The biomedical model of health looks at an individual’s physical health rather than at the psychological and social aspect of their health it describes bad health and illness as the presence of disease and symptoms as a result of physical causes such as injury or infections and doesn’t look at the social and psychological factors.
The socio-medical model looks at what makes an individual suffer from sickness, including factor such as social class, occupation, education, income and poverty, poor diet and pollution. E.g. poor housing and poverty are causes to respiratory problems and in response to these causes and origins of ill health. They are more focused on the environment and the life-style of an individual, they practise on the prevention of diseases if there is disease and how to reduce or avert individuals catching it. Overall, they are more concern about the public health and how they can prevent individual from disease prevalence in the area.
Martin and Angela suffer from some socio medical issues such as living in a council estate that is known for high crime rates. This is a potential danger as they could become victims of those crimes. The neighbourhood that Martin and Angela live in can influence their health by limiting their access to public resources. Due to the poor housing conditions they may develop some health conditions such as respiratory diseases caused by damp and mould.
The focus of the biomedical and socio-medical models of health is mainly to give details on why health inequalities exist and persist. According to the health selection explanation people like Martin and Angela will fall to the bottom of society because of their ill health, poor living conditions and employment issues
A strength of the biomedical model of health s that it what is making an individual ill and focuses on how to fix it. In Angela and Martin’s case they can visit the doctor who will examine them and provide treatment, for Martin he will be offered physiotherapy for his pain and Angela some counselling for her anxiety and depression.
Another strength of the biological model is that it has a high success rate in treatment. For example, someone like Angela might be given an antidepressant drug and might begin to feel better. Biological treatments have shown to be successful at treating mental illness, particularly in patients who do not respond well to talk therapy.
Despite the many benefits, there are some limitations to the biomedical model of health For one thing, it ignores the insightful effect environment can have on people, for example Angela’s depression and anxiety might be as a result of the husbands lack of employment which means that all the bills are paid by her, the fact that she lives in an area where the crime rate is high and also the fact that she lives in a cold damp house.
Another disadvantage of the biomedical model of health is that not all health conditions can be cured, on the other hand they can often be managed through behaviour modification therapy which this model does not consider
A strength of the socio model of health is that it addresses the border causes of health such as, age, gender, culture, social class, education and ethnicity. The socio model of health puts into consideration all these factors and not just the biological determinants and focuses on how health and wellbeing can be influenced by such broader determinants.
Another strength of the socio model of health is that it empowered individuals and communities. It gives people a say in how the community is run this means that Angela and Martin can speak to the local council about how they can work together to reduce the rate of crime. It will give them control over decisions and actions that influence their health. The social model of health acts to empower and this may happen through increased health knowledge.
A disadvantage is that it is not scientific so it can’t be proven that its methods are really working. For example Angela may get some counselling for her depression but it may not help her at all rather it might bring forth other problems she is suppression.
Another disadvantage is that the socio model of health tries to prevent diseases. This is idealistic because not all diseases have a cure. For example diseases like HIV have no cure they can only be managed.
Hawanatu Kanu 