What representations of the varying definitions of health have you encountered? How is it different for different people?  

Defining Needs of Vulnerable Population

One of the different health definitions describes health as an absence of any ailment or impairment. Therefore, medical professions are the only ones that can pronounce that a person is healthy. One representation that I have encountered that relates to this definition is a female who heard voices in his head but still lived well in her community and was seen as healthy (Sartorious, 2006). She did not seek nor receive any medical treatment since she did not feel ill. However, after a medical examination, it was discovered that she was a psychiatric candidate. Therefore, the individual had an abnormality that should have been considered a symptom of an ailment but failed to feel ill.

The other definition describes health as a condition that allows a person to sufficiently cope with every daily life demand, which also implies the absence of an ailment and impairment (St Claire, Watkins, & Billinghurst, 1996). In this definition, one representation I have encountered is an individual suffering from peptic ulcers but was not aware of it; thus, he sufficiently coped with his day-to-day demands. He believed he was healthy. Therefore, the individual was sick but did not experience any problem; neither did he know that he had a disease. For that reason, he did not seek any treatment for the disease.

Thirdly, I have also encountered individuals with HIV and AIDS who have accepted their condition. Such individuals do all they can, like following prescriptions and eating healthy to establish an inside equilibrium that enables them to cope successfully despite the presence of the disease.