University Essay: Analyzing Health Narratives and Social Determinants

This essay delves into the realm of health narratives and the social determinants of health (SDOH), exploring their intricate relationship in shaping individual health experiences. The essay begins by defining health narratives and emphasizing their significance in understanding a person's health journey, followed by a description of SDOH and their impact on overall well-being. The core of the essay analyzes the case study of Leah Purcell, examining her health narrative through the lens of SDOH, including her traumatic childhood, educational background, and social support systems. The analysis highlights how these determinants influenced her physical, mental, and cognitive health. The essay concludes by reiterating the importance of considering SDOH when developing recovery plans and improving the health outcomes of individuals, particularly within the context of aboriginal and mixed-race communities. The essay underscores the need for a holistic approach to healthcare that addresses the multifaceted factors influencing health.

Running head: NARRATIVE ESSAY
NARRATIVE ESSAY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1NARRATIVE ESSAY
Introduction:
Narrative accounts cover the personal experiences of patients and have been regarded
as an integral component that directs the process of recovery. Patient narratives also serve as
a source of motivation for other critically ill patients who suffer from a life limiting illness
(Greenwood et al., 2015). However, with the advancement of the health care specific
treatment and technology, the focus of recovery has majorly shifted to the use of evidence
based medication and advanced healthcare facilities (Artiga & Hinton, 2018). On account of
the same, the significance of individual narratives is often ignored and overlooked. However,
a group of research scholars suggest that the use of individual narrative assists with the
process of positive recovery.
This paper intends to discuss the three social health determinants of health that impact
the wellness experience of people. For the analysis of the social health determinants the client
interview of Leah Purcell conducted by interviewer Anh Do would be considered.
Health Narrative:
According to Adler et al. (2016), health determinant includes the individual lived
experiences of the people who suffer from a limiting illness or witness a loved one
experiencing a critical illness. As stated by Keleher and MacDougall (2015), the health or
wellness experience of an individual is tightly associated with the social health determinants
that include, demographic factors such as ethnicity, age, sex, geographical location or
education and economic status. The mentioned social health determinants have been studied
to impact the holistic wellness of an individual on a personal level as well as within a
community (Compton & Shim, 2015). Personal health experience or health narratives help
clients to identify their strengths and weaknesses and work on the weaknesses so as to
recover effectively (Taylor et al., 2016). Understanding the significance of social health

2NARRATIVE ESSAY
determinants is pivotal as it also provides an overview about the continuous emerging health
needs of the suffering individual and their community members and assists with the process
of availing treatment measures to alleviate the quality of life (Thornton et al., 2016). In
addition to this, the personal narrative of the clients helps care professionals to appropriately
analyse the traumatic experiences of the patients and accordingly devise an effective care
plan. In other words, it can be mentioned that the personal narratives of the clients help the
care provider a well as the patient to effectively partner with one another in the care process
and accordingly make use of personal strengths to acquire positive recovery (DeVoe et al.,
2016).
Research studies mention that the health determinants reflect areas that could be used
as areas of focus for recovery. Patient narratives have been studied to effectively improve
healthcare outcome for clients and at the same time improve access to care services for
clients (Carey & Crammond, 2015).
Defining the Social Determinants of Health:
Social health determinants are elements that impact the living experience of an
individual. The health determinants typically involve factors such as level of education,
economic status, ethnicity or geographical location that affect the living condition of the
members within a community (Devoe et al., 2016). Researchers through the years have
conducted a number of research studies to assess the impact of the social determinants of
health on the overall health status of the affected patients (Walker et al., 2016). On analysing
the health determinants researchers have tried to develop an understanding about the
components that influence the wellness status of the members of a particular community and
implement effective measures to improve the access to healthcare facilities so as to promote
positive healthcare outcome.

