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Children and Adults
Poverty Leads to Ill-Health in Children and Adults.
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Poverty Leads to Ill-Health in Children and Adults.
Introduction
There is a saying that health is wealth. I could not agree less with this statement because good health provides a basis for life. Without good health, life is fragile and meaningless. Good health refers to the complete absence of disease in the body. It is also the mental, physical, and social well-being of a person. I hold that having good health gives more meaning to life because I have witnessed first-hand how poverty translates into poor health. Growing up, we lived in a small neighborhood where all households were known to one another. This family was living at the corner of the street, and we are family friends. The Thompson family comprised of four children. Mr. Thompson was the breadwinner of the family. He held a senior management job at a renowned bank. Mrs. Thompson was a stay-at-home mother. She took care of the household while the husband brought in the funds to care for the family. However, a tragedy happened. The man was convicted of siphoning funds from his employer and he lost his job. Alongside his three colleagues involved in the heist, they were prosecuted and charged in a court of law. Mr. Thompson was lucky to have gotten out on bond and 1-year probation. However, following his misconduct no firm was willing to hire him. Although he did not serve jail time, this mistake turned around his life completely. He sold his car and mortgaged his house in an attempt to provide his family with a decent life. His wife had to step up and look for a job to help cater to the family needs, but the funds were barely enough despite working four jobs. Eventually, the Thompsons were kicked out of their house following foreclosure and forced to move out. The situation was terrible, and they ended up seeking accommodation in a shelter. They did not have access to clean drinking water and because of poor sanitation, they caught diarrhea and typhoid. They could not afford to buy clean drinking water and they ended up consuming contaminated water which made them sick. They could no longer afford health insurance and were left at the mercy of well-wishers to help them. This placed them at a great disadvantage and left them vulnerable to more diseases. Since they moved out of the neighborhood, we lost contact with them and all efforts to trace them were futile because they started moving from shelter house to shelter house before they could save enough money to rent an apartment. Without a doubt, poverty places both adults and children at an increased risk of sickness and chronic diseases.
Limited Access to Quality Healthcare
Undoubtedly, being poor leads to ill-health because poor people tend to lack access to quality healthcare services. I hold this perspective as true because if a person is poor, they do not have the money to foot hospital bills and medication. Poor people primarily work menial jobs for a living, and these jobs rarely come with health insurance packages (Clay, 2001). This places them at a disadvantage when they fall sick because they have to dig into their pocket for food medication costs. Worth noting, health-related medication is not cheap. The costs of health care will require a person to cater for consultations, tests, and medication. Additionally, sick people are also required to cater for transportation costs to the health facilities. When combined, all these costs can be expensive, and since the poor do not have resources at their disposal, they are likely to succumb to sickness.
High Risk of Infections
Another reason why I think poverty leads to ill-health because low economic status exposes adults to infectious diseases. Poor people tend to be homeless, which increases their risk of engaging in risky sexual practices like exchanging sex for money, food, and safety (Anvari-Clark & Frey, 2019). These practices place them at risk of contracting HIV. Poverty also breeds in food leading to HIV/AIDS infection. Even after contracting HIV, if a person is poor they will likely face hunger putting them at a greater risk of succumbing to the infection.
Stress Causes Developmental Issues in Children
Thirdly, exposing children to poverty and stress affects development. This is true because stress reflects in the educational and behavioral outcomes of children. If children are exposed to stress at home they will perform poorly at school, and they tend to develop truant behavior like using drugs and missing school. Low-income families tend to have fewer funds available and hence children do not get a balanced diet. This affects brain development and puts them at risk of developing chronic diseases like malnutrition. As such, children born into poverty suffer health-related problems, including mental health issues than children from high socio-economic backgrounds.
Core Values; Humanity and Compassion
In addition to the reasons mentioned above, the core values of humanity and compassion inform my perspective on the issue of wealth and health. I believe that one of the reasons is to live a happy and fulfilled life and achieve this compassion, and humanity should be at the center. Compassion defines true human beings. It is a harsh world and every day, we face unexpected problems and strive to overcome them. Although understanding each other is not easy, wise people try to understand other people’s suffering. I realize that not everyone will be well endowed with money and resources. Some people are more blessed than others while others cannot even afford the bare minimum (Sapolsky, 2018). That is how life was meant to be. As such, some people will have more money and riches while others are rather disadvantaged. It is upon us to help the poor to help make their life better and put a smile on their face.
Conclusion
In closing, low economic status places children and adults at an increased risk of sickness and chronic diseases. Poverty limits access to quality healthcare as poor people lack health insurance. Poverty also places adults at a high risk of developing infections like HIV and also exposes children to developmental problems. Life is not always fair. Some people have more than enough money to last a lifetime, while others struggle to afford one meal a day. It is upon us to show compassion to the disadvantaged members of society and help put a smile on their faces by giving them food donations or shopping vouchers.
References
Anvari-Clark, J., & Frey, J. J. (2019). FINANCIAL CAPABILITY and Behavioral Health. In The Routledge Handbook on Financial Social Work (pp. 61-72). Routledge.
Clay, R. A. (2001). Wealth secures health. Monitor on Psychology, 32(9), 78.
