Sophie Staunton - Health Responsibility Position Statement Flashcards

Flashcards covering the shift from individual to shared responsibility in health, social determinants, and person-centered care based on Sophie Staunton's position statement.

Initial Position (Staunton)

The view that individuals are primarily responsible for their own health outcomes through everyday choices such as exercise, diet, and medication compliance.

Current Position (Staunton)

The belief that health responsibility is shared unequally, with governments, health systems, and social conditions having more responsibility than individuals for shaping population health outcomes.

Social Determinants of Health

Factors including income, education, housing, transport, culture, gender, location, health literacy, and disability that influence health outcomes across the population.

Health (Holistic Definition)

A state including physical, mental, emotional, and social wellbeing, rather than just the absence of disease.

Illness (Social/Structural Definition)

A condition shaped by a person’s life, environment, support systems, access to care, and experiences with the health system, rather than being purely biological.

Individual Responsibility

The responsibility of persons to seek help, attend appointments, ask questions, and follow treatment plans when they are able to.

Government Responsibility

The duty to fund and regulate systems like Medicare, public health programs, and preventive strategies to make healthy choices fair and possible for the whole population.

Population Health

A perspective that looks at patterns across groups and attempts to reduce risk before illness becomes severe.

National Preventive Health Strategy 2021–2030

A government policy focusing on prevention, reducing health inequities, and addressing the wider determinants of health to reduce avoidable disease burden.

Preventive Health Measures

System-level actions such as vaccination programs, cancer screening, road safety laws, and tobacco plain packaging designed to protect people before they are at risk.

Inadequate and Inappropriate Services

Healthcare services that are technically available but unusable due to being too expensive, too far away, culturally unsafe, or not person-centred.

Barriers to Healthcare for Aboriginal People

Factors identified by research such as distance, cost, racism, lack of cultural safety, and poor communication that limit access to care.

Person-Centred Care

A practice that recognises the person as an active participant in their own care and considers their whole situation, including social, cultural, and financial factors.

Primary Health Care System

The universal features of Australia's health system intended to provide care for all, though research identifies ongoing gaps in access for disadvantaged groups.