Healthcare Assignment: Discussion on Social Determinants of Health
Question
Task: To develop this healthcare assignment, you will choose 1 social determinant of health (social class, gender, age, race and ethnicity, disability, access to technology, employment, education, financial resources, housing, etc.) and will collect artifacts (photographs/images, audio/video files, maps, figures, graphics, written text, etc.) to show how they impact on health inequalities and contribute to understanding health outcomes.
Choosing your social determinant of health:
- Choose one social determinant of health (for example, gender, race/ethnicity, or age, migration, education, employment, housing, etc.) and relate it to health inequalities
- Choose three artifacts for your social determinant of health (artifact one, artifact two and artifact three) to illustrate the impact of that social determinant on health inequalities. Artifacts can be photographs, audio/video files, maps, figures, graphics, links, written text, etc.
- Write a short Commentary Analysis for each uploaded/included artifacts - How does the artefact included represent your social determinant and its impact on health inequalities
Answer
Introduction
As identified herein healthcare assignment, non-medical factors that have influence on health outcomes are known as social determinants of health (SDH). Socio-economic condition of the global market has an impact on the health of the global population. This is also termed as SDH. In recent years, SDH have gained attention from public health community. It is found that SDH can get shaped with the help of social policies rather than any kind of medical care (Braveman and Gottlieb, 2014). Social class, gender, disability, race, ethnicity and many more are marked as different forms of SDH. Governing bodies, corporate leaders, industrialists and politicians are constantly focused on to develop these components of SDH to maintain balance or equilibrium within the society. The aim of this report is to discuss about disability by collecting relevant artefacts associated with this SDH.
Self-narrative for choosing Disability
As mentioned earlier, I have chosen disability for further discussion in this report. When activity of a certain person becomes limited due to any impairment in the body or mind of the individual it is known as disability. Increase in percentage of disability within the society decreases SDH. Disability is marked as one of the health outcomes that needs more attention in the current scenario (Cieza, Sabariego, Bickenbach and Chatterji, 2018). Furthermore, it can be found that people with poor mental health conditions or people who are mentally challenged are not taken care of by the medical team which is increasing rate of mental disabilities mental health disorders in the modern world (Rogers, et.al., 2015).Thus, I have chosen this SDH to mainly understand the problems associated with it. I was in touch with an NGO that helps in guiding people who are disable or differently able. I have observed that people with physical and mental disability might not carry out activities like other do but they are always intrigued to become a part of the normal world and they want other people to accept them by avoiding any kind of stereotypes. I have also chosen this topic to depict the change in attitude of normal people towards disable population over several years. Prevoiously, several stereotypes were attached to the concept of disability. The disable population of the world were treated differently within the country and this is one of the major examples of disability. I have chosen this SDH because mental functioning of people with disability have always been a major area of curiosity for me.
Presentation of artefacts
When human beings make object that helps in depicting cultural or historical interest of any community or the entire world as a whole it is known as artefacts. Artefacts are marked as a functional kind (Heersmink, 2016). The objective of this section of the report is to present three different artefacts that depict disability. After presenting these artefacts, the message will be explained in a clear and concise manner.
Artefact 1
Source: Brown, 2019
The above art has been presented in one of the museums in Lexington, UK. The main objective behind this exhibition is to present inequalities faced by disable people and stigma associated with these people. The above art has been made by disable artists across UK. Elizabeth Daniel and Reggie Weaver discussed significant contribution of disable artists in the panel. Furthermore, they have also discussed about constant challenges that are faced by these disable people across UK. The presenters have tried to reveal various stigmas that are associated with the disabled people. Disabled people are constantly bullied in the society (Brown, 2019) Students with physical disabilities often suffer from mental health problems as they are constantly discriminated and bullied in schools and universitiesby their peers. They are discriminated from normal people of the society as they are thought to be incapable of doing the basic things in life. Thus, the objective of this exhibition was to show the capabilities of disable people to the world. The panel members have also discussed about immediate inclusion strategies that must be adopted by the governing bodies and higher authorities of the society to avoid any kind of discrimination. Inclusion strategies will also help the higher authorities of UK to avoid any kind of conflicts within the society. In recent years, it has been found that positive and supportive behaviour with disabled members of the society is one of the effective inclusion strategies (Crosland and Dunlap, 2012). It can resolve conflicts at different levels. Thus, another major aim of this exhibition was to promote supportive behaviour towards disable people of the society.
