PG911B Public Health : Occupational and Educational Inequalities

Answer:

Health inequalities refer to the differences in the health status. Moreover, health inequality is the distribution of the health determinants in between the various population groups (Barros and Victora 2013). As an example, it can be said that mobility rate is different in between the elderly people and the younger population of variety. This can differ in different age groups and different social classes.

Elgar et al. (2015) mentioned that the health inequalities could occur due to the biological variation. Moreover, the external environmental factor can cause the health inequalities. Various policies help to reduce the inequalities of health. The government is implicating the polities to avoid the discrimination in the health care center. Carr et al. (2016) stated that everyone has the right to get equal treatment for the same disease and it should not depend on the social class, age and gender.

The assignment focuses on the evolution of welfare state as well as the recent government policy and direction. The policies state some individual rights and empowerment that is discussed. The adults and the children need safeguard to reduce the inequalities in the caring system. However, the government provides the services in the health, employment, housing education and income maintenance. All the domains of the health inequalities are discussed in the assignment to make people aware about it.

The evolution of the welfare state plays important role in the health sector. The comparative social epidemiology concluded almost invariably that the universal and the generous welfare provision enhanced the population health. Phelan and Link (2015) stated that public do not get proper health outcomes from the health care sectors and welfare state tries to resolve such health puzzles of public. The health inequalities theories include the selection, artifact and culture. This is related to the behavioral, life course, materialistic and psychosocial course (Moncrieffe and Eyben 2013). Welfare state provisions vary very extensively. However, it is necessary to mention that welfare regime statement increases the social epidemiology for the analysis of the cross-national varieties in the population health. For the evaluation of the welfare state, the health inequalities are reduced in little rate. However, Borrell et al. (2014) mentioned that people should be aware about the health inequality teroeis and policies that will help them to be empowered.  

The health inequalities are documented for the decades that targets to develop the countries. The time trend data tries to reduce the health inequalities. Different governments of different countries implement various policies to maintain the health equality in the health care sector (Phelan and Link 2015). This can involve the equality act (2010). This act states that people have equal rights to get the health care service (Moncrieffe and Eyben 2013).  The health care system should not make difference in between people. Everyone has different type of health problems that the health care professionals need to tackle. They need to maintain the legislative regulation of the health care. Health and social policy promotes the reduction of the health inequalities. Mainly the children and older people need the health equality act as they suffer more from diseases. The reason to suffer from various diseases is the poor immunity system of the body. The immunity power increases with the age as well as after a time it starts to decrease (Uphoff et al. 2013).

In case of the health inequality, the empowerment and the individual rights are necessary. The government policies like health inequality act, care and equality act. These laws help to protect the people with the mental or physical disabilities. People with the disabilities are neglected the most, which needs to be reduced (Moncrieffe and Eyben 2013). However, the right discussion includes the changes that are involuntary civil commitment. People have the rights to be hospitalized, treatment and share the informed consent. Therefore, the promotion of the community health is necessary to develop the health condition of the people of lower social class (Lorenc et al. 2013). In case of the mental and physical health, the empowerment plays the significant role to avoid the health inequalities. In these circumstances, the government policies help those people who need empowering and get the equal rights like the majority classes (Robertson et al. 2014). Therefore, it is necessary for the health care professionals to maintain the health care policies otherwise; they may face some major issues.

Safeguarding refers to the providing protection to the people as well as the health, human rights and wellbeing of people. This domain helps the people to live freely from abuse, harm and neglect. Safeguarding is fundamental to provide the health and social care of high quality. Safeguarding to the older and children can include the followings:

This protect the children and older from the maltreatment or something that can reduce the health condition. Safeguarding makes sure to the service users that it provides the best quality care effectively and efficiently so that he discrimination can be avoided. Safeguarding for the adults helps to protect those older people from the inequalities (Salsgiver 2015). This helps the people to live safely and freely from the abuse, neglect and maltreatment. The social workers and the government are working together to reduce the health inequalities to save people who needs care. Safeguarding helps people to share their views, feelings, beliefs and problems as well.

Inequalities in care service provision

The health inequalities may be decreased from the previous time but still it is a big concern in the health and social care service. Still the people of the backwards classes cannot get proper treatment and have no rights to share their opinions regarding health in the health care center. They are treated badly due to lack of money. Therefore, discrimination occurs. Sometimes the staffs also do not get proper treatment if they suffer from any problem. Barros and Victora (2013) opined that the health care should be discrimination free that is free from race, ethnicity, age, gender, nationality and sex. People expect the proper treatment as well as proper behavior. In UK, and US the government has banned the discrimination in the health and social care setting to avoid the health inequalities. People need to be aware and maintain the laws by the government as health inequality is a punishable offence. Due to the health, inequality people can suffer much and it may cause of death.

The people of the lower class do not have proper human and civil rights like others and people avoid and abuse them. However, from last decades, the condition is developed as the government started new policies and regulation. The present governmental legislations such Equality act (2010) and Social care Act (2016) help people to get the proper treatment. Moreover, the government is providing civil rights, budget, homes, health care services, support, employment, medical care, education and social support under the Social care act (2016) (Huber et al. 2017). The people of backward class need education and proper caring for the wellbeing. The governmental legislation is helping them in such condition. The government policies try to help the family members of the patient so that the family members can help the patient to get well soon. The people with the health problems need to be treated with dignity and respect. In such circumstances, the social care workers can help them to reduce the health inequalities and get proper treatment.  

