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Sociological Analysis of Dr. Gary Bloch's TED Talk
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An Analysis of Sociological Perspectives of Dr. Gary Bloch’s Ted Talk
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An Analysis of Sociological Perspectives of Dr. Gary Bloch’s Ted Talk
Summary of Dr. Gary Bloch's TED Talk
In his talk, ‘If you want to help me, prescribe me Money’, Dr. Gary Bloch talks about the social condition of the patient to be viewed as the prevailing cause of their illness. Instead of treating the human body, a doctor needs to treat the patient as a whole, including their social situation that plays a major role in determining their overall well-being.
‘Poverty’ is an illness that a doctor needs to diagnose and provide treatment for, through prescribing treatment/ medicine in the form of ‘Income’. By giving examples of three people, who could not do well in their lives because of their illnesses, having their roots directed towards their poor social circumstances, Dr. Bloch showed how their social condition played a pivotal role in the illnesses they were suffering from. There are four important interventions that a doctor can help their patients with, to treat their social situation of ‘poverty’, namely, ask and listen, prescribe income, build a poverty team, and demand change.
The first step is to ask the patient about their social situation, and then listening to them carefully. The next step is to prescribe income through various means of either educating them about how they can generate income, getting them acquainted with the community phone numbers, websites, to name a few, that could help them. The third step is to build a poverty team that includes, professionals like doctors, such as nurses, psychologists, dietitians, who could help patients out. Lastly, the step of demanding change can lead to a changed society that can treat poverty for the betterment of people.
Personal Reflection on the Talk
Dr. Bloch’s Ted talk is an eye-opener for those health professionals who believe in theory-based treatment practices of their patients or who merely treat human body and not the social cause of their illnesses. It is indeed an eye-opener for us as it directly hits the root-cause of the social-illness ‘poverty’, of an individual that may exaggerate their ongoing ailments like depression, lung diseases, to name a few.
Of all the things Dr. Bloch spoke about, the most striking statement was his discussion on the fact that there is 60 percent rise in diseases like depression, 100 percent rise in diabetic cases and 70 percent rise in cardiac conditions and the change in the genetic makeup of people because of these illnesses, that have a social cause of poverty behind them. Thus, poverty is an evil that needs to be nipped in the bud. We are totally in sync with what Dr. Bloch spoke about poverty and the four interventions that should be done to eradicate the same.
Sociological Theories Reflected in the Talk
The theories of Sociology that correlate with Dr. Bloch’s Ted Talk, include, Theory of Functionalism and the Theory of Symbolic Interactionism.
Theory of Functionalism
According to Functionalism theory, Functionalism is a doctrine that what makes something a state of mind or pain, depends not just on the internal constitution but on the cognition of which it is a part of (plato.stanford.edu, 2004). Simply put, the mental state of a person has a direct relation with the causal relations to one’s sensory stimulations, behavior and other mental states (plato.stanford.edu, 2004). For instance, pain is a perception that should be due to any physical injury. However, as per functionalism theory, it can be realized by causal relations to stimuli and behaviors also (plato.stanford.edu, 2004). In Dr. Bloch’s talk, it was mentioned that there is an increase in cases of depression and other diseases by 60 percent because of the social conditions of individuals rather than the existence of pathology. Thus, the functionalism theory complies with what Dr. Bloch talked about in his Ted talk.
Theory of Symbolic Interactionism
Another theory that goes along with the Dr. Bloch’s Ted talk is the theory of Symbolic Interactionism. According to Blumer (1969), there are two ways by which humans form meaning, one, by attributing to objects, events or phenomena, and two, by physical attachments imposed on objects and events by humans. Meaning is created when there is an interaction between the people and is thus, not an intrinsic attribute of an object (Aksan et al., 2009). In Dr. Bloch’s talk, he mentions that asking and listening is important, which means, the meaning of an event can only be created when there is interaction between doctor and the patient to understand the exact situation or diagnosis of the patient. Thus, theory of Symbolic Interactionism complies with Dr. Bloch’s Ted talk.
Social Determinants of Health in Practice
In his talk, Dr. Bloch talks about people who were adversely affected by the Social Determinants of health. According to the World Health Organization (2019), Social determinants of Health include conditions in which a person is born, grows, works, lives and ages, and the wider sources of forces such as social policies, political and economic conditions (Schnur, 2019).
Figure 1: Social Determinants of Health
(Source: https://www.nursingcenter.com/ncblog/november-2019/social-determinants-of-health)
Figure 1 shows the Social Determinants of health.
Case Example: Cerra
Dr. Bloch gave an example of a homeless transgender person, Cerra, who would live in their community in environmental conditions as harsh as -20 degrees of cold temperature to as hot as +30 degrees Celsius. Dr. Bloch’s daughters would often ask how they could help her by moving them to either their basement or by any means if they could help out Cerra. As Cerra was homeless and not economically sound and would live in Dr. Bloch’s community without any social support, was thus, badly hit as far as the social determinants of health are concerned.
Case Example: Teresa
In another example of a single mother of two, Teresa, who moved out of Toronto for her kids and would not be able to do her part-time nursing care because of taking care of her kids, underwent depression and stress. Although, Dr Bloch advised her with drugs, got the tests done, referred her to right specialists and advised on eating healthy diet and doing exercise. However, one thing that was missing out on Dr. Bloch’s part was to take care of the social determinant of the health of Teresa. Because of poverty, she was stressed and depressed and what she needed was a job to support her family. Thus, Dr. Bloch talks about powerlessness of being unable to support people to helping and enabling them to lead a good life. And, that can come through detection of their Social Determinant factors of health and supporting them out by the four interventions suggested by Dr. Bloch, namely, ask and listen, prescribe income, build a poverty team, and demand change.
References
Aksan et al. (2009) Symbolic interaction theory. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Elsevier. Available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042809001633
Bloch, G. (2013) If You Want to Help Me, Prescribe Me Money. Tedx Stouffville.
Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLRT0bvaz98
Plato.stanford.edu. (2004) Functionalism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Available at
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/functionalism/#WhaFun
Schnur, M. (2019) Social Determinants of Health. NursingCenter.com. Available at
https://www.nursingcenter.com/ncblog/november-2019/social-determinants-of-health
World Health Organization. (2019). Social Determinants of Health. Available at