Contemporary Issue in Health and Social Care Essay

Introduction Social media has played and has been playing a crucial role in the development of health and social care in United Kingdom (UK). Since the emerge of the health and social care sector, social media has been performing a tremendous role as the health and social care is becoming an industry and without this industry social and economic development of UK would not be possible. This report covers the role of media for the development of health and social care. At the very beginning a snapshot of the role of media on the creation of public concern about health and social care will be discussed with evidence. The ways by which media publishes and considers about the health and social care issues will be discussed. Different perspectives of public issues regarding the health and social care will also be discussed in brief. The likely influence of different perspective on the development of service sector will also be discussed. Information relating to the health and social care that gives rise to issues of concern to the public 1.1 Information relating to health and social care to reach the public domain According to Cleland and Gareis (2006) health and social care sector is not only a sensitive one but also a crucial one for the public health. Normal people are much more concerned about the health and social care issues and almost all the time they had no information about health and social care. Mass media has come forward to solve the problem and they are almost fully successful in solving the problem regarding the information gap of the public. Side by side there are other different ways by which information relating to social and health care is transmitted to the public (Godden, 2014). Mass media like TV, Radio, newspaper, and the internet are to be attributed for the information dissemination. Besides the mass media, social media has also played a crucial role. Facebook, Twitter, and other social medi a have contributed a lot in this respect (Minniti and Moren, 2010). For example: If any new  vaccine related to Cancer is introduced, then mass media along with social media make a joint effort to disseminate the information to the cancer affected people all around UK. That is how information is disseminated about health and social issues. 1.2 Techniques to disseminate information relating to health and social care AJOL (2014) refers that dissemination of information related to health and social care is a sectorial policy taken by the UK government. There are some common methods by which health and social care information can be disseminated to the public and related parties. These most common methods are use of radios, pamphlets, television, and educational campaigns. Use of report cards and accreditation are two mechanisms that are most commonly used for the information dissemination related to the health and social care. UK citizens are very much concerned about their health and social care issues and they listen, understand, and take relative actions to apply this information for the effective and efficient health care sector (The Guardian. 2014). Use of pamphlets is one of the most effective ways to disseminate information. UK government and related ministry has also made it available through radios, televisions, and running campaigns which are educational (Minniti and Moren, 2010). For example Dissemination of information related to health and social cares is important for the education of the patients and citizens about the likely causes of Malaria and thus take strategic actions in this respect. 1.3 Ways in which information can influence the attitudes, thoughts, and behavior of people Information that is being provided are not made for something vain rather this information have a great influence on the attitudes thoughts, and behavior of the people of United Kingdom (UK). The evaluation of the information collected from different sources about health and social care and the influence of the information will be focused here (Ravasi and Schultz, 2006). Mass media has a strong liaison and this strong interpersonal relationship with different sources of information results in an unveiling of health and social care related information to the public. Common people are completely influenced by the information provided by the sources. As the sources of information has been int roduced in the previous section, it is state worthy that social and health care information has  changed the attitudes, thoughts, and behavior of common people. Mass media along with social media make people much more aware about their health and safety issues (Godden, 2014). For example: Before the invention of Facebook, any movement that had to be taken place faced great difficulty. But as Facebook grows and other mass media are getting concerned about the rights of them from the society, any nonviolent movement is taking place without such effort than previously had done (Mcclimens, et al, 2012). People are conscious about various contagious diseases and much more aware about their contribution to the society. They are also focused on their rights from the society. Their contribution to the society and the benefits they are deriving from the society are summed to take them to a balancing position or situation (AJOL, 2014). LO2 Understanding how issues of public concern related to health and social care are presented in the media 2.1 Ways in which media can be used to influence the attitudes and behavior of people in relation to health and social care issues Ravasi and Schultz(2006) Statesas it is mentioned in the previous section, mass media and social media in UK and perhaps all around the world is dedicated to the health and social care of the people. People’s attitude and behavior has changed and has been upgrading with the help of mass media especially in case of health and social care issues. Mass media is one of the main catalysts in the development of the positive attitudes and behaviors of the people. People are now much more aware of the use of social care services. They use child care services; they use more residential nursing care; they use residential care facilities and many more others (The Guardian. 