Základní definice pojmu zdraví – anglicky

Health

In the human live the “health” presents one of the most important, necessary and existence indispensable value. How we could acknowledge in the course materials and other specialized publications, biological and mental health is influenced by numbers of external and internal factors, for example, genetic habits as the internal factor, and lifestyle or environmental as the external factors. During the development of the society views and approaches to findings of the most exact definition of the health have been changing. Staking out the “health” is not simple.

In this paper, I would like to speak about few contemporary and most frequently used staking out conception of “health” in the publications. “Health” can be understood on various levels. Sometimes, it is possible to use a definition of “illness”, for simpler understanding of concept meaning.

As I have already mentioned, health can be defined as a primary life value. Illness is in this case an undesirable and redoubtable effect which is needed to rule out of the live, because it changes the quality of the human life. With context of the primary life’s value we can define “health” in agreement with the person subjective realizing. Personal view on health is changeable over human life. It depends on sex, age and education. For example, younger women prefer psychological health whereas younger men physical health.

Simply we can deduce the third basic concept of “health” as positive contrariety to “illness”. “Health” is here understood as the state, which is characterized with absence of a somatic or a psychological ailment.

Health as a mine of physical and psychological ability: provides with assurance that we will be able to manage our survival. The level of the physical and psychological ability can be changed. Ability can be reduced or returned. Near with this is the fifth conception describing the “health” as the ability of adaptation and accommodation. The adaptation refers to some human’s characteristics which stand out as being especially significant in the survival in the environment. Thanks to accommodation it is possible “the modification of old ways of thinking to incorporate new knowledge and information”, relieves another common life. (Bláha, Šemberová; 2004, page 9) I think that it is the one of the most important conceptions for the social workers who deal with the development and the support of these abilities.

“Health” is possible to understand as an ability of the normal behaviour or can be thought as an ideal state too. The ideal state must be reached all life in agreement with human possibilities. This concept of “health” is pertains also to the good working capacity, highest quality of interpersonal relations of the human and also to an exacting ethical, esthetical and other criteria. The more the person fills these criteria the closer he is to the appreciated by society. Such conception of “health” coming-out from notions about the ideal state and from social agreement on size of tolerated abnormalities. This is for the social work a target of importance to help people, to be able to reach these society reputable values. The second one is necessary if the human wants to get his commission, which is sequent upon from his biological and socializations program. “Health” is in this case concurrent with a society definition of “normality”, which can also be under discussion from many aspects, for example, from the statistical angle.

Last but not least, I would like to quote a “bio-psycho-social model” of “health”. “Health” is here understood, according to the definition of the World Hospital Organization (WHO), “as a state of complete full physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease”. (www.who.int) This conception sees the “health” as intricately linked complex from many biological, psychological and social aspects. In this conception “illness” presents inconsonance between the aspects of psychological and biological being of the human. Health and illness are perceived as bipolar dynamic continuum, which can be fluently changed.

The last mentioned concept I feel as optimal for needs of social work in health care and social work[1] in general. By reasons, that one of the objectives of social work is to help people in their community and environment while using their abilities and skills. In addition, social worker should be as a tutor in the human life. These are the reasons, why the social work is defined as a multicultural work and why the social workers need to know and to understand human life in all context. Social workers, especially social workers who work in “health services”, must be introduced with these definitions and concepts of “health” and sequentially use them actively in the work with the patients or clients.

Reference list:

materials for course

Bláha, J., Šemberová, J.: Anglický výkladový slovník. Praha: Triton, 2004.

Křivohlavý, J.: Psychologie zdraví. Praha: Portál, 2003.

Mlčák, Z.: Psychologie zdraví a nemoci. Ostrava: FF OU, 2005.

Paulík, K.: Psychologické poradenství v sociální práci. Ostrava: FF OU, 2002.

http://www.who.int/topics/reproductive_health/en/                                           2009-03-15

[1] These spheres are quite strictly separated in the Czech Republic.