Synopsis

This unit considers two ideas: that health is an ever-present factor in our lives, and that health is something difficult to define. But how can we say that health is everywhere if it is so mysterious? How do we recognise health if it so difficult to define? There are no easy answers to these questions! In this unit we explore this paradox, not just because it is a fascinating dilemma but because understanding health in all its multifaceted complexity is a prerequisite to working for health in imaginative, creative and useful ways, in both our private and our public lives.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Learning outcomes
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Health and the media
1.3 Views on health
2 Accounting for health
3.1 Health and low income
3.2 Health and the middle class
3.3 Health and ethnicity
3.4 Health and children
3.5 People's views on health
4.1 Introduction
4.2 People knowledge
4.3 Understanding lay knowledge
5 Quality of life
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Concepts of Illness
6.3 Responsibility for health and illness
7 Moving to a positive paradigm
8 Summary and key themes
Next steps
References
Acknowledgements

 

---