Analysis Effect of Social Reasons on Our Health - Assignment Example

Summary of SDH Name: Unit: Course: Professor: Submission Date: 5. What are some of the inherent problems with capitalist food production? How does our social location affect our access to good food? Food capitalistic production steals food sovereignty element among people. Currently the means of obtaining food and food production have exchanged hands with the northern transnational retail companies and big agri-food business playing the natural role of a farmer in the south. They have done so by removing power from policy makers, local consumers and local producers. This shift comes with land grabbing, food prices speculation and liberalized trade regimes. Human-induced changes in climate as well as environmental degradation do affect system towards food sufficiency leading to food affordability, quality and quantity impairment. Also some aspects that food capitalistic production employs coupled with external forces like demand and supply lead to inaccessibility to food by all in reference to quality and quantity (5.3:C3). Unbalanced priorities for example cultivation of corn in US and Sugar in Brazil for biofuels rather than feeding people. The process does not only lead to deforestation but direct the food product to priorities that aim at improving the country’s economy rather than curbing hunger (C1). Social location means that either a person can access food in reference to having financial support through good wage, being strategically located near food outlets, attending school for school children to benefit from school feeding programs, food for work and access to subsidized government food. Access to good seeds and safety of farm produce until harvest time and or access to good market for farm produce (E8). 6. How does inadequate housing negatively impact our health? What other aspects of our surroundings should we consider? Poor quality and overcrowding housing directly correlate to heart diseases, developmental delays, poor mental health and even short stature. Inadequate housing comes in majorly because of socioeconomic disparity between people even in one state. In addition, inadequate housing also depicts the probability of such a home accessing quality food and food products as well as other social amenities. For example a refugee in Canada, even with education my lack formal job in the country, find himself or herself in an informal employment with wages just enough to meet basic need or insufficient, funds hence will rent a house in suburban area that is only big enough to accommodate its family size, but no room for free air circulation, inaccessibility to water and electricity (Dossa & Dyck, n.d.). Where people live is of paramount importance to their health. Presence of industries benefits comes with a package of harm on the other hand. For example mining that exposes the workers to various gaseous and solid pollutant bad to their health. Noise is another factor, air pollution mixed with other poisonous gases including methane, soli pollution and water pollution with heavy metals lethal to human race like mercury hinders good health for those living near such industries. Mining Induced displacement and Resettlement, plus a ex-miner who leave the employment following job related disease like TB, HIV etc (C6). 7. How does the organization of work affect our health? What changes might we make to the way our work is organized to make it safer and healthier for all? Racialization is venom in employment. In Canada radicalized compared to non-racialized Canadians face jobs barriers as well as recognizable pay disparity. While there are more racialized men and women in the remediation services, waste management and administrative support services compared to non-racialized counterparts, the group of industry comprises jobs like janitorial services, security services, and call centers to business services that are lowly paid. In Canada, few racialized population make up the public policy workforce compared to non-racialized population. This shows how it’s a challenge to change policies to favor the racialized community. This disparity not only leads to stress, frustration and other mental related diseases and disorders like anxiety and diabetes to population, but also declined work output due to lack of morale (Block & Galabuzi, 2011). To ensure organization are safer and healthier for all we should first ensure that people have training and qualification that can help them land in the best job position and get good pay. second should enhance community and social supports require for a new labour market , Ensure that jobs acts as channels to employment and income security, and lastly come up with a labour market that is dynamic and which support employment for workers despite instability for jobs and race (Lewchuk, Lafleche, Procyk et al., (2015). 