Sapolsky, R. M. (2018). The health-wealth gap. Scientific American, 319(5), 62-67.
My Experience In Modeling My Expectations
My Experience In Modeling My Expectations
Introduction
Experiences play a vital role in molding ones expectations, desires and dreams about the future. Where one lives, the people around an individual comprising the family members, neighbors, colleagues, and teachers actually influence the direction ones life take through sharing of experience, looking back at ones life one cannot help but wonder how much the people around one and the shared experience have made what one is today.
Growing up with a sibling with a variety of handicaps is not easy. Abraham was born deaf and partially blind this in turn affected his growth and speech. All through his life Abraham who was older than me had to be helped to move around especially mother who had been his eyes, feet, and the source of inspiration to Abraham who was always jovial, whenever other family members were at home we took turns to look after Abraham with some neighbors stepping in to help look after him when mum had to rush somewhere. She managed to take Abraham to school which catered for the blind and deaf where he was taught sign language that the other family members learned to communicate with Abraham.
Despite the fact that I was young at that time, my older brothers and sisters told me what happened, and the reason why we were living in the slum and without our father, when Abraham was born life started becoming difficult to the family as Abraham needed special care and money to facilitate it was not forthcoming as dad was only a casual laborer and the money earned was no even enough to sustain the family let alone buy medicine that Abraham so desperately needed all this frustration led dad to his grave and that is when mum moved to the city with us to try and make a living and see to it that me and all my siblings went to school and believe me she made sure that me and my five other siblings including Abraham got the best Education. She would wake up very each morning. Take me and my other siblings to school and later she would go look for manual jobs all day at times, she was not lucky to get a job, but she always told us that one must not lose hope.
Conclusion
Since my mother’s death due to a terminal illness, my brother Abraham lives with me, and my two siblings. Abraham still needs attention and we have to make sure one of us is there for Abraham. At times friends also helps us to take care of him. Even though she is gone, her teachings about never giving up in life live in us and hold the family together. The issue motivated me to work hard and join the university so as to help children with special needs like my brother. My graduation was a year ago and currently am pursuing a masters degree in special education. Looking back and remembering the challenges I faced gives me the spirit to overcome any obstacles that comes my way. Abraham’s disability inspires me to work hard in that there is nothing I cannot achieve as long as am focused. This is because Abraham proved to the family that no matter an individual’s situation one can rise up and achieve his dreams.
My Experience As A Social Worker
My Experience As A Social Worker
Being a social worker is important because it allows an individual to have the ability of helping people function best within the environment they live, however, there may be some barriers which may hinder that person working as a social worker. These barriers may include the physical and mental illness, poverty as well as, drugs and alcohol addiction. It is evident that, working as a volunteer has helped many students in determining whether social work is a career or an interest to them.
As a social worker, I have plan in engaging voluntary jobs such as working in treatment and recover centers for alcohol and drug abuse given that this will help me have fully interest in work with people especially the parents and their children who tend to have substance abuse problems.
As a social worker, I will also ensure that I use NASW Code of Ethics because its main purpose and responsibilities is to serve as a guide to the everyday professional conduct of social workers. The NASW Code of Ethics is significant in guiding individual for their daily practice behaviors, since it provides a comprehensive and strategic outline of the social worker’s profession standards and conduct. Social workers on the other hand should ensure that they exhibit values, principles, along with set of standards that are recognized as the basis of ethical practice. The NASW Code also articulates standards that the social work profession can as well use in accessing whether social workers have engaged in unethical conduct.
Consequently, social workers should acquire good communication skills since it may be essential to good social work practice. Therefore, it is necessary for a social worker like me to access my ability to communicate with others both in writing and speaking verbally. And as a result, since English is not my first Language, this will make me to work hard so as to improve my ability of explaining as well as, presenting my ideas in clear English which could be understood by others. Assessing my ability will include having the ability to tailor my delivery to the audience by using appropriate styles and approaches as well as, understanding the significance of non-verbal cues in oral communication.
Becoming a good social work requires one to have the ability to accept feedback. One instance where I accepted feedback was when I was in my first year of collage when I was given an assignment to do by my teacher, In the assignment I thought I did my best in handling the paper however the teacher asked me to rewrite the paper again. This made me so upset to the extent of talking to my mother that I actually wanted to drop out of that class. Just to realize from my mother that the teacher was doing so to make me improve but not to criticize my work. This then was a lesson that taught me that I should be responsible of accepting a positive and a negative feedback and if I fail to do so, then I will never succeed in life. And for sure these helped me never to be upset even when I received bad grade in my exams.
Being a social worker also requires one to willingly work with persons of diversity such as persons with disabilities, gay or lesbians and many others. Given that I come from a country full of diversity, I have the ability to assess my capacity for working with the diverse populations. I also learned that different groups of people have got different customs and rituals that they perform on a daily basis. Therefore, as individuals, we both need to learn on how we should respect that as well as, allowing one another to be ourselves while accepting the diversity.
Particularly, I consider myself as a good student. I tend to be very responsible and hard working even in class since I could submit my work in time and being on time in my classes. And today I can never miss classes unless I have emergencies. I also tend to read my textbooks prior to attending classes as well as, treating my peers, students, instructors with dignity and respect at all times.