Artefact 2
Source: means of escape, 2022
This is a statistical artefact that shows that statistics of disability in UK and how it has an impact on the public health of UK. The artefact shows that out of 5 people, 1 people is suffering either from physical disability or mental disability. This is huge and the rate of disability within the country is increasing at an alarming rate. This is not only a challenging issue for the government but people in healthcare sector are also finding it difficult to cope up with challenges. Moreover, almost 8.96 people are impaired on weekly basis (Means of escape, 2022). Though healthcare leaders, governing bodies and other high-level authorities are constantly focusing on dealing with this healthcare issue. Despite, undertaking several measures disable people are marked as misfortunate. The living conditions of people with disability are very different from that of normal people of UK. Furthermore, disable people also fail to get access to basic amenities of impairment though government of UK are constantly trying to increase number of tools of impairments for disable people. It is also found that disable people found it difficult to go to movie theatres and shopping just like other normal people due to lack of impairment tools. Thus, from the above discussion it is clear that though governing bodies are constantly trying to take care of disable people of UK but still the constant discrimination and difficult style of living of disable people is drastically impacting the healthcare sector.
Artefact 3
Source: Wadell, 2022
The above artefact is a statue that is located in London. The statue shows Alison Lapper a disable person who is also pregnant. This statue is located in a spot where all statues of other British military heroes have been constructed. A person named Marc Quinn made this statue of Alison Lapper and made this artist famous in London. Quinn wanted to display the turbulent life of Alison Lapper and how she faced discrimination within the society for her disability (Wadell, 2022). Alison and Quinn have revealed that the society is not friendly towards disable people. They are not included in the core activities of the society and they are tagged with various types of stigmas. Alison Lapper was shown pregnant in the sculpture to help the people of the society understand that people with disability are not aliens. They are part of us and have ability to perform regular activities and become pregnant like normal women in the society. The expectations of people within the society towards disable people are also different. They are marked as voiceless and they are constantly stereotyped within the society. Thus, the objective behind this sculpture is to portray the abilities of disable people. The objective of Quinn was to show how disable people can become one of the major contributors to the society if they are supported and promoted with positive behaviors. Moreover, Quinn also tried to say that disable people like Alison Lapper is no less than a hero because she has been a successful painter throughout her life. It is the primary responsibility of the people of the society to focus on adopting more effective inclusion strategies for disable people so that they can earn their living and can contribute to the economy of the country.
Conclusion
The main aim of this report was to choose one SDH and discuss that SDH with the help of 3 different artefacts. Disability have been chosen one determinant of SDH. From the report, it can be concluded that two artefacts that have been chosen for the report depict two images of disability. On the other hand, the last one shows statistical data related to disability. The report suggests that disability have been negatively. There are several stigmas and stereotypes that are attached with disability. The first artefact shows an object that has been presented in the museum of Lexington. This artefact was made by disable people and the panel members have tried to show to the world that inequalities faced by disable people are meaningless. The second artefact which happens to be a statistical artefact reveals denial of the population of UK towards disability. The final artefact shows a statue of a pregnant women who is also disable and a successful painter. Thus, it can be said that there are several stereotypes that are associated with disability and instead of treating them misfortunate it is the responsibility of the people of the society to help them so that they can be an effective and important part of the society.
Reference List
Braveman, P. and Gottlieb, L., 2014. The social determinants of health: it's time to consider the causes of the causes. Public health reports, 129(1_suppl2), pp.19-31.
Brown H., 2019. disABILITY' Exhibition Addresses Themes of Ability and Disability Through Art. [online]. Available at
Cieza, A., Sabariego, C., Bickenbach, J. and Chatterji, S., 2018. Rethinking disability. BMC medicine, 16(1), pp.1-5.
Crosland, K. and Dunlap, G., 2012. Effective strategies for the inclusion of children with autism in general education classrooms. Behavior modification, 36(3), pp.251-269.
Heersmink, R., 2016. The metaphysics of cognitive artefacts. Healthcare assignmentPhilosophical Explorations, 19(1), pp.78-93.
Means of escape, 2022. Infographic disability in UK. [online]. Available at
Rogers, S.E., Thrasher, A.D., Miao, Y., Boscardin, W.J. and Smith, A.K., 2015. Discrimination in healthcare settings is associated with disability in older adults: health and retirement study, 2008–2012. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 30(10), pp.1413-1420.
Wadell, E., 2022. The (In)complete Marbles Displaying the Disabled Body. [online]. Available at
