Understanding Wellness And Wellbeing: Impact On Children's Health Essay.

Definition of Wellness and Wellbeing

Question:

Discuss about the Wellness and Wellbeing for Individual Psychology.

Wellness refers to the active process initiating activities that lead a person towards a healthy and fulfilling life. Wellness is more concerned towards the state of health of a person, which suggests that being free from illness is wellness. Further it should be noted that wellness is a dynamic approach of growth and change in a human body. Whereas, on the other hand wellbeing refers to the state of being healthy and comfortable. Both the terms relate to the same thing of being healthy and fit but still have difference in their actual sense (Prilleltensky, 2012). Further, the purpose of this report is to provide a brief overview about wellness and wellbeing with respect to the idea of society and the community. It also talks about the health related models and theories that influence a child’s attainment of health. The latter part of the essay also includes issues related to wellbeing of a person and programs that can be useful in solving the problems related to wellness and wellbeing of children and families.

The concept of wellness and wellbeing are indefinable as their definition to one person differs from the thinking of other person. The definitions might change but the core concept of the topic remains same, as the activities of wellness and wellbeing aims to purposefully change the health of the person in a positive way. In the perspective of a child, the state of their health can be seen through their strengths, weakness and ability to play in the surroundings. Further it should be noted that wellness of any person can be judged by the way they perform their favorite task, if they work with full energy and enthusiasm then they have attained good wellbeing; but if they perform their favorite task uninterestingly then it can be made sure that they are not well physically or mentally (Ahmed, et. al., 2014). In today’s environment, it has become difficult for young people to manage their health, so it can be easily concluded that wellbeing of early children has started depleting day by day. Wellness and wellbeing works in a circular motion, like, initially at early age, a child attains negativities in their health due to which in future as an adult their health depletes. So, it should be noted that lack of wellness of young people in the environment is due to less attention of people towards a child’s attainment of health. Wellbeing of a person can be maintained if people focus towards wellness. So, wellbeing of person for their entire life can be maintained if they take care of themselves since childhood. It is the most expected time when people deteriorate their health the most due to which they suffer in the latter part of their life (Page, & Vella-Brodrick, 2013). Thus, as per the understanding of a person, wellness refers to the activity which converts the health of person in to an adequate wellbeing. And on the other hand wellbeing refers to the state of the health of a person. So, it should be noted that a person can attain quality of life if they attain good wellbeing with proper wellness.

Importance of Wellness and Wellbeing for Children

According to World Health Organization, health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellness and not merely absence of some disease or infirmity. So, another statement to wellbeing of a person is that, it refers to a state where a person is free from all sort of diseases along with healthy mind and body (Gerrans, Speelman, & Campitelli, 2014). The social model of wellness relates to the concept of health as it states that wellbeing can be achieved by addressing the social, environmental and economic determinants and correcting them. According to this model the social, economic and environmental factors prevailing in the environment should also be looked after to secure the wellbeing of a child. Many social factors present in the environment negatively affect the health of a child (Sorensen, et. al., 2011). The social issues differ according to the place in which people live. Analyzing the societies, social inequality is one of the major issues which impact the growth of early child in attainment of wellness. This model has been emerged as a social model of disability which explains atrocities present in the environment which negatively influence the health of a person. Talking about inequality, it should be noted that it is one of the most emerging factor in the environment that stagnant the wellness of a child. Children of poor people are unable to attain the basic rights as well due to which their nourishment decreases (Lebensohn, et. al., 2013). During early childhood, if a person is unable to attain the basic rights for good health and nourishment in body then subsequently their wellbeing state depletes with time. Thus in this way social factor becomes one of the reason due to which a child is unable to attain wellness and wellbeing as well. Under this case, the social model explains the social issues due to which a person is barred from attain he wellness for them. Poor housing facilities present in the society and present in areas in which people live makes it more difficult for the asthmatic patients, especially children to survive in the environment. During early childhood when these people do not attain good nourishment, due to which they get ill become poorer while growing up (Wolf, Thompson, & Smith-Adcock, 2012). This leads to increase their stress level as they cannot earn properly for their family. Thus, in this way the social issues convert the health of a person negatively; so it should be noted that not only medicines but some social changes can reduce the ill-health of children and people in the society. Medicines are one way that improves the health of a person but change in the surroundings in which a person prevails can also positively affect the wellbeing of a person (Fontana, & Partridge, 2015). 

