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The Concentric Model of Health-Bound Networks

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Application of Systems Thinking to Health Policy & Public Health Ethics

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Public Health ((BRIEFSPUHEAET))

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Abstract

The roles become muddled with roles that support health and others that result from nonmedical reasons. It may be a foredawn conclusion that the person’s quality of life (QOL) stays just that—inherent to a personal experience with disease. Moreover, QOL is often analogous to length of life and prognosis. What if the patient believes that life is fine as it has been dealt, imperfect clinically but personally acceptable (or tolerated)? What happens when the self-care decisions of a patient run counter to the evidence-based prescriptivism of medical care? There is a blurring of the penumbras of the public and private spheres in our understanding of QOL. The complexity of social relationships and support require policy for social integration has been shown to be linked to both physical and mental health. As the patient is embedded into a support network, I additionally posit that there is a “shared” collective QOL on the microlevel by which caring others are affected by the life state of the patient. It is an interesting question to explore the final victor in QOL: the psychometrically measured QOL, which is constructed by the “others” in the medical establishment or a patient’s subjective understandings of a sick existence. In light of generational issues of longevity with decreased physical and mental functionalities of patients, what must not be ignored is the network of support.

Earlier versions of this chapter were presented at 2011 Aging and Society: An Interdisciplinary Conference, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and the 2012 Aging and Society: An Interdisciplinary Conference, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

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  1. Wright State University, Kettering, Ohio, USA

    Michele Battle-Fisher

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  1. Michele Battle-Fisher
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Correspondence to Michele Battle-Fisher .

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Battle-Fisher, M. (2015). The Concentric Model of Health-Bound Networks. In: Application of Systems Thinking to Health Policy & Public Health Ethics. SpringerBriefs in Public Health(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12203-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12203-8_10

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