Health and Social Care
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- Date Submitted: 03/04/2015 10:48 AM
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Application of sociological perspective to health and social care
The functionalist approach
Talcott Parson is someone who described how for society to function efficiently members need to be healthy; he describes illness as a form of deviance and ill members as performing a form of deviance. Also ill members as performing a form of social role which is the sick role, this has become a very powerful concept in the sociology of illness, in Talcott Parson`s view if someone has claimed they are ill, some specific rights and responsibility come with their new role. The rights that are associated with the sick role were:
• To be exempt from national social obligations, e.g. work, school or college
• Have to be cared for by someone in the family
Parson`s saw it as a key function that someone in the family would look after the sick individual, the responsibility of the risk person are:
• Getting better to resume back to their normal place in society
• Going to visit the doctors to get medication to get them to feel well quicker
The functionalist view is that if someone is ill there are social consequences, when someone is ill they do not go to work or do any work and most of the time they need to be looked after by someone, for society to run smoothly every one needs to be healthy.
The Marxist approach – This approach believes that the definition of health and illness and health and social care services provided, serve the interests of the more powerful dominant social classes. Doctors now a day are seen as agents who make sure that people go back to work, as they are working in the interest of the employers instead of patients. The government allows companies to make profits from products that cause ill health such as junk food and cigarettes. Most conflict theories see levels of illness as being related to difference in social class. Now a day`s there are higher levels of unemployed people and a lot of environmental pollution, there is also a higher...
The functionalist approach
Talcott Parson is someone who described how for society to function efficiently members need to be healthy; he describes illness as a form of deviance and ill members as performing a form of deviance. Also ill members as performing a form of social role which is the sick role, this has become a very powerful concept in the sociology of illness, in Talcott Parson`s view if someone has claimed they are ill, some specific rights and responsibility come with their new role. The rights that are associated with the sick role were:
• To be exempt from national social obligations, e.g. work, school or college
• Have to be cared for by someone in the family
Parson`s saw it as a key function that someone in the family would look after the sick individual, the responsibility of the risk person are:
• Getting better to resume back to their normal place in society
• Going to visit the doctors to get medication to get them to feel well quicker
The functionalist view is that if someone is ill there are social consequences, when someone is ill they do not go to work or do any work and most of the time they need to be looked after by someone, for society to run smoothly every one needs to be healthy.
The Marxist approach – This approach believes that the definition of health and illness and health and social care services provided, serve the interests of the more powerful dominant social classes. Doctors now a day are seen as agents who make sure that people go back to work, as they are working in the interest of the employers instead of patients. The government allows companies to make profits from products that cause ill health such as junk food and cigarettes. Most conflict theories see levels of illness as being related to difference in social class. Now a day`s there are higher levels of unemployed people and a lot of environmental pollution, there is also a higher...