Social_Wlefare

“WHERE YOU LIVE CAN AFFECT YOUR HEALTH AND WELL-BEING”. Using examples from Block 3, discuss this statement in relation to both the negative and positive impact that neighbourhoods can have for people who live there. K101 Sabina Rajnar B4964544 …to experience health and well-being, three things need to be in place: physical capability, including vitality and energy; mental health, essentially described as having meaning and purpose in life; and a social context of connection to others to enjoy good social relationships, connection to community and a sense of purpose to feel some control over life, and both energy and a sense of purpose to be able to live enjoyable lives. (Hashagen, 2003, quoted in K101, Unit 9, and p.12). This is how dimensions (social, mental and physical) of health and well-being are interpreted as a broad view of health by health academic R.Labonte (NHS Health Scotland, 2003, p.7, Figure 1 quoted for K101, 2010, p.13). In this assignment I would like to show and describe what are neighbourhoods, positive, as well as negative aspects living in a poor/rich neighbourhood and how can that affect people’s health and well-being. To illustrate positive and negative points in neighbourhood, I will use the Thornhill plus You Project (K101, DVD, Unit 9, video 9.3), residents of Thornhill (K101, DVD, Unit 10, video 10.1-10.4), Community access project for isolated and excluded people (K101, DVD, Unit 10, Activity 11, video 10.1) and Thornhill family support-Mina (K101, Unit 10, Activity 5) as an examples as well as Community access project; outreach and advocacy (K101, DVD, Unit 10, Audio 10.1). Let me begin with saying how would we explain what is the neighbourhood; kind of community with defined boundaries; it is a place where most aspects of daily life and care are experienced (Wiles, 2008, p.11) and they also mean different things to different people. Acheson Report (Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health for K101, 2008, p.17) shows us line between people’s personal attributes (age, sex) and the layers of influence that they are around them (personal behaviour and a way of life of different people).That showed us health is influenced by where people live. Neighbourhoods need certain points of interests like amenities; meeting places, schools, shops, employment opportunities; workplaces in the local area, services that are accessible; public, private organisations, even voluntary work. In the essay I will illustrate positive and negative aspects in neighbourhoods and how they can affect people’s lives. We have first met residents who live in Thornhill (K101, DVD, Unit 9, video 9.1) while they were taking part in different leisure activities. This video shows us all three aspects of well-being (social, physical and mental).We saw people of all different age groups taking part in activities which shows us physical aspect of well- being (we saw the participate in tea dance and playing netball, for example).Social aspect is shown in all people who entered the groups and have social contact as well as shared interest. Some people would be lonely if they would not come there they said. Bernedete (K101, DVV, Unit 9, video 9.1) said she met lots of people and became firm friends with them and she also said she has a break from the family and get out of the house. Mental well-being comes through purpose of life and sense of meaning. Example for that is shown in craft group where all can show their creativity and learn new skills. You can also see how they appreciate each other’s work. These examples are all seen as a positive aspect in the neighbourhood and how has these things been positive for their health and well-being. Let me say something about Thornhill estate. It is a working class neighbourhood with higher than average percentage of young families with children. Many people in the area live on a low income and they also have very little employment. Some people feel “socially isolated and “excluded”. Health issues in Thornhil include teenage pregnancy; Dave (K101, DVD, Unit 9, audio 9.1) mentions also underage drinking, smoking as well as mental and physical ill health, they do very little exercises. All these factors affect health and well-being of people in poor neighbourhoods. Because society in that kind of areas have very little hope or ambitions to do anything; here come out these negative factors that can lead into big problems, as we all know teenage drinking and pregnancy of young girls is a big issue in England in general. In Thornhill area they have started to run Thornhill Plus Youth programme (K101, DVD, Unit 9, video 9.3) which is a government funded programme to help solve and regenerate the problems of residents living there, specially their health issues (healthy eating for example ).They have diverse range of activities and the project is also joint to the health clinic, which means more people can go there and have a look. They present the healthy eating project, which is another issue on this estate, sports activities. They have different volunteers to help and run this. The project also tries to improve physical health. People in the area are on very low income, the project has understood that and they can’t afford to spend for unnecessary things. They try to help to reduce social isolations and give more confidence to all the residents as of when needed. People, who enter the Project also have fun together, which is, again, very important for social life. For elderly people is important to reduce the risks of accidents in their homes and maintain being more independent. In the videos we met some of the residents of Thornhill and they shared their views about the area where they live. Pauline (K101, DVD, Unit 10, video 10.1) is a local volunteer and she has lived in Thornhill for a long time. She is very attached to the