medical social control is a way where the medicine tends to
function in order to secure high degree of adherence to the social norms by eliminating,
minimising and normalising deviant behaviour. The societal control is mainly associated with
the political and societal mechanisms which tends to regulate group behaviour and individual
to attain compliance and conformity to the rules associated with the society and social group.
The psychiatrist tends to identify two set of basic signifier of social control which mainly
includes informal and formal control (Dean and Green, 2017). The sociological perspective
tends to mainly emphasise on influencing the society with the help of relationship, social
contexts , statuses and roles. The chemical and genetics imbalance within the brain cause
mental illness. The interpersonal theory tends to play one of the key significant role in
treating the mental illness and has been used by the psychiatrist. This theory is useful in
determining the genesis of the psychiatric disorder in the key significant manner.
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Question 4
What are the key benefits and limitations of e-health?
The e- health is referred to as the use of communication and information technology within
the healthcare to provide digital health services at a greater and wider scale. The key benefits
of the e- health is that, it is useful in improving the communication within the healthcare
practitioners and patients. It also helps in improving the operational efficiency by reducing
the length of stay and increasing the safety of the patient by reduction in the clinical and
medical adverse events. The e- health has also resulted in the rapid intervention at the time of
critical periods of care which has been facilitated by real time reminders and alerts using
electronic platforms (What is E-health? Its Characteristics, Benefits and Challenges, 2019).
It is considered to be as the secure and cost effective measure within the healthcare system. It
is useful in providing quick degree of access to the patients information and records with the
reduced aAwaworyi Churchill, Farrell and Smyth, 2019mount of paperwork. It also leads to
low degree of medical errors and encouraging better and healthier lifestyles. One of the major
challenge which is mainly linked with the e- health is related with the complex user
experience. It becomes difficult to implement the e- health across various healthcare system
because of complex user experience. Implementation of the e- health is considered to be as
the time consuming process.

Question 5
How does ideology and politics shape health outcomes? Draw on examples such as the PBS
to illustrate your points.
Politics play critical role within the health affairs. It tends to mainly begin with examining
how health problems tends to make it within the policy agenda. Political ideology is referred
to as the specific set of ethical principles, ethical ideals, myths, doctrines for the specific
social movement (Awaworyi Churchill, Farrell and Smyth, 2019). The political ideologies
tends to largely influence the health in two different ways. The first states that, ideologies
which are at the individual and national level which helps in shaping the social norms which
can influence the health lifestyle practices. On the other hand, second measure related with
the political ideology states about the particular government which largely influences the
allocation of resources within the healthcare expenditure (Bentley and et.al., 2016). For
example, political ideology is mainly associated with the different aspects of the society
which mainly includes education, economy, justice system, social security, labour law, etc.
which tends to shape the health outcomes of the Australia. The ideologies and values of the
individuals which strongly influence and evaluate how health issues has been significantly
played out. The perception and ideology associated with the severity of the problem tends to
affect the population and also tends to influence the governmental responses.
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Question 6
Certain mechanisms of functionalist theory are utilised today. Discuss what they are and
highlight the main assumptions and limitations of functionalism.
The functionalist theory tends to mainly put emphasis on the effective health care system
which is useful in determining the key relationship between the patient and the physicians.
This theory is considered to be significant because it is useful in maintaining healthy state.
However, the ill health of the individual impairs their ability to perform various set of roles
within the society. One of the key significant limitation associated with the functionalist
theory is that, it looks at the society at a micro- scale and it does not look at the individual on
one on one basis (Rosenberg and Salvador-Carulla, 2017). This system also does not specify
the functions which has to be performed within the specific institution or system. The
functionalist theory is mainly associated with the nature of the mental state. The major
limitation is that, this theory tends to look at the society at the study at the macro- level which
tends to broadly focus on social structures and shaping of the society as a whole. The
functionalist theory mainly focuses on retaining the traditional idea in order to promote
stability and solidarity within the health and social care system of Australia.

