HEALTH AND SOCIAL INCLUSION

HEALTH AND SOCIAL INCLUSION

Health and Social Inclusion

Introduction to Social Inclusion

Every individual has a right to fully participate in the society in which he resides and interacts. This calls for a social inclusion that is primarily based on the concept that every member of a nation state has the right to live with dignity and integrity while being socially and economically active. Social inclusion is a concept of not distinguishing or separating any member from the society. Robert Kennedy clearly identifies inclusion as being a “bond of common fate”. Poverty is one of the problems that divide individuals within a society. As more people become poor, the rich-poor gap widens and leads to different classes of societies. This is where exclusion takes place. The poorer depends on the government for support while completely abandoning their participation in the economy. On the other hand, the rich enjoys all the benefits and luxuries that life can offer. This rich-poor gap is an issue that has been lately addressed in many countries particularly the United Kingdom.

Social inclusion is a multifaceted approach that addresses whether everyone in a society meets the basics of life, as well as issues of income inequality and rising wage levels. It caters to different concerns of individuals with respect to job opportunities and income levels. Social inclusion and connectedness with the society can easily be linked with the mental and physical health of individuals. Isolation from society leads to undesirable consequences when a person feels demotivated and left out. He in turns abandons his life and career; and become too depressed and embarrassed to participate his share in the societal well being (Fahey, 2003, 580).

The 1971 White Paper

The government of the U.K. intends to offer provisions for social inclusion in the mainstream of health care. For this reason, the government produced a White Paper in 2001 for England that sets out a policy agenda that particularly address the issue with people having learning disabilities and deficiencies. The Paper has been named as Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century and it initiated a new approach towards people who are suffering from mental disorders and learning disabilities. It recommends community based care for these handicapped people and supports phased care and cooperation of parents for their treatment. The agenda also emphasize on establishing training centres for adults to increase their role play within the communities and make them adjustable to the societies in which they live. It mainly aims to establish better outcomes of health for people with intellectual disabilities. The paper identifies some of the health consequences that are faced by these handicapped people which are enlisted below:

Increased risk of early deaths

Respiratory disorders

Hearing loss

Schizophrenia

Congenital heart problems

Thyroid dysfunctions

Government policies for intellectually disabled individuals are basically supporting the belief that unless the people are mentally sound and healthy, they cannot act as full members of their community. Hence it is imperative that efforts are made to ensure that these types of people ...