Oppression: Social Determinants Of Health Care

728 Words3 Pages

Health is essential to living a comfortable and fulfilling life, however it’s not granted to everyone as health is determined by various economic and social factors, also known as social determinants of health. Social determinants of health affect the health of the individual, communities and jurisdiction as a whole; consequently it is in charge of determining the extent to which a person can access physical, social and personal resources to health. Understanding social determinants of health will help human service providers such as social workers to have greater awareness on how structural system and social context creates patters of inequalities for certain population, resulting in poor health. Although, it would be incomprehensible …show more content…

These stereotypes are generalization relating to the diversity of a individuals identity which may be translated into destructive and oppressive behaviors and attitudes due to race or ethnicicty,for example women being paranoid and keeping her belongings to herself at the sight of a black man. Although oppression on an individual can affect self-esteem and mental health, it is oppression on an institutional level that poses a threat as it can lead to difficulty in the access of education, health care and legal system. Baines provide a definition of oppression, “oppression takes place when a person acts or a policy is enacted unjustly against an individual or group... depriving people of … basic human rights.” The undermining of oppressive attitudes such as racism within society is critical to the level of access of health resources to those disadvantaged groups, especially in regard to indigenous children. Iindigenous children suffer immensely from oppression, as they are born into a world where they are systematically disadvantages due to the poor quality of life of their parents led as a result of unemployment, inadequate housing, education etc. Due to racism, the cycle experienced by their parents repeats with them, as they experience poor opportunities to education, subsequently growing up into disadvantage adults with little access to health. Furthermore, it has also negatively influenced their mental wellbeing as youth suicide incidence which has exploded in the last decades. Instead of getting better with time, it had gotten worse as in 1990s, not one single aboriginal person was reported to die from suicide, however, recent in Alice Spring hospital, five separate cases of young aboriginally people were submitted who made serious attempts to end their lives . As evident, the quality of health is ever decreasing,

More about Oppression: Social Determinants Of Health Care

Open Document