Vulnerable Population and Self Awareness

Vulnerable Population and Self Awareness

Introduction

Every society consists of individuals or group of people, who are considered to be more vulnerable in comparison to the other people in the society towards any sought of harm. For example, people who have more probability to fall sick, or to go through social rejection, mist treatment, disrespect and poverty. If general consensus are taken they would result in a common opinion that generally in every society the elderly and the very young people are experiencing any disability are usually taken for granted and are vulnerable. Often it is witnessed in many societies that racial discrimination, ethnic and religious differences, gender biasness and people who migrate also tend to become very vulnerable. Vulnerability often creates a sect or a group of people in every society, who due to unconditional life circumstances are not able to follow precautionary measures or emergency instructions.

Discussion

Broadly speaking it is not usually the actually the composition of a specific group of people or population that influence the vulnerability factor, but instead it is how these groups or how the population is perceived by others in the society, for example how the local citizens, or business or government sector or health sector would behave with them. As a matter of fact a population that could be vulnerable in one vicinity or country could have much more protection in another vicinity or country.

Most commonly in every society people with poor standards of living and low income generation have more probability of facing bigger problems and risks and along with that, these people have less chances of attaining and medical treatments if they fall sick or are injured due to any reason. These conditions become worst when an individual reaches an elderly age because an old person has shortage of resources and funds. These people are usually unable to afford medical treatments or appropriate medication due to the cost factor. Most of the jobs offered do not cater sick leaves, health care policies or life insurance and if these people fall sick they cannot even afford income loss as the amount itself is very nominal. With no possession of assets, medical treatments become very difficult in case of any mishap, although this group of population is considered to be most vulnerable to psychological health problems due to their age factor, poor working conditions and standards of living. For example they tend to have more exposure to greater amount of noise levels, overcrowding, with provision of minimum or zero security.

According to previous research in 2011 the poverty rate in the U.S. was increased by 2.6 million people resulting in a total of 46.2 million people living below the poverty line. Usually the reasons that were suspected for the increase were poor working conditions and high rates of unemployment (Tavernise, 2011). Elderly Low income workers still do not have easy and sufficient access towards health care facilities and disparities in the system of medical insurance still exists. There is no proper provision ...