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Health All cultures have a health care system or
institution
System of beliefs, practices, and practitioners
that reflects the cultures own beliefs about
the causes of illness
Societys response to sickness and the desire
to contain and prevent it from spreading
Health is represented by an absence of an illness
requiring medical attention
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Believe illnesses are
caused by a variety
of factors:
Germs; organic or
physical causes;
emotional or
psychologicalcauses
Western View
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Biomedical
model of illness:
reflects thescientific and
technological
cultures of most
Western
countries
Western View
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Development of Western Medicine has
allowed Western societies to overcome most
of the epidemics that still affect other
countries
smallpox, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, polio
Western View
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Case Study: Schizophrenia
Mental disease where a personsthinking is constantly interrupted by
hearing interior voices talking
Westernized approaches (in past)
have included: placing patients in
mental institutions and
electric shock therapy
More common, people sufferingfrom this are given a variety of
drugs to control the illness
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Some cultures rely on shamans, healers, or
medicine men/women to try to cure illnesses
Form of medicine often contains a spiritual element
Practitioners focus on curing the soul, which will
then cure the body
Non-Western View
Zimbabwe
South Africa Aboriginal
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Typical practices include use of chants, special
herbs or foods, smoke, and applying
pressure/massage to parts of the body
Performances often carried out with communitypresence so patient feels support of society
Non-Western View
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Schizophrenia Schizophrenic individuals are stigmatized less
in non-Western societies
Respect schizophrenics communication with
voicesregarded as other spirits and souls notaudible to other people
Treatment relies upon therapy groups and
healing rituals
People suffering from this condition tend to
receive lots of community/family support
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Illnesses that are specific to a particular culture
and appear to be immune to Western-style
treatment
Set of signs and symptoms that indicate anabnormality or disease that is specific to a
particular culture or racial background
Social Scientists are divided over whether these
syndromes are genetic or a result of the cultural
practices/beliefs
Nature vs. Nurture
Culture Bound Syndromes
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Culture Bound Syndromes
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Examples of
Culture BoundSyndromes
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An eating disorder common to Western Cultures
Involves an irrational fear of gaining weight, as
well as a distorted body self-perception
resulting in excessive weight loss
More common in women, due to the pressure
women feel by
the media to looka certain way
Example 4: Anorexia
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While all societies have some form of
institutionalized health care system, they differ
in regards to:
Responsibility for maintaining the health caresystem
Who can access to the health care system
Tends to be a very divisive political issue and hasmanifested in the debate over Socialized vs.
Privatized Medicine
The Health Care System
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Socialized Medicine
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Makes health care affordable for all citizens and
releases the private sector from its role in
health care
People supporting this view feel that health isa basic right such as food, shelter and clothing
For a society to operate harmoniously, the
needs of all its citizens need to be met
Structural-Functionalism
Socialized Medicine: Pros
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Socialized Medicine is common in:
Canada, Europe, and Countries which practice
Socialist or Left-Wing politics
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System has been criticized in: long wait-times for
treatment, low-quality of services, and lower
wages for health care practitioners
Socialized Medicine: Cons
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Due to the aging population, more taxes have
had to go towards providing these citizens with
health care
As a result there is less money left over foreducation and social services
Socialized Medicine: Cons
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Economic and free-market principles dominate
Government should be removed from regulating
insurance firms, doctors or hospitals as the
market will force insurers to offer plans thatmost people could afford
Many doctors see socialized medicine as forcing
very low prices on them
This is because when prices are kept artificially
low, shortages develop because there is no
incentive to produce
Privatized Medicine
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Privatized Medicine is practiced in:
United States, developing countries with high
inequality, and countries which practice Right-Wing politics
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System has been criticized as creating inequality,
or widening the divide between rich and poor
Privatized Medicine: Cons
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In the United States, for example, it limits peoples
access to good medical help as it discriminates
based on ability to pay
Privatized Medicine: Cons
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Insurance companies have manipulated this
system by denying access to people who are of
certain ages, races, or have pre-existing conditions
This may change with the implementation ofObamacare
Privatized Medicine: Cons
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Sickois a documentary exploring the negative aspects of the
American Health Care System and positive aspects of health
care systems in other countries
Produced by Micheal Moore, a critic of American politics and
an advocate of socialism
His research is based on interviews and conversations with
doctors, theorists, politicians, businessmen and patients
who have experienced the American Health Care system
and those of other countries
He looks into the debate of profit vs. equality
As you watch the film, take notes and use them to help you
answer the questions
Documentary Analysis