Healthcare and the biopsychosocial and biomedical models
Discuss why a modern healthcare system should adopt a biopsychosocial rather than a biomedical approachThe biomedical approach is the dominant model in medicine today and it has guided the thinking of most health practitioners for hundreds of years (Taylor,1986). The biomedical model only acknowledges a biological explanation for illness. Biological explanations are very important but they form an incomplete picture of the causes of illness.The other causes of illness are acknowledged in the biopsychosocial model. The term was first used by Engel in 1977 in his critique of biomedicine published in Science (Murray, 2004). As the name implies this model uses psychological and social explanations as well as biological ones to provide a full picture of health and illness. The biomedical model has dominated how health and illness have been viewed for the last century (Whitman, 1999). The biomedical model is reductionist because it only defines illness in terms of biological processes and does not consider the psychological and social factors (Taylor, 1995 cited in Whitman, 1999). Many books in health psychology use the analogy of a mechanic repairing a car. He or she would diagnose a problem and then carry out repairs
These triumphs are attributed to the increasing knowledge of biology and new technology (Yardley, 1997). This has placed a greater importance on the promotion of health rather than an emphasis exclusively on illness. There have been certain changes that have led to dissatisfaction with the biomedical model. It is not reductionist, instead it acknowledges that there are a number of factors at work that determine a persons health. This model looks for the link between the mind and the body and advocates a holistic approach to health care. The recent improvements in health and longevity experienced by the general population in advanced societies have been viewed as a triumph of medical science over nature. Because the biopsychosocial model acknowledges the existence of psychological influences the patient can no longer be regarded as a passive victim. This means that the patient is partly responsible for his or her own treatment if it is necessary. None of these has a simple cause that is known of and the interventions are drastic and have limited success. In consequence of this there has been a market increase in the cost of treating people, which provides further incentive to prevent people from becoming ill. Viruses and bacteria are biological, behaviours, beliefs and feelings of stress come under the heading of psychological influences and social factors might include employment, class and ethnicity (Ogden, 2004). The biopsychosocial model claims that illness is caused by a combination of biological, psychological and social factors. The biomedical model also does not acknowledge the interaction between the mind and the body. The biomedical approach looks for the cause of a disorder rather than looking at a range of contributory factors.
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