Page 2 - Social Health Determants by KCA

We have to look at multiple aspects when deciphering weather or not someone is in
fact healthy and of good well-being in his or her life. Someone may not show any
signs or symptoms of physical illness but that is just one minor determent of their
health. A couple of other aspects I discovered that effect not only our health and well
being in present time but also has a major role to play in one’s future health and well-
being. These factors include their Economic Stability, Access to and the quality of
their Education & Health Care, the Neighborhood, specifically how its built and how
the inhabitants socialize within these communities.

Economic Stability

I took it upon myself to find out just how much how much these factors influence the
health and well being of people, I found that Economic Stability is a very crucial
factor that influences if someone can afford to take control over the decisions they
make without having to worry about basic human needs such as food, good
sanitation & running water. In a developing country like South Africa where power is
split between corrupt leaders and a select few that profited from the exploits of an
“Apartheid” based past government leaves no room for an ordinary civilian to even
have an economic footprint let a lone afford to have any Economic Stability. In an
article by Business Insider South Africa I noticed an alarming headline stat that read
“One in five South Africans now lives on less than R28 a day” (Daniel, 2020) this
research was conducted by the UN, and other stats show that the country is heavily
imbalanced in terms of how its wealth is spread out as 10% of its population holds
more than half of the countries income. (Daniel, 2020)This mega gap between rich
and poor is largely down to wealth which was obtained during the apartheid era
being passed over generationally between rich families. Rich officials in Government
also took advantage of BEE motions that were set in place to recoup these
disadvantages. (Roux, 2021)

Access to Health Care

People who are not exposed to proper Health Care are vulnerable to a lot of physical
diseases and this can lead to premature death and thus affecting the life expectancy
stats of a set given country. I look at South Africa with its major divide in economic
statuses and find that many communities of middle to low income salaries are very
much limited when it comes to proper health care when compared to higher income
communities. The recent on-going Corona Virus pandemic is a testament to how
understaffed, out dated and poorly sanitized the health systems are within South
Africa’s low to middle income health systems. In a BBC report I read how dirty and
overwhelmed the Hospitals mainly in Eastern and Western Cape were as they
deemed them “Hospitals of Horrors” (Harding, 2020). These are very scary realities
those with no economic stability face when they have to access affordable health
facilities near them.