Linking Common Good with Public Service

Introduction:

The biggest challenge confronting Australia’s health system in the 21st century is Diabetics. The fact that 280 Australians develop diabetes every day has become increasingly common (McGorry et al., 2014). The number mentioned is approximately one person in every five minutes developing people with diabetes. 1.7 million Australian approximately have diabetics, and it is a severe condition for Australia. Diabetes is a disease that is associated with various complications. When there is a rise in the number of people developing diabetes, along with individual concern, it becomes the concern for the nation as well. The paper aims to discuss the increasing rate in type 2 diabetes considering the common good. The paper also proposes ways to address these challenges.

The prime priority of common good in the health care domain is the essence of the global health justice. As identified by Tasioulas and Vayena  (2016), the actions related to common good is based up on choosing a common health problem that is victimizing majority of the population in the society and as highlighted by the authors, the aggravating problem of diabetes is a big social issue that requires the attention of global health justice. In this article, the concept of common good would be linked with the context of public service. Social welfare function, that is a basic postulate of common good, should be implemented in order to analyze the trends of social health justice in Australia regarding fighting the rampant growth of diabetes among the Australians.

Social condition that allows people to reach their full potential as well as realize their human dignity, are:

• Respect for the person.
• Security and peace.
• Social wellbeing and establishment of the group

The concept of common good contextualizes with the reference to the social health conditions, if the domain of public service is selected for implementation of common good. It was deemed necessary by the proponents of the common good that some norms be formed, which would safeguard the interests of the people. The concept of the common good originated about two thousand years ago in the writings of Plato, Aristotle and Cicero and More recently, John Rawls. It is thus evident that the social conditions from years ago until today have found the common good to of great relevance. The reason for this lies in the explanation of the common good, which states that some general conditions must be equally of everyone’s advantage.

Diabetes is a disease that is prevalent in all parts of the world and yet has not been given due importance. In addition, it has also been found that type 2 diabetes is on the rise especially in Australia and the society has to put in maximum effort to stop its prevalence. Rad et al. (2013) found in their study that patients with type 2 diabetes do not receive social support adequately. Again, as Tasioulas and Vayena (2016), opines, the right to health that is advocated by the social health justice doctrine should be the characteristic of the control measure that should be adopted by the public leaders of Australia in order to fight diabetes. The study also found that social support is vital to improving diabetes because it increases self-care. For instance, an individual suffering from type 2 diabetes might feel more encouraged to take care of her or him when he or she finds that her or his family and friends are there to support her or him. In fact the postulates of health related common good also emphasizes that the individuals should be equally and properly responsive to the threshold of possibility for health care. Again, community awareness as described above, is highly beneficial for fighting diabetes and creating social awareness regarding it. This is how the principles of health related common good are implacable to fighting diabetes in Australia and thus bring establish global health justice. The authors conclude in their findings that social support can, not only predict health promoting behaviors but also the self-care behavior of the patents. The above study is provided as an instance to demonstrate that the concept of common good has been contextualized the social conditions in case if type 2 diabetes as well.

The Rise of Diabetes – A Global Health Challenge

The community as a whole has the responsibility to look after its members and patients with type 2 diabetes are members of the community. In the global community, the common good is not being realized, which is evident from the growing rate of type 2 diabetes in the world. Mattei et al. (2015) have found that type 2 diabetes is one of the most rapidly increasing diseases in the world. In the views of the authors, “type 2 diabetes is one of the world’s most prevalent, costly and fatal chronic conditions”. In this context, the Theory of Justice of John Rawl that highlights that for establishing the common good, the veil of ignorance have to be revealed. The original position, as discussed in the theory is attained by a small segment of people who have been able to combat the disease properly (Tasioulas & Vayena, 2016). In order to foster common good, the social leaders should help to establish similar liberty for others, so that they are able to fight the disease also. 

In 2013, more than 350 million people had type to diabetes with over 170 million undiagnosed cases (Mattei et al. 2015). This is concrete evidence that the shared responsibility of common good while addressing type 2 diabetes is not realized globally.  

