Understanding Heath, Illness, Individual and Community Health
There is a fine line between the health of an individual and the health of a community. Each can influence the other. In this Discussion, you will analyze a case study to determine if members of a family and their community are "healthy," according to the WHO definition.
To prepare for this Discussion:
Review the "Introduction to the Writing Center" guide located in the Week 1 Resources.
Explore some of the handouts and tutorials relating to tone and scholarly writing as well as the example of "gold star" discussion posts.
Use these examples as handouts to help you create your first discussion post.
Then, consider the following scenario with respect to the health of the Davis family and the health of their community:
Jonathan Davis and his wife, Alexis, are 55 years old and have one daughter, Joanne. Jonathan and Alexis live in the same neighborhood as Joanne, who visits her parents frequently.
Jonathan has smoked one pack of cigarettes every day for the past 30 years and is 20 pounds overweight. He works in a local plastics manufacturing plant and has a physically demanding job. Alexis enjoys working in her garden and cooking a variety of vegetable-rich meals. Joanne exercises regularly but does have asthma, for which she uses an inhaler when needed.
The community where Jonathan, Alexis, and Joanne live has extensive walking and biking paths. Joanne makes full use of the paths and bikes on them at least once every week. The community has recently instituted a wellness clinic about three blocks away from Jonathan and Alexis' house.
Although the plastics plant pollutes the river, the company plans to install water and air pollution control measures in about 3 years. The plant is currently implementing purification measures for the river.
Questions:
What does being "healthy" mean to you?
Are the members of the Davis family healthy, according to the WHO definition? Your definition?
Are they living in a healthy community? Please explain.
What can be done to improve and promote the health of the Davis family as well as the community?
Support your rationale using information from your assigned readings and resources, paraphrasing effectively.
Course Media: Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012). Personal Health and Wellness: Dimensions of Health Wheel [Multimedia], Baltimore, MD: Author.
Article: Montague, J., & Frank, B. (2007, July/August). Creating whole-person wellness. Assisted Living Consult, 3(4), 14-20. Retrieved from http://www.assistedlivingconsult.com/issues/03-04/alc78-Wellness-719.pdf
Hettler, B. (1976). The Six Dimensions of Wellness Model. National Wellness Institute. Retrieved from http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.nationalwellness.org/resource/resmgr/docs/sixdimensionsfactsheet.pdf
World Health Organization. (1998). Health promotion glossary. Geneva, Switzerland: Author. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/about/HPR%20Glossary%201998.pdf
Yach, D. (1998). Health and illness: The definition of the World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.medizin-ethik.ch/publik/health_illness.htm