2014). Conferencing is one of the ways by which mass media can be used for influencing people for their attitudes and behavior toward health and social care (The Guardian. 2014). Use of social media for the improvement of the awareness of the health and social care issues can be another way by which media can be used. For example Through different media advertising, many messages can be convened to the  public to change the attitudes about the health and social care. 2.2 Evaluation of the public assessment of the reliability and validity of media information about health and social care According to Hscic (2014) information that are being provided and published in mass media is not trustworthy always, so, the degree or magnitude of dependence on this information varies. Some media reports health and social care issues on behalf of government and they always praise the actions taken by government. Still some other media always make an evaluation of the actions taken by government in relation to health and social care issues and give their insightful recommendation. So, how people accept media information and, if accept, the degree of acceptance is a matter of great concern (Godden, 2014). People are very much concerned about the reliability and validity of the media information relating to the health and social care issues. Their dependence on the information is based on the transparency, honesty, and giving voice to the public. For example People will not be convinced if any mass media declares anything that is supernatural and about the health and social care issues. Different technical and business level factors are considered if any information is unveiled about health and social care (Csikaiand Bass2001). LO3 Being able to carry out research into different perspectives on a specific issue relating to health and social care 3.1 Research into different perspectives on a specific issue relating to health and social care According to BMJ (2014) there are many issues regarding the health and social care in United Kingdom (UK). These issues build up the different perspectives of health and social care issues. Different perspectives of the different issues of health and social sector will be discussed in this section of analysis. The most common and most influential issue of the health and social care is to meet the increased demand for services. Every government in the world has been tightening their budgets and the budget for health and social care has been decreasing at a slow pace (BMJ, 2014). One perspective of that issue of the health and social care is the budget restrictions. So, a little number of health and social care jobs are created. Another perspective is the increased number of private organizations in the social care sector like residential nursing, child day care, non-residential social care etc. (AJOL,  2014). Hardill et al (2005) States still another perspective is the less interesting issues to the students. As government makes less budget people are not so interested in developing their career in this sector. For example: It is difficult to secure a good job in the health and social care immediately after the graduation. So, employment opportunity is not created more than expected. 3.2 Monitoring of the changes of different perspectives regarding health and social care issues These different perspectives derived from the issues of health and social care have been changing with the passage of time. Change is a common phenomenon for every material of the world. So, perspectives regarding the health and social care have also been seeing a constant change as people’s attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors are changing. One issue of the health and social care is increased demand for services and different perspectives of the issue are the budget restrictions, lower employment opportunity, and uninteresting job to the graduates. These different issues have been changing with the passage of time in United Kingdom as well all around the world. One change is the increased demand for the social services. Peo ple are now most focused on the use of child day care and residential care facilities. Still another change is the emergence of the private sector in the health and social care sector (Hscic, 2014) For example People now are getting much busier and this leads to the increased demand for the social care services. Obviously, the standard of living has a positive correlation with the increased demand of the social care services. 3.3 Assessment of the relevance of the findings practically in the local arena UK has a strong health and social care sector and this sector has also been noticing a significant change as time passes. The local change in the perspectives of the issues of health and social care can also be attributed to the global change in the health and social sector (BMJ, 2014). The world’s health and social care has been seeing positive changes in recent years. Even in developed countries like India and Bangladesh, social and health care sector is about to boom. For example: In India, it is mandatory to make the life insurance at the very advent of  the birth of a child as like in the United States of America. UK is also monitoring a positive change in the health and social care sector and issues. In the local environment, people are also becoming much more aware about the services that can be expected from the government. Social care sector is observing a boom in the economy and the government is now transferring its duty to the private sector for the social services. The government is taking the position of monitoring the health and social care service institutions (Cleland and Gareis, 2006). 