Diabetes is the fastest growing chronic situation in society. It is increasing at a rate that is higher than diseases such as cancer and heart diseases. According to research, type diabetes can be prevented in various ways. It is the most common, easy and simple method a person can ask. According to Kahn & Davidson (2014), type 2 diabetes can be prevented only by changing in lifestyle. There is a strong connection with common good that can be traced when the issue of type 2 diabetes in society is observed. There is a scope of insulin-producing cells to come back when the fat is lost before getting to the point of diabetes. It is also possible fat is reduced or lost very soon after when the diagnosis. A small weight loss such as 5 to 10 per cent of the body weight can indeed bring big change (Mancia et al., 2013). Several diseases can be prevented when the weight is kept under control and regularly checked. The anti-diabetic campaigns that have been organized by the government in the recent times can be tracked as efforts to foster the common good in the context of public health service. Difficult complications such as such as developing the risk of heart disease, cancer and stroke can be reduced. For people living with type 2 diabetes can be helped with the management of the condition that prevents complication.

Preventing Type 2 Diabetes

As discussed before, the issue is not an alien problem in society. It can be prevented and measures are being taken. However, there is a significant part that needs to be changed as well. It is the realization among the healthcare industry to understand the problem from a personal perspective. The common good is an essential concern while bringing change in the people’s perspective since it revolves around moral and political philosophy. It plays a significant role since ancient times. As highlighted by Chiang et al. (2014), the National Diabetes Strategy of Australia (2016 to 2020) is a suitable common good activity where the National Diabetes Strategy Advisory Group of Australia have been working with some common goals and some common enablers in order to achieve them. The important common good related initiatives of the campaign are encouragement of coordination as well as integration for preventing, detecting as well as managing diabetic conditions, coordinating and communicating properly in order to ensure appropriate interventions as well as continued care, facilitating person based diabetic care and so on. However, it is also important to know for the nurses that there is a constant tension between appeals to the common goods, the endorsement of human rights and equality (Sen, 2013). The only way human rights and equality will be ending in mutual benefit when the meaning of common good is comprehended in a particular way. Moreover, the much needed and important aspect in the health care profession is to have a conceptual understanding of the term common good. There are certain duties that are needed to be performed by nurses even though they are not mentioned legally. These are regarding moral, ethics and duties as a citizen and as a community. The duties of common goods for every person have to be realized as nurse or healthcare profession. To view the problem in a different way would be understanding the cause of type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is mostly caused by obesity which is caused due to the eating disorder. The entire process is related to the people’s behaviour with each other. Once nurses realize the ways being supportive to patients, it can be beneficial and it will resolve the maximum portion of the problem (Christie &Channon, 2014).

Also, eliminating obesity will effectively help the population potentially reduce the occurrence of type 2 diabetes by 40 per cent (Chiang et al., 2014). In order to eliminate obesity, it is important to understand the causes behind the increase in obesity. Obesity is caused due to unhealthy eating and over-eating. However, for the rapid increase in obesity, it is not only eating unhealthy. The reason is associated with mental health issues. Therefore, the common good aim is to understand the core of the problem and aim to fix it.

Fighting Type 2 Diabetes – The Role of Healthcare Industry

Conclusion:

The common good is achieved when every person cooperates and work together in any service. This helps in eliminating any problem together by helping each other. The increase in type 2 diabetic among children and adolescents can be reduced when every person in society to work together. It also involves every institute and community as they are a major part of making changes in the society. In the end, there are several reasons for people to become obese, specifically, the main reasons are associated with the psychological aspect. By helping people to overcome and manage their mental health problem, the problem can be managed to a great extent. This will lead to achieving common good that is beneficial for everyone.

References:

Catholic-ew.org.uk. (2019). The Common Good and the Catholic Church‘s Social Teaching / CBCEW Publications / Files / Archive Media Assets / Catholic News Media Library / Catholic News – The Catholic Church for England and Wales. Retrieved from https://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/Catholic-News-Media-Library/Archive-Media-Assets/Files/CBCEW-Publications/The-Common-Good-and-the-Catholic-Church-s-Social-Teaching

Tasioulas, J. & Vayena, E. Theor Med Bioeth (2016) 37: 365. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-016-9372-x

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Mattei, J., Malik, V., Wedick, N. M., Hu, F. B., Spiegelman, D., Willett, W. C., & Campos, H. (2015). Reducing the global burden of type 2 diabetes by improving the quality of staple foods: The Global Nutrition and Epidemiologic Transition Initiative. Globalization and health, 11(1), 23.

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