Week 2 - Introduction to Medical Models
Session 1 – Medical Pluralism
- Free Writing Task and Lecture Questions
- Session summary and reflection
- Learning Outcome – Medical Pluralism
Free Writing Task and Lecture Question
To do: write for 5 minutes completing this sentence:
“When I am sick I… and then…”
When I am sick I assess my symptoms. I see what possible medications I can take at home. I take the medications and see for how long these symptoms last. If these symptoms prolong then I go to the doctor and explain my whole process. If I have a severe headache I will take Panadol. I will see if this headache continues for a day or two even after taking Panadol. If it does I go to the doctor. If it goes away, I take note of it and if later I have other symptoms and it does not go away with my above mentioned process I will mention the headache and the new symptoms to my doctor.
Time taken 5 min 12 seconds
a. How would analyse the things you wrote about?
- I wrote my thought process. I mentioned what I would do and if it failed what else I would do.
b. Can you Identify themes in your writing?
- Freedom
- Self-resilience
- Critical thinking
c. What does this story tell about you help-seeking behaviour
- I am a more free and independent help seeker. I try my best to solve my own problems before seeking help. This may also be a downfall because I try to self-diagnose before consulting a doctor and may miss a serious condition.
What do you do when you experience misfortune
a. If you were in a car accident, where would you go?
- I would contact my parents or siblings
b. If you were too scared to drive a car again, would you ask for help?
- When I had a car accident I was terrified to get back on the road but I mustered up courage and just did it anyways. It took me some time to get my confidence back but I did it and I didn’t ask for any help. There is nothing wrong with asking for help but personally I am used to dealing with my own problem and it makes me stronger as a person.
c. If you needed help recovering motor functions after the accident, who would be the best person to help you?
- Again, I am used to dealing with things on my own. I am sure my parents or sibling would be of great help but at the end of the day I wouldn’t burden them with it.
d. If you had persistent pain after many years from that accident and pain killers don’t work, who would you consult?
- I would consult a specialist or a physical therapist.
How many forms of care can you think of?
- Physical Self-Care
- Social Self-Care
- Mental Self-Care
- Spiritual Self-Care
- Emotional Self-Care
Session summary and reflection
Many factors that affect health choice
- Economic circumstances
- Culture and belief
- Education
- Environmental circumstances
- Access to care
- Political views
- Social views
Choice of treatment is influenced by:
- Characteristics of Patient/household
- Characteristic of health service
- Characteristic of illness
Different forms of care
- Biomedicine
- Homeopathy
- Chiropractic
- Ethnobotany
- Herbalism
- Osteopathy
Medical pluralism is an approach to treatment that employs more than one medical system for one or more conditions at once.
Relation of healing of different sectors
- Popular – Caring
- Folk – Restoring
- Professional – Fixing
Learning Outcome - Medical Pluralism
- Define Medical Pluralism and discuss the significance of this concept in the South African health landscape.
- Medical pluralism is an approach to treatment that employs more than one medical system for one or more conditions at once.
- It is very significant in South Africa as many people seek for different types of health
- Medical pluralism is an approach to treatment that employs more than one medical system for one or more conditions at once.
- Describe and discuss Kleinman’s model of the three sectors of health in relation to the concept of medical pluralism.
- Popular – Caring
- First thing one does when seeking help
- Folk – Restoring
- Seeking spiritual or traditional help
- Professional – Fixing
- Seeking medical help
- Popular – Caring