Social Determinants of Wellness and Wellbeing

In addition to social factors, media also have a great influence on the wellbeing of a child in the environment. Media has both negative and positive impact on the health of a child. Positive impact in such a way that through media people get to know about different things which they can use to improve their health in the environment and negative impact in such a way that media show negative content which impacts the mindset of people towards certain things (Ozcan, 2014). Like, content displayed on television is a part of media only, so sometimes the advertisements displayed on television influence people to go for certain products for the betterment of their health. But the products do not have any guarantee nor are they prescribed by the doctor due to which it reacts on children resulting in negative impact on their health. (Sørensen, et. al., 2012). So, in this way media can be harmful for children in the environment. Furthermore, according to the biomedical model of health illness refers to the problem where patient suffers abnormalities within their body or when they experience an unpleasant feeling within them. These problems can be rectified with the aid of medicines and medical treatment. So, this model talks about the medical ways with which a person can be treated properly. This model is mainly used for treating people when they feel unwell. This model provides tool in the environment with the help of which doctors can cure children in the environment (Sallis, Owen, & Fisher, 2015). The biomedical model is a scientific approach which is used by doctors to find out the reason behind the ill health of a person. The doctors only focus on the bio medical approach to cure the children in the environment; under this process they provide scientific drugs to the paints to cure their health. This approach is totally different from the other models of health that are sociological and psychological. It also helps the patients to change their wellbeing into good physique and mentally fit. Through this measure the professionals find out the issues related to the wellbeing of children. Now days the environment is getting polluted due to which more and more diseases are attracting the health of children (Greene, 2015). So, with the use of biomedical model the professionals continuously seek to find new ways with which they can help the people maintaining their health in the environment and living in a better way. This process does not consider the social issues which can be treated by changing the societies or mindset of people. Instead, it only focuses on the way with which the doctors can treat people properly. The ways in bio-medical approach includes use of drugs and medicines to improve the health of people (Garg, Boynton-Jarrett, & Dworkin, 2016).

Impact of Media on Children's Wellbeing

Social and media influence are some issues that affect the wellness and wellbeing of children, apart from that some other issues are the genes and appearance, and parental relationship. Talking about genes, it should be noted that gene refers to the features or heredity which a child receives from their parents. Like, if a child resemble to his/ her mother then it is due to genes present in the child which are similar to that of their parents. The DNA is the system due to which a person resembles to their parents. Genes are specific sequence of DNA; now genes can also be a reason for ill health of a person (Munyaka, Khafipour, & Ghia, 2014). Suppose if a couple is disabled, then there is greatest possibility of this event that their child might also inherent disability within them. It is the genes due to which children attain similar characters with their parents. So, the genetic disorder should be regarded as one of the issue which children hamper the growth of a child as they become unable to attain wellness for their wellbeing due to the inefficiency of their genes to attract nutrients and fight with the bacteria (Black, et. al., 2017). Apart from the social and medical issue, the problem which negatively influences a child’s attainment of health is the choices in life. Now day’s children have become cleverer than before which becomes difficult for the parents to influence then to eat something than is beneficial for their health, they only do what they want to do. Resulting to which, parents face problem in properly nourishing their children. Relating it to the choices of life, it should be noted that now a days people receive many choices while purchasing one thing in the environment which makes it difficult for them to choose single option (Campbell, et. al., 2014). So, because of having many choices children choose burgers over fruits and aerated drinks over juices which degrade their state of wellbeing. Further, the parents are unable to stop their kids from eating junk because either they to eat them or they do not have a certain relationship which them. The children need an influential person to motivate them to focus on their wellbeing and eat good things to become healthy. Increase in choices of life possesses people to choose the wrong option which negatively influence their health. Few choices make it easy to make the decision for the thing which is good for them (Heindel, et. al., 2016). Due to the social factors present in the environment, children get more attracted toward negative choices in life which influence their attainment of health, apart from that one more aspect that influence this decision is their relationship which parents and peer. If a child is more connected to their parents and agrees on the decision of their parents then the child take positive decision in life which will motivate them to attain a good wellbeing. Similarly, if a child is more influenced with their peer, then there is a possibility that the child might also take wrong choice in life if his peer is following wrong direction. So, the three factors that influence the wellness and wellbeing of a child are social and media influence, genetic influence and lastly choices of life (Rook, Lowry, & Raison, 2015).

Biomedical Model of Health

In response to above problems early childhood programmes can help people in maintaining their wellness and wellbeing in the environment. Every child should attain the right of justice and equity which should help them to attain an indiscriminate behavior in the environment. The practice of indiscrimination should eliminate in the environment so as to provide safe and secure environment to children. Apart from children it is important that the elder people also do not face any type of discrimination in the environment. Equality and justice are the two most important rights which every person shall attain (Richter, et al., 2017). So, the societies and communities should adopt programmes that can help people to remove their state of poverty. As discussed above that poverty is a reason that influences the health of children in the environment. So, if the societies try to remove the barrier of poverty then people can properly provide nutrition to their children which can lead of good wellbeing of them. The local authorities of the societies should hold strong legislations which shall help people to attain their rights in order to gain a sustainable living. Further in order to remove the problem of media and choices of life, the societies should initiate programmes that should advertise the products with compliance of certain rules that they are not harmful for the health of early children. And if they are harmful then the companies should advertise the product stating clear message that these products are harmful for the wellness and wellbeing of a child and they should not be used by them. Such programmes can positively influence the children and they might choose options that are god for their health. As media and advertisement lay great emphasis on the thinking of people, so the communities should not promote anything in the market that negatively impact the health of people; in this way the peer will get motivated to us good products for their health. Lastly, awareness programmes should be initiated by the governments and doctors that shall state the pros and cons of using wrong drugs and how they can affect to the health of people. Such awareness programmes should also tell people the importance of wellness and wellbeing of people and how parent can maintain the wellbeing of their child (Braveman, & Gottlieb, 2014).

Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned events it should be noted that wellness is an important aspect in the life of people which should not ignored. People should take care of their child’s wellbeing. Also they should take care that their child does not get influenced by negative factors present in the environment. The above stated essay outlines the three factors that influence a child’s attainment of health and the ways in which people can make their child’s wellbeing healthy. Lastly, it also talks about health perspective models that talks about wellness and wellbeing of a child critically. 

Genetic Disorders and Parental Relationships

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