Order your essay today — written by real experts, guaranteed plagiarism-free, and ready to impress your professor!
Biomedical and Sociological Concepts
The biomedical and sociological conceptions of health have different views regarding health and illnesses. The differences spread along several aspects that are critical in determining the aspect of being healthy or ill. The primary difference emanates from the scope and nature of biomedical model that lays focus on biological and physical conditions of health and illness. On the other hand, the sociological concepts are wider in scope and consider a broad range of health and illness determinants (Rogers & Pilgrim, 2014).
The biomedical concepts are also limited in terms of the professionals who practice it, majorly the doctors, as opposed to the sociological model, which bring on board more people including therapists and even members of the general society. While the biomedical model is associated with diagnosis, cure, and treatment of illnesses, the sociological model also aims at prevention. For instance, in the case study, the doctor applies the biomedical concepts when Hannah seeks treatment by diagnosing her for depression after the symptoms persist for four weeks.
Doctor Pedro treatment only focuses on the biological aspect of Hanna’s ailment and consequently prescribes anti-depressants to ease the symptoms. The sociological treatment, on the other hand, goes beyond the biological functioning and is expressed by the grandmother’s suggestion that the illness could be resulting from “Kuru” (a condition that believed to result from early menopause). In addition, the sociological approach recognizes environmental and cultural factors that could be the cause of diseases and provides the alternative form of medication in addition to drugs.
The biomedicine approach has been criticized for not being Holistic. According to Helman (2007), the approach ignores cultural, social, spiritual as well as the psychological dimension of Illness and instead only focus on somatic aspects. This has led to the approach failing to handle psychosomatic disorders that may not have documented anatomical or physiological origin.
This may explain why Hanna’s symptoms continued even after diagnosis and prescription from the doctor. The local doctor who was a specialist did not approach the disease on biomedicine approach but rather holistically using sociological model and hence managing to cure the ailment.
Lay Perspective
Lay concepts, which are also referred to as folk concepts of health and illnesses are conceptual models that individuals, communities, and cultures utilize in their attempt to provide an explanation of how to maintain health in addition to providing an explanation for ailments (Williams and Calnan, 2013). In the given case, the lay perspective is evident where Hanna’s grandmother associates her condition with “Kuru,” a condition that she explains to arise when a woman is expected to have an early menopause.
She prescribes traditional cures such as ginger, honey, goat weed among other herbs, which she believes will restore her condition. This is in line with Lay concepts, which encompass particular ideas about the functioning of the body as well as pointing out to some symptoms as having special significance. The example serves both purposes with the condition being associated with the functioning of the body of a woman approaching menopause and this stage having a special significance in a woman’s life.
Lay concepts of illness are not limited to ideas about the immediate cause of an ailment but they also entail ideas about how the severity of the illness can be measured. The perspective further entails concepts concerning the applicability of treatment of disease as well as ideas of what an ailment mean. The concepts are not static and vary widely among cultural groups, as well as among groups of individuals from differing socioeconomic strata (Buunk et al., 2013).
Why Has Public Policing Not Replaced Private Security
