Model of health

Essay by shinchan14University, Master's January 2013

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Critically discuss and defend the model of 'health' that appears to have the greatest practical relevance for you.

The most well-known and widely cited description of ' health' is the World Health Organization's (WHO) definition, which defined health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. (WHO, 1958) In the 1986, the WHO definition of health was expanded to include a community concept of health. It's definition is then expanded to "The extent to which an individual or group is able, on the one hand, to realise their aspirations and satisfy their needs; and on the other to change or cope with their environment. Health is therefore a resource for everyday life, not the object of living, it is a positive concept emphasising social and personal resources as well as physical capabilities".

According to WHO definition, health can be seen in two aspects, they are the positive and negative view of health.

For positive, health is seen as requiring the presence of a quality/ well-being. Likewise, for negative, health is viewed in a negative sense as involving the absence of disease or infirmity. Furthermore, both positive and negative health are to be seen as having interconnected physical, mental and social elements. No matter how often the WHO definition is cited by health professionals, it is always true to say that in practice the positive aspect of health tends to be neglected and it is also true that the negative health aspect is currently dominant. Especially in a Western World, the body is often thought of as a complex machine that is necessary to its maintenance and smooth working through its daily action, and when an illness or disorder will be viewed as a failure in the system which prevented...