The main objectives of the voluntary agencies are to perform the various functions for the welfare of the human being. In case of the health and social care, they try to help the people, who are not getting the proper treatment due to lack of money and socially backward. However, it is unlawful to exclude them from society and not help them during their bad time. The children and the older suffer much. Therefore, they need the health care system more but cannot get the treatment due to health inequalities. The voluntary agencies help the poor and backward people by providing money, education, employment and housing so that they can live their life in a better way and avoid the social problems. They promote the health care system for the poor and backward people to avoid the inequalities in the health and social care settings.

Due to the ill treatment, the patient complaints against the health care providers. They perform discrimination and therefore the health inequalities occur. This is a serious problem in the health and social care. For the patient safety, the health inequalities need to avoid. This will help to maintain a better environment for people. Moreover, people also should help the government to reduce the inequalities in the health care system so that the backward people can get the treatment and live properly a healthy life.  Many of the time, people complaints that the health care providers avoid them and do not get proper treatment. This kind of behavior is unauthentic and punishable. Therefore, they need to be aware about their actions. Koh, Gracia and Alvarez (2014) opined that if any health care organization r healthcare provider do such kind of practices then they will be punished. As a punishment, they may have to be prisoner or their licenses maybe cancelled.

Diversity and equality in the health and social care system is necessary that is concerned with the health care provisions and service for the people of the different groups. This diversity can cover the people from different culture, background, community, race, ethnicity, gender, sex and disability. The health care should be provided to everyone equally. The government policies can help in such context to the family members. For that reason, they provide support to the health and social care setting to maintain the diversity and equality to help people. The equal rights and citizenship tries to motivate people so that they can increase the knowledge and overcome their disabilities and inequalities in the health care. This diversity helps the professionals and the social workers to help the people, who need the health care.

People should have the right to make their own decision. Therefore, the health care provider needs to maintain the ethics of the health care system. They need to provide the proper and full information to the patient and their family members. The correct information can help the patient and his family members to take the right decision (Devaux 2015). In such circumstances, the health care professional needs to help the patient and the family members to take the correct decision. It can be happened when the health care professionals avoid the inequalities. Thus, the mortality and morbidity rates can be reduced. Maltreatment can cause of the death of the people, who do not get the treatment properly (phoff et al. 2013). Hence, the decision-making plays the major role in reducing the inequalities of the health and social care.

Based on the above discussion, it can be said that health inequality is the distribution of the health determinants in between the various population groups. This can differ in different age groups and different social classes. The government is implicating the polities to avoid the discrimination in the health care center. The adults and the children need safeguard to reduce the inequalities in the caring system. Different governments of different countries implement various policies to maintain the health equality in the health care sector. Health and social policy promotes the reduction of the health inequalities. The promotion of the community health is necessary to develop the health condition of the people of lower social class. Safeguarding helps the service users that it provides the best quality care effectively and efficiently. The health care should be discrimination free that is free from race, ethnicity, age, gender, nationality and sex. The government policies try to help the family members of the patient so that the family members can help the patient to get well soon. The people with the health problems need to be treated with dignity and respect. It can be expected that the inequalities in the health and social can be reduced completely in future with the help of government and social workers.  

References:

Barros, A.J. and Victora, C.G., 2013. Measuring coverage in MNCH: determining and interpreting inequalities in coverage of maternal, newborn, and child health interventions. PLoS Med, 10(5), p.e1001390.

Borrell, C., Palència, L., Muntaner, C., Urquía, M., Malmusi, D. and O'campo, P., 2014. Influence of macrosocial policies on women's health and gender inequalities in health. Epidemiologic reviews, 36(1), pp.31-48.

Carr, E., Vahtera, J., Goldberg, M., Zins, M. and Head, J., 2016. Occupational and educational inequalities in health-related exits from employment at older ages: evidence from 6 prospective cohorts. The European Journal of Public Health, 26(suppl 1), pp.ckw168-045.

Devaux, M., 2015. Income-related inequalities and inequities in health care services utilisation in 18 selected OECD countries. The European Journal of Health Economics, 16(1), pp.21-33.

Elgar, F.J., Pförtner, T.K., Moor, I., De Clercq, B., Stevens, G.W. and Currie, C., 2015. Socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health 2002–2010: a time-series analysis of 34 countries participating in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. The Lancet, 385(9982), pp.2088-2095.

Koh, H.K., Gracia, J.N. and Alvarez, M.E., 2014. Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services--advancing health with CLAS. The New England journal of medicine, 371(3), p.198.

Lorenc, T., Petticrew, M., Welch, V. and Tugwell, P., 2013. What types of interventions generate inequalities? Evidence from systematic reviews. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 67(2), pp.190-193.

Moncrieffe, J. and Eyben, R., 2013. The power of labelling: How people are categorized and why it matters. Earthscan.

Phelan, J.C. and Link, B.G., 2015. Is racism a fundamental cause of inequalities in health?. Annual Review of Sociology, 41, pp.311-330.

Robertson, A.M., Garfein, R.S., Wagner, K.D., Mehta, S.R., Magis-Rodriguez, C., Cuevas-Mota, J., Moreno-Zuniga, P.G. and Strathdee, S.A., 2014. Evaluating the impact of Mexico’s drug policy reforms on people who inject drugs in Tijuana, BC, Mexico, and San Diego, CA, United States: a binational mixed methods research agenda. Harm reduction journal, 11(1), p.4.

Salsgiver, R., 2015. Disability: A diversity model approach in human service practice. Oxford University Press.

Uphoff, E.P., Pickett, K.E., Cabieses, B., Small, N. and Wright, J., 2013. A systematic review of the relationships between social capital and socioeconomic inequalities in health: a contribution to understanding the psychosocial pathway of health inequalities. International Journal for Equity in Health, 12(1), p.54.