Question 7
What is medical dominance and how does the medical profession achieve medical dominance
in Australia?
Medical dominance is referred to as the medical profession which helps in controlling over
the terms, content and condition to control the health division and health occupation within
the healthcare system. The medical power is effectively manifested by the by the
professional autonomy of the healthcare practitioners. This can be done through economics
within the health services, high degree of dominance within the health occupational group.
This is done through administrative influence with the collective degree of influence within
medical association. The medical dominance is highly dependent on the interest of the care
professionals which are coincide with the dominant class. The medical dominance is
classified into three parts which includes autonomy, sovereignty and authority (Cheung and
et.al., 2018). The increase in the autonomy within the developing occupation results in
decrease in the medical dominance. It tends to mainly comprise of economic, political and
clinical autonomy. There are set of various medical professions who has effectively attained
dominance within Australia. Medical power has been significantly manifested with the
physical autonomy of the doctors and attaining better set of care decision. Medical profession
who are within the same society enjoys equal level of the autonomy.
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Question 8
Explain the concept of discourse and explain how it is relevant to health and bio-medicine in
Australia. Draw on examples to highlight you points.
Discourse is referred to as the way which constitutes knowledge for carrying out the
significant social practice. It is useful to power relations which helps in determining the
relation and knowledge between them (Whiley and et.al., 2019). Discourse is considered to
be as the patterned or the significant group if idea which can be identified significantly within
verbal and textual communication. It has been significantly located within the wider set of
social structure. The discourse is a practice, knowledge and a belief that is useful in providing
shared understanding for the world. Discourse tends to play one of the key significant role
within the medicine and tends to have high degree of profound anthropological significance.
The bio medicine is useful in treating ill- health. However, the bio- medical discourse carry
out effective weight which saturates experience of affliction (Awaworyi Churchill, Farrell
and Smyth, 2019). It is useful in defining the relationship between the patient and doctors.
The discourse is highly crucial within the health and bio-medicine in Australia because it
helps in effectively constituting knowledge and also helps in opening several ways of
producing and thinking within the healthcare sector. The discourse within the care sector is
related with the curing, healing, suffering and various set of relevant language ideologies
within the healthcare system.

Question 9
What is multi-culturalism and how might health needs differ for immigrants and refugees to
people who are born in Australia?
Multi- culturalism is referred to as the capacity of the state which helps in efficiently and
effectively dealing up with the cultural plurality within the sovereign borders. Multi-
culturalism helps in significantly describing the society which comprises of varied different
culture. Immigrants has to effectively get wide degree of access to the healthcare services.
The usage of the health services differ which is significantly dependent on the place of birth
and culture of the individual person. Refugees are considered to be at the high degree of risk
to fall risk while staying in the poor living conditions like poor shelter and camps (Cook,
2019). The refugees has lower access to the food, shelter and water which results in affecting
the health outcomes among the immigrants and refugees of Australia. The refugees tends to
face difficulty in accessing the healthcare services due to language barrier, discrimination and
legal status. On the other hand, immigrants within the Australia has better access to the health
services. The refugees tends to live poor sanitation facilities and contaminated drinking
water. This results in increase in the risk of variety of infections ad disease among refugees of
Australia unlike immigrant people of Australia.
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Question 10
What are the social determinants of health and how do they help us understand the dynamics
of globalisation and inequity? Draw on examples in the Australian context to illustrate your
key points.
The social determinants of health are considered to be as the condition where the people are
grown, lived, aged, born and is useful in shaping the life of the individual person (Liddicoat
and et.al., 2018). The key social determinants of the health mainly includes built
environment, economic stability education, social and community context, health care, social
status, income status, childhood experiences, healthy child development, literacy and gender.
Differential exposure, consequences, susceptibility and social stratification are the key
dynamics which are linked with the globalisation and inequality within Australia. Health
inequality are referred to as the systematic difference within the health outcomes. There
seems to be health status and distribution within the health resources which tends to arise
from high degree of social conditions which mainly includes place of birth, age, gender,
culture and work of the individual person.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Awaworyi Churchill, S., Farrell, L. and Smyth, R., 2019. Neighbourhood ethnic diversity and
mental health in Australia. Health economics, 28(9), pp.1075-1087.
Bentley, R.J and et.al., 2016. Housing affordability, tenure and mental health in Australia and
the United Kingdom: a comparative panel analysis. Housing Studies, 31(2), pp.208-
222.
Cheung, A.S and et.al., 2018. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of transgender
adults in Australia. Transgender Health, 3(1), pp.229-238.
Cook, L., 2019. Mental health in Australia: a quick guide. Parliament of Australia, 14.
Dean, A. and Green, D., 2017. Climate change, air pollution and health in Australia. Sydney,
Australia: UNSW Sydney.
Jatrana, S., Richardson, K. and Pasupuleti, S.S.R., 2018. Investigating the dynamics of
migration and health in Australia: a longitudinal study. European Journal of
Population, 34(4), pp.519-565.
Liddicoat, C and et.al., 2018. Landscape biodiversity correlates with respiratory health in
Australia. Journal of environmental management, 206, pp.113-122.
Rosenberg, S. and Salvador-Carulla, L., 2017. PERSPECTIVES: accountability for mental
health: the Australian experience. The journal of mental health policy and
economics, 20(1), pp.37-54.
Smith, J.A., Adams, M. and Bonson, J., 2018. Investing in men’s health in Australia. The
Medical Journal of Australia, 208(1), p.67.
Whiley, H and et.al., 2019. Environmental health in Australia: overlooked and
underrated. Journal of Public Health, 41(3), pp.470-475.
Online
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What is E-health? Its Characteristics, Benefits and Challenges. 2019. [ONLINE]. Available
through:<https://www.publichealthnotes.com/what-is-e-health-its-characteristics-benefits-
and-challenges/>

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