8. How does violence affect our health? What are some of the forms of violence that affect people living in Canada, including people who have recently arrived? Gender based violence has adverse effect to human rights especially on girls and women in general. In reference to health GBV has both short and longterm implication to the psychological and physical health of the victims. Sexually abused women are highly likely to suffer from stress and depression, increased risk to low child birth weight with about 16% probability, increased vulnerability to HIV and STIs infection to about one and half times compared to non-GBV abused women. Other factors related to health are that increased chances to alcohol abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and disability (GHW3: C4). GBV is a leading factor to institutional oppression, representational oppression, economic oppression and social oppression a fact that builds stress and stressors element from one level to the other rendering a person unproductive and prone to diseases and other lifestyle related disorders (Samuels-Dennis, Bailey and Ford-Gilboe). Gender based violence like workplace sexual harassment , intimate partner violence against women, oppression among the poor, ethnic groups that divides the Canadian community, children oppression, transgender violence, boys and men violence , communal violence, caste-based violence, ethnic violence, racial violence and war (GHW3: C4) 9. What are some policies and practices of settler colonial states toward Indigenous peoples? What are some ways that colonialism affects people’s health? During the colonial era the indigenous persons in Canada were displaced and deterritorialized differently, with treaties in some areas and other areas with no treaties. There was also differentially location of reserves in reference to the land’s value according to colonial settler’s valuation. The colonial government did come up with the Bagot report; the Indian Act and Enfranchisement Act, which carried out strategies, laws, documents and policies that became to the corner stone for bringing up unhealthy indigenous people. By coming up with such Acts, they were key drivers in resources allocation related to health, structuring education among Indians, reserve lands and resources allocation, and dictating identities of indigenous people. Colonial works towards assimilating and civilizing the indigenous community like Indians in Canada with a key objective of ruling over them, managing their resources; money. land and reserves, and using the professional men and women for their own good, with no status and dividing the indigenous people to render them weak In addition, the classification of people according to Indian Act, also dictate how they interact and access healthcare in Canada. These differences in accessing and interacting with services in health care leads to unhealthiness versus healthiness clustering of community and indigenous people (Leeuw, Greenwood). Colonial policies that lead to death of indigenous community with no apology like the cholera in Haiti, after earthquake episode yet not related (GHW4:D5). Colonial disposes, marginalizes and passes on communicable disease to indigenous community like in Australia, rendering them to shelter-less and other poor living conditions that puts them vulnerable to diseases (GHW4:E9). 10. How does the capitalist economy affect our health? How does the capitalist economy affect healthcare?  Neoliberalism brought the notion that minimal government interference, strong property rights, free trade, sovereign individuals and free markets are the best elements for ensuing human wellness. With great recession poverty rates, unemployment rates and job insecurity parameters are common that are also associated with increased rates of stress and suicide cases. Quantitative easing is another form of capitalist economy did increase money supply to encourage businesses to lend bank and people to consume this led to food prices increment, increased childhood death due to healthcare lower rates utilization, public health expenditures reduction and declining incomes (GHW4:A1). With globalization, carbon emission is a contributing factor to climate that, with variable climate and warmer surrounding likely to lead to increased disease transmission, through food contamination and water and reduced agricultural production as well as air pollution. Shift in temperature is likely to increase infectious disease spreading such as diarrhoela and cholera diseases, malaris etc. Climate change is a key reversive phenomenon of the achievement attained by the public health community globally (WHO, n.d.). The call to ensure children feed on nutritionally compressed products not only reaps the nation resources as a lot of money is invested in combating malnutrition, with minimal sustainability leading to adverse situation both for micro and macro-nutrients as UNICEF does (GHW3, D2). With neoliberalism 1.0.and the agenda of free trade evolution most countries crippled under debts, leading to inequality and poverty which are key risks to preventable disease conditions. Economic slowdown led to reverse in health milestones gained, with the children, women, rural populations and the poor being the most affected. 11. What might medicine look like if it were organized based on human need rather than capitalist imperatives? How might our ideas of health and illness change if we base our society on equity? There will be only few effective essential drugs able to transform global health. Both people from rich and poor nations will have had access to the drugs for currently neglected disease. Realize that most diseases are preventable and encourage people to carry out exercise, avoid smoking and eat nutritious diet to prevent disease development, as it will cost the countries less money for pharmaceautical care if primary health care is looked into. There will also be balance of medication provision to avoid challenges of over and under medication in different nations with differing economic growth. manage neglected-disease portfolios on R.