ABSTRACT
Social work has developed a more concrete approach to health, known as the biopsychosocial perspective. In the mid-1980s, Weick developed a “health model” based on a biopsychosocial approach to health. According to A. Weick, the medical model reduces the study of human health to the study and treatment of disease and seeks to uncover “specific, identifiable causes and antidotes for particular disease conditions”. In terms of the pathways model, Hertzman has discussed how events related to socioeconomic status can lead to adverse outcomes throughout the lifecycle. In the US, the affordable care act takes steps to address the social determinants of health. The social determinants perspective and framework outlined by Evans and Stoddart have had an impact on some government policies, primarily in Canada and the United Kingdom. A health care policy of “ever increasing needs” leads to escalating costs. Material conditions also seem to play a role in the development of the health gradient.
