Reflective Journal 1

Before starting this topic I purely thought of health on an individual basis.

The individual was responsible for their own health and if they didnt know
how to take care of their body then they naturally would get sick. From the
first tutorial I have learnt that it is a combined effort: the individual and
the community they live in. The first reading we did from Second Opinion
(John Germov) was a fascinating read as it broadened my understanding
of health through explaining it as a social issue. The social origins of
health and illness can clearly be seen when we compare life expectancy
figures of various countries. Germov, J.2005 1( This is true but you can
also see the effects of health in your own community. Someone who is
feeling isolated and is unemployed is likely to have worse health, mental,
emotional and physical, as compared to someone who is employed with a
well-established support network. This was a shock to my system and
completely altered the way I view health. It was like looking at the issue
with a fresh pair of eyes. I can compare this learning to the story of Platos
Parable of the Cave2 and The Matrix3. It is like being shown a reality
different to the one most people have been shown their whole lives. A new
reality may scare some but others (like myself) thrive in this new reality
and can help show people in their lives what theyve learned.

One thing that truly did shock me is how flawed the biomedical was and
continues to be. The fact that mental and emotional health were not really
considered until years after the Second World War is disturbs me greatly.
How did doctors not see how damaged the soldiers were when they came
home? The World Health Organisation (est. 7th April 1948) were the ones
to introduce the idea of health being more than just what was wrong with
a patients body, but to consider the other components of a person, their
mental health, their spiritual health and what their social life included.
This, in my mind, should not have been so strange a concept but it was
and, to some, still is. The way most of us are raised we are taught to look
at health in a purely individual way, but I now know that this is truly not
the case. With what I have learnt I now know what to look for in my own
life when I feel that my health is failing, physically and mentally.

1 Page 6, Chapter 1 in J. Germov (ed.) Second Opinion 5th edition South

Melbourne: Oxford University Press.)
2 Platos Analogy, created by Plato
3 The Matrix, 1999