& D, support right R&D projects with public funds and coordinate and integrate drug-development contractors, academic partners and industry partners (GHW3:D4), pp276-286. Realize the fundamental role of the CHW of linking the community and the health care system to ease cost burden for disease mortality and morbidity (GHW4, B7). The will to volunteer, offer good health care quality services will be high, with the support sourced shared with autonomy, like case of Cuba medic does (GHW3 E3). 12. What political interventions are needed to improve the health of people who live in Canada, especially those who are socially disadvantaged? What are some challenges to organizing for change? Coming up with policies that benefit the public health care rather than being self-centered. There is need to evaluate economic and social policies regularly that might impact the health in any way (GHW D3). The policy makers, multisectorial leaders and healthcare providers should embark on using updated knowledge to raise the standard that have impact to the populations health. Social disparities should be addressed as they encourage illness onset, disease severity and progression. Such would be attained by coming up polices even outside the healthcare as they would have great impact towards disease generation, progression and onset. Come up with interventions that ensure access to resources within the society like the built environment, economic structures, political structures, social institutions and living standards. Such include improving conditions of neighborhood, additional income and health, academic enrichment for early childhood (Williams, Costa, Odunlami & Mohammed, 2008. Challenges include motivating providers to take institutional and personal ownership of health disparities problem, policy that create awareness of the need to reduce disparities and uniting both the political leaders who are key policy makers to ensure they priorities on primary intervention that promote people health with equality (Williams, Costa, Odunlami & Mohammed, 2008) References Block S. & Galabuzi G. (2011). Canada’s Color Coded Labor Market. The Gap for Racialized Workers Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives; Wellesley institute Dosa P.&Dyck (n.d.). Place, health and home: gender and migration in the constitution of healthy space, pp239-254 Global Health Watch Chapter C4-Breaking free from gander-based violence, in Global Health Watch 3: An Alternative Health Report (London: Zed Books) pp213-219. Global Health Watch Chapter D2- UNICEF and the medicalization of malnutrition in children, in Global Health Watch 3: an Alternative Health Report (London: Zed Books) pp249-265 Global Health Watch Chapter D4- The pharmaceutical industry and pharmaceutical endeavor, in Global Health Watch 3: An Alternative Health Report (London: Zed Books) pp 276-286 Global Health Watch Chapter E3- Cubas’s international cooperation in health, in Global Health Watch 3: An Alternative Health Report (London: Zed Books) pp350-359 Global Health Watch Chapter A1- The health crises of neoliberal globalization, in Global Health Watch 4: An Alternative Health Report (London: Zed Books) pp11-40 Global Health Watch Chapter B7- The revival of community health workers in national health systems, in Global Health Watch 4: An Alternative Health Report (London: Zed Books) pp134-145 Global Health Watch Chapter C3- Nutrition and food sovereignty, in Global Health Watch 4: An Alternative Health Report (London: Zed Books) pp198-210 Global Health Watch Chapter C5- Cholera epidemic in Haiti, in Global Health Watch 4: An Alternative Health Report (London: Zed Books) pp300-307 Global Health Watch Chapter C6- Extractive industries and health, in Global Health Watch 4: An Alternative Health Report (London: Zed Books) pp229-242. Global Health Watch (2014) Chapter D3— Private sector influence on public health policy, in Global Health Watch 4: An Alternative Health Report (London: Zed Books) pp. 279-287. Global Health Watch Chapter E9- Aboriginal community-controlled health services in australia. in Global Health Watch 4: An Alternative Health Report (London: Zed Books) pp395-401 Leeuw S.D. and Greenwood M. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Beyond borders and boundaries: addressing indigenous health inequities in Canada through theories of social determinants of health and intersectionality, pp54-68 Lewchuk W., Lafleche M., Procyk S. et al., (2015). The Precariy Penalty: The Impact of Employment Precarity on Individuals, Households and Communities-and what to do about it. Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontarion (PEPSO), Southern Ontario. Samuels-Dennis, J., Bailey A. and Ford-Gilboe M.(n.d.). Intersectionality Model Of Trauma And Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. UBC press, pp.274-289. Williams, D.R., Costa, M.V., Odunlami A. O. & Mohammed, S.A. (2008). Moving upstream: how interventions that address the social determinants of health can improve health and reduce disparities. J Public Health ManagPract, 14 (Suppl): S8-S17. World Health Organization (n.d,). Healthy Hospitals Healthy Planet, Healthy People: Addressing Climate Change in Health Care Settings. Retrieved 11/26/2015 from, http://www.who.int/globalchange/publications/climatefootprint_report.pdf Read More