Coventry, United Kingdom

Health and Social Policy

Bachelor's
Language: EnglishStudies in English
Subject area: medicine, health care
Qualification: BA
Kind of studies: part-time studies
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
University website: www.warwick.ac.uk
Health
Health is the ability of a biological system to acquire, convert, allocate, distribute, and utilize energy with maximum efficiency. The World Health Organization (WHO) defined human health in a broader sense in its 1948 constitution as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." This definition has been subject to controversy, in particular as lacking operational value, the ambiguity in developing cohesive health strategies and because of the problem created by use of the word "complete", which makes it practically impossible to achieve. Other definitions have been proposed, among which a recent definition that correlates health and personal satisfaction.
Policy
A policy is a deliberate system of principles to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent, and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an organization. Policies can assist in both subjective and objective decision making. Policies to assist in subjective decision making usually assist senior management with decisions that must be based on the relative merits of a number of factors, and as a result are often hard to test objectively, e.g. work-life balance policy. In contrast policies to assist in objective decision making are usually operational in nature and can be objectively tested, e.g. password policy.
Social
Living organisms including humans are social when they live collectively in interacting populations, whether they are aware of it, and whether the interaction is voluntary or involuntary.
Social Policy
Social policy is a term which is applied to various areas of policy, usually within a governmental or political setting (such as the welfare state and study of social services).
Health
Of all the garden herbes none is of greater vertue than sage.
Thomas Cogan, Heaven of Health (1596). Quoting from Schola Salerni, p. 32.
Health
Qui salubrem locum negligit, mente est captus atque ad agnatos et gentiles deducendus.
He who overlooks a healthy spot for the site of his house is mad and ought to be handed over to the care of his relations and friends.
Policy
You have despoiled churches. You have threatened every corporation and endowment in the country. You have examined into everybody's affairs. You have criticised every profession and vexed every trade. No one is certain of his property, and nobody knows what duties he may have to perform to-morrow. This is the policy of confiscation as compared with that of concurrent endowment.
Benjamin Disraeli, speech on the University Education Bill (Ireland), House of Commons, March 11, 1873.—Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, ed. T. E. Kebbel, vol. 2, p. 390 (1882).
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