The ecosystem approach in health social work

Health is the greatest value in our lives. Analyzing the current approaches of the WHO (2014), we consider this concept not only from the standpoint of physical health and the absence of disease, but understand this phenomenon as a holistic state of complete well-being, which includes, in addition to physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual, sexual, environmental and many other aspects. This is the so-called holistic model of health (Orzhekhovska, 2013). Our reasoning suggests (given various aspects of health) that this value does not depend only on an individual's choice to be or not to be healthy, and cannot be governed solely by personal actions. Here are some examples. The lack of geographically close medical services and / or free medical services causes the inability to receive emergency medical care and / or to systematically monitor health. Negative relationships in the family, the absence of a father or mother in the family can lead to emotional rejection of the child (psycho-emotional disorders), the acquisition of undesirable behavior (child addictive behavior or delinquent behavior), lack of self-care skills (this can cause various infectious diseases), getting into institutional care, which usually do not contribute to the full development of personality, etc. Inadequate social policies and an imperfect health care system in the country can cause outbreaks of socially dangerous diseases and provoke the spread of pandemics. Aggressive urbanization creates uncomfortable living conditions in cities due to traffic jams, pollution, noise, which causes other health risks from stress to cancer. As we can see, good health depends not only on the individual being healthy in the broad context of this word, but on the complex impact on us of a number of systems in which we are included. It is important to emphasize the role of social work in this context, the theory and practice of which aim, inter alia, to promote social development and well-being, as well as to improve the health care system and reduce social inequalities. Therefore, the task of social work in general and social workers together with other professionals in particular is to support the individual, family, community, society in the context of strengthening and maintaining the health of both individual and public. An ecosystem approach in social work helps us to understand the process of maintaining and strengthening health, which explains well the mutual influence of each element of the system