How is illness socially constructed?

... SOCIAL POLICY BA Health and society Student Number- 328853. How is illness socially constructed? It is argued that the term illness is socially constructed. Illness holds a diverse range of connotations and there is no consensus over the meaning. It is important to understand its meanings and its implications on health and disease in order to look at it in its wider context in relation to health policy and service provision and society. It is also important for the difference between professionals and lay people's views of health to be analysed as they are so contrasting in conceptions. It is important firstly to look at the varying notions of illness and conceptualise notions of illness i.e. what counts as a recognisable symptom, in order to be able to research it. Peoples self definitions of illness depend on their mental and physical state and the symptoms in which they define as illness. Medical model of health At present the

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