In Sickness And In Wealth

I want to first start off by saying that I really enjoyed the short film Unnatural Causes: In Sickness and in Wealth. The video captured so many things that appears to be wrong in our society today, that were evident many years ago as well. It makes you wonder if we are progressing as a society or continuing to be at a stand still. Dr. Adewale begins with this idea known as individual responsibility, but always refers to this notion in the context of social determinants.

He links the two together because one cannot have individual responsibility without taking into account social determinants. When promoting individual responsibility one has to consider the environment and everything around them including the access to health care services, education, and even job opportunities, hence the notion of social determinants.

According to Unnatural Causes: In Sickness and in Wealth (2008) “Our ability to avoid smoking and maintaining a healthy diet depends internally on our access to income, education, and what we call the social determinants of health” (Unnatural Causes, 2008).

Meaning, we can’t solely rely on individual responsibility when we have so many other factors contributing and influencing our daily life. If we were to exclude the social determinants aspect then as a society we would be relying on ourselves for everything. For instance, it is simply wrong to say that as individuals we are in charge of getting healthcare coverage for ourselves, acquiring a job, and education, when society has established these norms and set up a system that makes it difficult to only promote individual responsibility.

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Sickness Essay

The video also makes a great point by stating, “There are ways in which our society is organized that are bad for our health” (Unnatural Causes, 2008). That is mind blowing but also so evident. Society brings into our presence things like having fast food restaurants on every corner, but establishing farmers markets so far …