3.4 Factors that have influenced on the development of different perspectives According to Minniti and Moren (2010) various social and economic factors lead to the changes in the different perspectives of the issues of health and social sector. These social and economic issues affect the behavior of the people toward the development of the attitudes toward the health and social issues. Interpersonal relationship among the people also has an impact(Hscic, 2014). These factors that have a significant impact on the development of the different perspectives of the issues of the health and social sector are following here: There are different factors that lead to the development of different perspectives of the issues of the health and social care. These factors are: Life factors, environmental factors, socioeconomic factors, physical factors, social and political factors, lifestyle factors, emotional factors, etc. are different factors in the development of the different perspectives of health and social care. For example Genetic factors, physical factors, intellectual factors can be considered as factors under the life factors. The way of behaving and the cultural orientation of the society are also influential factors. These factors lead to the development of the issues of the health and social care and thus bringing changes in the community. LO4 Understanding the likely influence of different perspectives on the development of services 4.1 Analysis of the extent to which local attitudes reflect national level Local, local, and many other local attitudes make the national attitudes. So, within a country, like UK, there may have some dissimilarity among the attitudes of the people, as country is divided into many local areas and attitudes. Local attitudes make up the aggregate attitude which is national attitude. Local attitudes toward different issues and perspectives of health and  social care reflect the national level attitude. There is positive correlation between the development of local atti tude and national attitude (Cleland and Gareis, 2006) For example A survey is conducted by the NHS of UK with a question â€Å"Do you think that Britain’s health services are one of the best in the world?† 59% of the respondents replied positively whereas 33% disagree with the opinion and the remaining other said they don’t know (NHS. 2014). This example illustrates the national level attitude about the health and social care and it can be said that people are satisfied with what are being provided and the level of satisfaction is high. Health and social care sector is a sensitive sector as this sector is related to the life of the people. 4.2 Evaluation of the validity of public attitudes and behaviors in relation to a specific issue Public sometimes overact in different issues about health and social care. Their overreaction may lead to suspension of some good bills and at times which is catastrophic for the common people. In case of some specific issues public attitudes and behavior must have to be evaluated and the validity of their action will have to be measured (NHS. 2014). In the previous example it is clear that people are much more convinced about what they are getting from the government and public. Still some others reacted negatively and others made no comments on the issue. It is overreaction about the issue of health and social care. Peoples normally have positive experiences of the services being offered by NHS. NHS also makes direct communication and has strong media coverage. For example Mass media develops the public attitude toward the health and social care issues and an issue can be the â€Å"Satisfaction of the people services being offered by NHS† 26% people say that government has adopted right policies for the NHS whereas 44% says not. 54% people are satisfied with the national level services of NHS whereas 23% are not. 68% people are satisfied with the local NHS services (NHS. 2014). 4.3 Justification of the possible consequences of contemporary thinking for health and social care provision and services Csikai and Bass (2001)refers if people are not sophisticated enough and still remain in the Stone Age about the thinking of the health and social issues, these may lead to severe consequences. Thoughts which are  contemporary being replaced are by modern thoughts. One day, who knows, man would make it possible to invent the vaccines of AIDS. The most contemporary issues in the health and social care are the standards of the services in the hospitals especially for the elderly people or the senior citizens. Mass media can reflect the issues of the health and social care. One of the main consequences of the contemporary thinking about the health and social care is the education about the health and social care will be low. The contemporary attitude toward the health and social care may be catastrophic as people do not change their views about the medic and medicine as well as social services(Hscic, 2014) Conclusion There exists a positive relationship between public opinion of the issue and development of related social policy. Social media has played an important role in this regard as they are making the health and social care for the public a more interesting and concerning one. Social and health care has emerged as a prospective sector within UK and media has played a crucial role in the development of this industry. Mass media make the public aware of the need of the health and social care and health and social care is now an emerging sector in UK. The local health issues and attitudes contribute a lot to the international arena. Education of the people is important in this respect and different publication can be used for health and social care. References Online 1. NHS. (2014). Health Care in UK. Available: http://www.nhs.uk/Pages/HomePage.aspx. Last accessed 2nd March 2014. 2. The Guardian. (2014). the role of technology in integrating health and social care | live discussion. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2014/feb/26/technology-health-social-care-integration. Last accessed 2nd March 2014. 3. Godden, D. et. al. (2014). â€Å"Contemporary issues in rural health care† [online] available at: [accessed on 16th February, 2014] 4. AJOL, (2014). â€Å"The role of media in disseminating information† [online] available at: [accessed on 16th February, 2014] 5. 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