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SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

Social determinants of health are many and affect the health of the people involved. The social determinants of health have stratified the society and led to differences in the provision of health services to the people of America. Most of the people were isolated based on their economic status but the government has moved in and changed much of the existing health discrepancies. People are therefore to receive treatment not because of their race or economic status as was before but because they are human beings who have a right to live healthy and therefore access health care. The determined have had an impact on the way of thinking of the minorities especially the black and Native Americans who are not all endowed to access health care (Loue & Sajatovic, 2009). The society has continued in the trend where only certain groups are more advantaged to access health care due to their socio economic status but the health care reforms the government has come up with have proven to vital in dealing with access to health care for all Americans. Social, economic, political and cultural factors Various economic determinants of health affect the American population. Economic determinants of health among various races and groups of people in America have for a long time been isolated. It is not because they did anything but society has treated them in such a way that they have remained in one place of non-development and therefore subsequent lack of access to health care. Poverty is significant among the Americans especially blacks. Most of the families, which are overburdened with poverty, cannot access health care and there conditions may change for the worse if no intervention takes place (In Fitzpatrick, 2013). The various factors related to economic stability are stability in housing, food security, employment and poverty. Food security is important in that it determines whether people will live healthy lives or not. Poverty brings with it food insecurity among various sections of the populations in the United States. The malnutrition affects the mental health of the children. Housing also is a problem, the people may end up living in conditions that contribute to the spread of diseases, and since they do not have enough finances, they cannot access the medical institutions. As such, the people end up having worse conditions that only needed specified treatment from a physician. Unemployment leads to poverty and since some of the parents are unemployed or working on casual jobs, they earn less income, which affects the way they take of their family especially when focusing on health.

Socio cultural factors have had a great effect on the health of Americans since they determine whether has knowledge of the various diseases or is ignorant. In addition, they determine whether a certain people are vulnerable to a disease since they do not know about it and may not seek the right medication because they are not educated about the procedures to be followed. The way people have been brought up affects their mental capacities. They tend to think like their parents and the society in which they are brought up in. if one is brought up in community that has higher poverty rates such a person is unlikely to be well educated. Since information is power, such individuals may not care about other needs like health care as they focus on their tasks to meet their daily needs. Such a society is at a great disadvantage since the children most probably follow example of their parents. Their concentration is therefore to meet the basic need which are clothing, food and shelter while the others become luxuries due to the their low economies status in the society. sometimes the lack of better housing removes on concentration on seeking medical attention and therefore the communities continue to cultivate such thoughts over long periods of time and it becomes ingrained in them unless there mindsets are changed. The culture of the low and poor Americans creates a culture in them that changes their behavior totally, since from time immemorial, no one has thought of healthcare and therefore the circle goes on throughout the generations. The social economic status of the various race minorities in the United States especially African Americans has affected their health negatively. Socio economies status has been an important determinant in the health status of individuals. Native Americans and black Americans have evidenced great problems in terms of access to health care for the diseases they face. They have been marginalized due to their financial status. The other races in America have been at an advantage when compared to African Americans and Native Americans. The men face a lot of hardship as they deal with the rough life in the streets and most of them end up serving jail terms (Treadwell et al., 2013). The families are left without a breadwinner and mostly the women take up the sudden task of raising the children. The rising unemployment and the high poverty rates among native and African Americans have prevented them from accessing the much-needed health care. The health care reforms in place are paramount to ensure that the poorest of Americans have health provision and are not isolated as was the case before. Politics comes into play where the government enacts laws that deal with health care. Politics affects the way people live in a certain society especially the provision of services by the governments. Some of the services may not reach a certain section of people especially those who are disadvantaged economically. Lack of access puts them at high risk of succumbing to the diseases especially those that need urgent medical care like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Politics has played a great role in delaying of healthcare reforms that had postulated that by the year 2000 health care would be free for all. The various postulations did not happen since there was no political will to carry out the promises. The present government has gone head on with the health care debacle by introducing the affordable care act that provides health care to all Americans regardless of their social economic status (Emanuel, 2014). The social economic status has been a determinant in the provision of healthcare since those who were only insured were able to get healthcare. Without insurance, it was very expensive to access health care and therefore many just stay without consulting a physician hoping that their situation will improve. The affordable care act is thus a milestone in dealing with health care inequalities in America (Emanuel, 2014). Health policy and vulnerable people Healthy policies have been put in place to deal with the various health reforms that are taking place in the country. Vulnerabilities come about due to inequality in incomes, stratified society with classes and interrelationships between various factors that determine how certain people are able to access health care while others do not. Some sections of people are therefore not well endowed as other for example the African American and the Indians. Their networks are not strong enough to ensure that there is flow of resources towards improving their livelihoods since most of them are of low social status. The different races due to poverty especially blacks do not have the advantage of developing well mentally and this affects their performance in school, which results to school dropouts, and hence their chances of getting a better future dwindle. They later may join gangs and hence endanger their lives. Such factors intermingle together and correlate to maintain such a situation in a certain race like African Americans as opposed to whites. Therefore, the resulting population is not in a position of deciding on their health since they have not the resources or knowledge to help them concentrate on their health. Formulation of policies to help in dealing with the vulnerable cases should therefore not focus on just providing medicine to the communities at cheaper costs. The policies should take into mind how the lives of the vulnerable people will be changed so that they are not treating symptoms of a disease but curing the disease and dealing with it before its starts. Therefore, looking into the causes of low access to health care due to race and poverty is important. Therefore, in setting up a health policy the focus should on changing the living standards of the vulnerable people by providing employment and determining ways to prevent ignorance in the races facing disparities in healthcare. Advanced nurses and primary care Advanced nurses are important in the provision of primary care to the vulnerable people. Though the economy grows the state of affairs of the African American community worsens as infant mortality rates have risen through the decade. Most doctors are not usually available in the community and most of the vulnerable communities are not able to afford a doctor especially where they have to visit the hospitals (In Fitzpatrick, 2013). They therefore try to deal with their own problems as before without seeking correct medication and health care. Advanced nurses come in to perform some functions of the doctors in provision of health care services. The advanced nurses therefore bridge the gap between access to hospitals and the vulnerable people in provision of healthcare. Advanced nurses are trained to provide medical care in community settings in liaison with government related organizations. Health care provision and the setting up of various strategies that will alleviate the factors that contribute to ignorance in health related matters coupled with existing disparities in America especially among minorities like black and Native Americans will go a long way in solving the cycles that have caused the health problems.

References Treadwell, H. M., Xanthos, C., & Holden, K. B. (2013). Social determinants of health among African American men. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. In Fitzpatrick, K. M. (2013). Poverty and health: A crisis among America's most vulnerable. Loue, S., & Sajatovic, M. (2009). Determinants of minority mental health and wellness. New York, NY: Springer. Sines, D., Saunders, M., & Forbes-Burford, J. (2013). Community Health Care Nursing. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Emanuel, E. J. (2014). Reinventing American health care: How the Affordable Care Act will improve our terribly complex, blatantly unjust, outrageously expensive, grossly inefficient, error prone system.