3NARRATIVE ESSAY
According to Donkin et al. (2018), developing an effective understanding about the
social health determinants that impact the wellness status of the members of a community
helps to analyse the loopholes that could be bridged to improve the overall health outcome of
the community members. In addition to this, an improved understanding about the social
health determinants guides policy members to devise effective policies that cumulative
improves the quality of life of the defined community members (Corin, 2017). Therefore, on
the basis of the background information it can be stated that an improved understanding and
analysis of the social health determinants would effectively help to adapt measures so as to
improve the cumulative health status of the concerned community members.
Analysis of the case study:
The provided case study covers the subject Leah Purcell and the interviewer Anh Do,
who is the winner of the prestigious Archibald contest. The interview progresses with the
artist interviewing the subject on different areas of life domains such as childhood, her youth
and associated life struggles. The subject unravels a difficult childhood, where she had been
subjected to a traumatic life experience as she belonged to a mixed race where her mother
hailed from the aboriginal racial background and her father belonged to the white race. She
further mentions about the agony of maintaining the secrecy of her paternal background and
how it impacted her childhood. In addition to this, she also mentions about her accidental
teenage pregnancy that affected her adolescence and the perpetual racial discrimination that
she experienced throughout the phases of her life (Taylor et al., 2016). The following
subsections provide an overview about the three social health determinants that impacted the
quality of life of the client.
Traumatic Childhood Experience:

4NARRATIVE ESSAY
The client mentions to have experienced a poor quality of childhood. She states that
she was the youngest of the seven children in her family and further mentions about the
agony of having a White father and an aboriginal mother. She further reveals about the
emotional burden of keeping her father’s identity a secret throughout her childhood and also
mentions about the traumatic experience of her grandmother with respect to ‘stolen
generations’. As the interview progresses, she states that she was forced to communicated in
sign language with her father in public on account of the fact that she belonged to the
aboriginal community. Further, she also reveals that she closely witnesses her mother being
negatively impacted by her life experiences and taking to substance abuse which
subsequently affected her mental health wellness. Upon analysing the quality of childhood of
the client, it can be said that her childhood was devoid of the elements of love and affection
that a child is supposed to receive from a father. As stated by Taylor et al. (2016), a traumatic
childhood experience significantly impacts the physical and mental health status of an
individual throughout the life. Therefore, it can be said that the client’s poor childhood had
extensively contributed to her poor quality of life.
Her Education Background:
The client mentions in the interview that her mother had only acquired education up
to fourth grade. Further, she also states that her primary schooling experience had been a
miserable one where she had been a victim of racial and ethnic discrimination due to her
mixed parental origin. Further, on account of the poor educational qualification of her
mother, she was unable to obtain any guidance with regard to her higher education. As a
result, she pursued higher education on the recommendation of a renowned community
member. According to DeVoe et al. (2016), level of educational qualification significantly
impacts the quality of life of the individuals as it significantly impacts their ability to
undertake important decision regarding their physical health and wellness. Therefore, it can

5NARRATIVE ESSAY
be stated that on account of lack of proper education she experienced difficulty to cope with
her teenage pregnancy and this significantly impacted the quality of her wellness.
Quality of Social Support:
According to Donkin et al. (2018), availability of social support skills help to assist an
individual to tackle an acute life crisis or deal with negative experiences in life. In this case, it
can be mentioned that the client experienced a number of psychologically tormenting
experiences such as a poor childhood, lack of parental affection, traumatic experience of
undergoing teenage pregnancy and racial discrimination throughout the developmental stages
of her life. Research studies mention that the availability of emotional and effective social
support services help to acquire positive health outcome and encourage individuals to
overcome traumatic experiences (Keleher & MacDougall, 2015). In this case, it can be
observed that the client did not receive any social support services as a result of which her
overall health status remained compromised of quality.
Therefore upon analysing the overall case scenario it can be stated that the client
experienced a number of poor social health determinants that impacted her overall physical
and mental health status. Specifically her poor childhood experience, maintaining the secrecy
of her father’s identity, her poor educational qualification and lack of social support options
cumulatively impacted the overall quality of her life (Compton & Shim, 2015). It can be
mentioned that availability of proper social support options would have helped her to sustain
through the developmental stages of life and helped her lead an alleviated quality of life
(Adler et al., 2016).
Conclusion:
Therefore, to conclude, it can be mentioned that the paper has clearly identified the
social health determinants that has impacted the overall health status of the client. It can be

6NARRATIVE ESSAY
said that the identified social health determinants have impacted the quality of her wellness
across the physical health, mental health as well as the cognitive function domain. It can be
said that creating a recovery plan focused on the identified social health determinants would
help to alleviate the living standard of the client and at the same time improve the overall
health status of the members of the aboriginal and mixed race community.

7NARRATIVE ESSAY
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8NARRATIVE ESSAY
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