What is Health and Social Care?
Health and social care encompass the infrastructure of both public and private healthcare sectors. Health is considered a facet of well-being, influenced by various factors such as biology, environment, nutrition, and living conditions.
Healthcare is dedicated to providing medical care to individuals and communities. It addresses the diagnosis and treatment of both physical and mental health conditions and is regarded as essential in society. Healthcare aims to minimize social disparities in accessing medical services. Traditionally, healthcare can be divided into three sectors:
- Hospital Care: This includes acute care, covering a broad range of medical specialties, and long-term care, used in psychiatric and extended nursing care. Currently, there’s a trend toward favoring acute care hospitals over long-stay facilities.
- Primary Care: This is the cornerstone of medical practice, involving basic treatments and non-hospital care like family doctors, home nursing, therapy, dentistry, optometry, and pharmacy services.
- Public Health: Essential for the global population’s well-being, public health focuses on preventive medicine and areas not traditionally linked to health services, such as housing, water supply, sewage, and food hygiene.
Social care, on the other hand, involves daily living activities. It includes tasks like feeding and maintaining hygiene but also focuses on preserving independence, promoting social interaction, protecting vulnerable individuals, and managing complex relationships.
Social care is typically funded by social service organizations and philanthropists. It targets children, adults, and the elderly who are at risk or dealing with illness, disability, or poverty. The foundation of social care rests on:
- Supporting independence
- Promoting social inclusion
- Protecting the vulnerable
- Managing complex relationships
With an increasing elderly population, social care is becoming more prominent each year. Recently, this system has faced significant challenges, bringing it into the political spotlight.
Healthcare vs. Social Care
Healthcare and social care are often viewed as a unified system because their combined efforts enhance societal well-being. Despite facing various challenges, their integrated services have prompted policymakers to consider equal funding for both sectors.
According to UK experts, the interdependence between healthcare and social care can lead to issues such as inadequate funding and delays in transferring funds from health to social care.
A well-established social care system can help reduce unnecessary hospital visits by patients and ensure quicker hospital discharges, making patients less reliant on healthcare services.
Differences between Healthcare and Social Care
The primary difference between healthcare and social care lies in how their services are delivered. Healthcare services in the UK are provided by the National Health Service (NHS), a publicly funded system offering free services to the underprivileged. In contrast, social care services are managed by local authorities, who may need government approval to allocate funds.
A significant portion of the global population comprises senior citizens, a result of increasing life expectancy. Healthcare services strive to help people live longer, while social care services often face challenges due to disagreements between personal and public responsibilities.
