Health and the Individual

Health, Wellness, and Illness

  • Health: a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
  • Wellness: how a person feels about their health
  • The seven forms of wellness
    • Physical- diet and exercise
    • Emotional-ability to understand themselves, how to deal with stress
    • Intellectual- able to make informed decisions
    • Spiritual- varies from person to person
    • Social- the ability to communicate with others
    • Environmental- one’s relationship with the environment, being eco friendly
    • Occupational- feeling secure, valued, and confident in their workplace
  • Illness: the presence of disease; how a person feels about their health
  • Disease: a condition with a person’s bodily or mental function which is not normal
    • May also describe a group of symptoms
    • Remission: no sign of disease
  • Disability: deviation from normal function

Health Models

  • Medical model
    • It emphasizes diagnosis and treatment of disease but may exclude prevention.
    • Focusses on the physical process of a disease
  • Holistic model
    • A concept in medical practice that considers all aspects of a person's needs
    • Consists of prevention, treatment, and management of illness or disease
  • Traditional health
    • Attention aimed at treating symptoms with drugs/surgery.
    • The focus is on finding the underlying cause of the symptoms
  • Holistic Health
    • Personal responsibility patient is given a recommendation and it is up to them that they get better
  • Indigenous Wholistic Theory for health
    • Considers mental, physical, cultural, and spiritual wellbeing
    • East: shows spirit and vision
    • South: show the value and importance of relationships
    • North: shows healing movement and actions that guide practice
  • Wellness model
    • Focuses on assuming responsibility for their health and progression over time.
    • Not taking self-imposed risks: smoking, drinking, drugs, obesity, and a sedimentary lifestyle

Changing Perceptions of Health and Wellness

  • A positive mindset can help a person deal more effectively with stress and fight disease
  • Historically, people if they got sick went to the doctor, got medication, and got better without participating in their treatment plan
  • Since the 1990s people have had access to information to take control of the treatments

Psychology of Health Behavior

  • Transtheoretical
    • People who are in the process of change could be
    • Pre-contemplation (don’t want to change)
    • Contemplation
    • Preparation
    • Action
    • Maintenance
    • Relapse
    • Termination
  • Social-ecological model
    • Many influences in one's life shape health (home, family, school, sports, work)
  • Protection Motivation Theory
    • Fear that they will get sick, so they take action to prevent it
  • Health belief model
    • If they believe that it will help, they are more prone to do it
    • Assuming they do not like the negative outcome

Health Illness Continuum

  • Continuum: is a method using a straight line with an opposing state at each end
  • Ones who society may say have poor health could be closer to optimum health depending on how they view their illness and if they have accepted it yet
  • Sick Role Behavior: when people get sick their personality changes
    • Remember when dealing with patients this is not who they are
    • Be patient with them; they are also tired and frustrated
  • Self-Imposed Risk
  • Many people participate in risky behavior including:
    • Unhealthy diet
    • Sunbathing
    • Inactivity
    • Drug abuse
    • Alcohol abuse
    • Speeding or driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol
    • Driving without a seatbelt

The Health of Canadians Today

  • Canadians are living longer now than ever
    • The overage life expectancy is 80.7 years
  • Currently, the leading cause of death is cancer, and the second is heart disease
  • 1 in 2 Canadians are expected to be diagnosed with cancer

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