The Medical Model
The Medical model is a psychological model. Psychological model a theory, usually including a
mechanism for predicting psychological outcomes, intended to explain specific psychological
processes. The medical model was developed by medical professionals that believe mental illness
impairs the individual ability to function. Set of procedures in which all doctors are trained.
Disease is detected and identified through a systematic process of observation.
Public Health Model
The Public health model focuses on lower class the community and or county/state and Youth and
Elders. It is an epidemiological model that attempts to prevent or reduce a particular illness or
social problem in a population by identifying risk indicators.This model focuses on the
malfunctions or pressures created by an environment or by a society. (Woodside, McClam, 2018).
The Human Service Model
The Human service model provides services to the client based on interpersonal and
environmental conflicts. "The human service model is concerned with the interaction between the
individual and the environment stressing the need for balance between the two." (Woodside,
McClam, 2018).
Noted differences:
The medical model is about the individual and the public health model is about groups of people,
and their environment/community.
The medical model is a lot like the public health model. They seem to differ in clientele/patients
and methodology of how they each go about their programs/treatments.
Medical seems to focus the most on individual personal needs/health of the client.
In human services, there are three models, a medical model, public health model, and human
services model. In human services, these models can be delivered in various ways. All three
models are used depending on the problem. Being in the human services field, you should know
the characteristics of each model and the skills needed to apply the model to a particular situation.
As well as how it is used to help translate into human services practice. The first Model I will
discuss is the Medical Model. This model sees persons coming for help as people with a disease or
sickness. The individual could have a physiological-based disease or illness. The individual will
be considered sick or ill. Historically this model can be summarized as a system that involves
symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and cure. The following is the Social Model, and its
characteristics will be personal and environmental factors contributing to a lack of function. For
example, environmental factors may include a lack of available services or little family support. In
this model, there would be an individual or group, and environmental and social pressures could
contribute to the problem.
Finally, the public health model applies an approach to studying the causes or origins of a problem
to emphasize prevention. It bridges the medical and human services models, but it's mostly linked
to the medical model. It is a model that focuses on prevention, empowerment, and self-sufficiency.
References
Woodside, M. R., & McClam, T. (2018). An Introduction to Human Services (9th ed.). Cengage
Learning
Woodside, M. R., & McClam, T. (2018). An Introduction to Human Services (9th ed.). Cengage
Learning US. https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781337671262
