Current trend in the concept of health views is as a
multifaceted concept, consisting of six dimensions, namely: physical health,
mental health, social health, emotional health, spiritual health and
occupational health (Nonye, 2005:2). The World Health Organization (WHO,
1971) defined health as a state of complete physical, mental and social
well-being of an individual, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity-Udo
and Ajala (1999) in Obionu (2007:1) saw health as a state of quality which
enables an individual to face up to crisis, carryout his daily
responsibilities efficiently and relate to other persons effectively.
Accordingly, physical health includes efficient functioning of the body,
resistance to diseases, physical capacity to respond to varying experiences
without undue fatigue. This means that all organs of the body should function
efficiently.
Mental health is viewed as the
ability to live comfortably with one-self and others, understand and accept
one’s own feelings, to be creative, to deal with anxiety and stress, to endure
frustration, to gain satisfaction from constructive achievement, and to use
leisure time profitably (Owie and Eke, 1998), mental health equally means
intellectual ability and skills needed to cope with changes in life stress.
Social health includes good
relationship with other person, adaptation to the environment, acceptance,
tolerance, friendliness and co-operation. Emotional health is described as
ability to control emotions and express comfortably and appropriately. The
qualities of an emotionally healthy individual include: sense of human, love
and affection, self reliance, productivity, realism, awareness of potentials
and limitations, selfless and sense of worth.
Spiritual health includes the
ability to discover and articulate a personal purpose in life, to learn how to
experience joy, love, peace and fulfillment, as well as how to help oneself and
others achieve their full potentials (Nonye, 2005:6) spiritual health also
include positive self image.
Occupation health is the study of
conditions that influence the health and well-being of the workers, not only in
the work place but also at home with the aim of promoting health, safety and
welfare of the worker and their family.
The saying that “health is wealth”
is absolutely true, from the forgoing analysis. And to conclude that good
health translates to economic growth of a nation is not therefore an over
statement.
CONCEPTS
OF HEALTH CARE DELIVERY
Health care delivery (HCD) is described as all the
formal and non-formal activities which help in the provision of health services
for a given population (Bryant, 1998:10). The formal and non-formal activities
bring to the knowledge of the community members health care information. The
formal activities are carried out by or the day practitioners through:
i.
Primary health
care (PHC)
ii.
Secondary health
care (SHC)
iii.
Tertiary heath
care (THC)
iv.
Medical field
unit (MFU)
v.
School health
programme (SHP)
vi.
Health
establishments (HES)
vii.
Mobile Clinics
(MCs)
viii.
Community health programme (CHPs)
ix.
Under five
clinics (UFCs)
Non-formal
activities in health care services are rendered by traditional practitioners
like bore setters and traditional Birth Attendant (TBAs) (Nonye, 2005:7)
COMPONENTS
OF HEALTH CARE DELIVERY SYSTEMIN
NIGERIA
The components into which health care delivery system
is composed in Nigeria include:
·
Orthodox health
care/medicine
·
Traditional
Health care/medicine
·
Alternative
Health care/medicine
Fig 1: Organogram of Nigerian health care delivery system
source, Nonye, 2005:9