COMMUNITY HEALTH AND WELLBEING

Community Health and Wellbeing

Community Health and Wellbeing

Introduction

Health has long been associated with the system of care and treatment of disease. We know that today's health is not just to have access to medical services and the health care system is the only one determinant for the health of populations. In fact, there are many other determinants of health such as socio-economic status of an individual. Research has shown that the state of health of an individual depends on its position in the social hierarchy (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2012). This means, any difference in the lifestyle of an individual within the social system also impacts their health. However, it is also essential to know that there are some inequalities that have significant impact on the health of any men, women, children and old-age people (Williams et al., 2007).

The "health inequalities" can be explained as differences between socio-economic groups and between areas that have an impact on many aspects of health of an individual, a group or population. The term "health gradient" refers to the association between position in the social hierarchy and health. In other words, people who enjoy a higher social status have better health than those just below and so on down to the poorest (Williams et al., 2007). In addition, it would not be wrong to say that the "health inequalities" also refer to any relationship between health and member in a social group. It has been seen that poor people live shorter lives than those who are more favoured. This means that not having enough to eat every day and not being able to afford adequate housing increases the risk of problems of physical and mental health. But poverty is not a matter of material deprivation. Being poor also means having to deal with fewer opportunities and most importantly, live with the stress and the feeling of having little control over life (Bochel et al., 2009). It would be fair to say that this subjective feeling has also negative effects on health.

Although the link between socio-economic and health are obvious, it is imperative to understand social factors that affect the physical, cultural, social and environmental health (Williams et al., 2007). In order to find understand the social inequalities in health care system, it is important to understand the social class first and different strategies that are effective to address the problem.

Social Class

Social class is a form of social stratification in which a group of individuals share common characteristic socio-economic ties, either through their productive or 'social' purchasing power or "economic" or the position within the bureaucracy in an organization devoted to such purposes (Blakemore & Griggs, 2007). These links may generate or be generated by interests or objectives that are considered common and strengthen interpersonal solidarity. The formation of a class system depends on the fact that social functions are, regardless of the existence of an organic link, mutually dependent to a larger social context.

Class is a hierarchical division based primarily on differences in income, ...