estate, using everything, from local shops to health clinic, within the estate. If she wants to go somewhere else she uses her disabled bus. She is very much involved in the community and she has good social life, this is important for her well-being Nearly all residents in Thornhill feel safe and comfortable to live there, which is a positive point for well-being in the area. Some of the residents feel excluded from the society, therefore they have Community access project (K101, DVD, Unit 10, audio 10.1) which help that kind of people. Some of these residents have mental health problems, learning difficulties or physical difficulties. Therefore, workers from the project help with transport; they help people to even just go out from the house. In the audio they mentioned advocacy; which basically means they try people to speak for themselves, they try to listen to the people and find out about their issues and also they like to encourage people to do different thing themselves. Poor people feel excluded from the society but not only that if they are affected by one factor they are more likely to be affected by other factors. How do we improve well-being in the neighbourhood' We have to connect into the neighbourhood through different communities and project; also we have to address health issues and needs. We can see how the local residents in Thornhill working with the primary care trust. When neighbourhood reflects local needs it can also make a real contribution to improve people’s health, and reduce effect of poverty as well as social exclusion. The health activities are built around society’s needs and accessible for everyone; but sometimes people don’t have enough confidence, therefore we have some communities to help with these kinds of situations. In the course book we became close to story of Mina Ali (WILES, 2010, p.83) who is a Bangladeshi woman and has not got very much of a confidence, therefore social support worker try to help to get involved in different project in the area, to meet some new people and have some social interaction. Her problem is also language; she speaks very little English. She might feel very shy as she knows people in the activities have different language and culture compare to her. In conclusion I would like to say that the different factors do affect health and well-being neighbourhood in all different aspects. If people in the neighbourhood do engage with their local communities, care agencies we can find out about diverse needs and use all these information to develop services that community and people in the area need. REFRENCES: *The Open University (2010) K101 An Introduction to health and social care, Unit 9, Improving health and well-being in neighbourhoods, Milton Keynes, The Open University *The Open University (2010) K101 An introduction to health and social care, Unit 10, Inclusion and exclusion in the community , Milton Keynes, The Open University *The Open University (2010) K101 An Introduction to health and social care, Unit 11, Working with diversity, Milton Keynes, The Open University *The Open University (2010) K101 An introduction to health and social care, Unit 12, Supporting people to use community resources, Milton Keynes, The Open University *The Open University (2010) K101 An introduction to health and social care, DVD Unit 9, Video 9.3 Thornhill Plus You, Milton Keynes, The Open University *The Open University (2010), K101 An introduction to health and social care, DVD, Unit 9, video 9.1, Motiv8 leisure activities , Milton Keynes, The Open University *THE Open University (2010) K101, An introduction to health and social care, Dave, DVD,Unit 9, audio 9.1, Milton Keynes, The Open University *The Open University (2010) K101, An introduction to health and social care, Pauline, K101, DVD, Unit 10, video 10.1 Pauline, Milton Keynes, The Open University *The Open University (2010), K101, An introduction to health and social care, Shelley, K101, DVD, Unit 10, video 10.3, Milton Keynes, The Open University * The Open University (2010) K101, An introduction to health and social care, K101, DVD, Community access project, Unit 10, audio 10., Milton Keynes, The Open University *The Open University (2010) k101, an introduction to health and social care, DVD, Unit 10, audio 10.1, Milton Keynes, The Open University Part b If Mina would like to know how she will go on and so, I would try and suggest her to give it a go and try to visit the centre with all kind of different projects, myself as a support worker I would go with her for the first few times to give her more confidence. The service may not benefit Mina, as she does not know how other workers will know her culture, maybe I would also suggest and try to get Bengali support worker but I would do everything to help her. 2. I would ask her if she consider learning English language, which would be very practical for her as well as give her more confidence with social life and communication with other people in the area. 3. How would I maximize her potential' I would suggest her to go to the projects and meet with other people, perhaps teach them something about her culture, maybe her cuisine and tell the other participants about her life. 4. I would listen to Mina carefully, give her time to think and say it back what she thinks. Maybe help her with the language as well 5.I would try to find out if she would be appropriate to these services, as she is from Bangladesh and a Muslim, so she might prefer support worker who understands her culture and religion. SELF REFLECTION I hope my progress is doing well, I know I can do it better and I am really trying to improve my academic writing. I find this module really interesting because of all these case studies. I work in a social care at the moment and I really like it, although I would love to have a degree in Criminology one day or even Social care.