UNIT 19: Applied Sociological Perspectives for Health & Social Care

The application of demography to health and social care

p3: use examples to describe the application of demography to health and social care
service provision

Teenage pregnancies are on the rise in the UK despite the government's efforts to stop this. People
have yet to find out and agree on why this is happening.

However Birmingham teenage pregnancy rates have fallen faster than the national average. Figures
from Office of National Statistics show that the conception rate among under-18’s in Birmingham
fell again in 2005. This means that Birmingham had a reduction rate which was higher than the
national average for the period 1998 to 2005. The Office of National Statistics data has shown a
national decline of 11.1% in under 18 conception rate, between 1998 & 2004. Birmingham’s rate
has also declined by 11.7% in the same period.

Birmingham tackles this by having youth services, sex education in schools, well publicised sexual
health advice centres and contraceptives, personal advices, youth workers, youth clubs, and social
workers.

There is still a lot of work to do to meet the 50% reduction target by 2010. Councillor Margaret
Sutton, Chair of the Birmingham Teenage Pregnancy Partnership said: “Young motherhood is
linked to poor child health, child poverty, education, employment and social exclusion. If the
government and community groups can change teenagers attitudes, the 50% reduction target will be
met. Below are some statistics I got which show that the overall trend is decreasing pregnancy rates
in Birmingham.

Lots of parents don’t talk to their children about sex, so maybe if people were better educated on
sex, maybe these teenage pregnancies wouldn’t happen. There are several community groups which
work to raise awareness of the issues and provide sexual education . Maybe this will help to reduce
UNIT 19: Applied Sociological Perspectives for Health & Social Care
The application of demography to health and social care
teenage pregnancy rates in Birmingham.

There are several places in Birmingham which provide advice regarding sex, such as Connexions,
and Brook, which is a sexual health. People can feel free to walk in and ask any questions they wish
to ask.

If you know someone who is pregnant underage, there is not much you can do but to provide
emotional support and let them make their own decisions on whether they want to keep the child or
not. They can even legally have an abortion without anyone, including their parents knowing.
Parents should be encouraged to support their child for whatever decision they come to agree to and
to accept it, if they happen to disagree with it.

The people of Birmingham agree that teenage girls agree that there isn’t enough sex education for
teenagers.

There are various services in Birmingham to help tackle, and prevent teenage pregnancies.

The NHS is running a scheme in the “Birmingham East and North” region called “Here for You”. It
describes one of the main elements of teenage pregnancy is to develop services to enable teenagers
to make their own informed decisions about sexual health. Services such as support, guidance,
advice and information. These places are located in Shard End, Bromford, Erdington, Heartlands
Hospital, Castle Vale, Yardley and Meadway. One of which tests for STIs, another is a community
centre, and another is in a school.

Base K/S is a place for 11-25 year olds to drop in to get support and advice.. They offer Chlamydia
screening, pregnancy tests and a condom distribution. They have a midwife, counselling service,
benefits and housing advice for teenage parents.

The Green Door project provides work and one to one support for 11-25 year olds. Their drop in
provision provides condoms and pregnancy tests.

Young Parent Groups works with young parents, and pregnant teenagers to increase their self-
esteem and confidence by providing advice and information on health. They want them to get on in
life so they help them get education, training and employment.

There are various Connexions centres teenagers can drop into to get advice on all sorts of things.

One scheme in Frankley, in Birmingham, has teenage mums being encouraged to get back to
training, employment, and education through a successful community project. A 12 week
programme based at the New Children’s Centre in Frankley encourages young parents to move
forward in their lives and offers support in helping to raise their self esteem and confidence. The
place brings up issues such as sexual health, nutrition and healthy eating, positive parenting,
father’s rights, drug awareness, creative play, connexions advice, domestic violence, sexual abuse
and anger management.

In the Heart of Birmingham, efforts are being made as well. But these efforts get made in the places
where the teenage pregnancies thrive; all thanks to demographics stating where these teenage
pregnancies are. In April 2008, NHS announced that support will be put in the three priority areas,
Northfield, Barley Green and Weoley. Family Planning Clinics are nationwide and offer a wide
range of services, they even offer free counselling.
UNIT 19: Applied Sociological Perspectives for Health & Social Care
The application of demography to health and social care

Drugs

p3: use examples to describe the application of demography to health and social care
service provision

The drug industry makes up 8% of all yearly international trade; the same as oil or tourism. Drugs
are smuggled via ships, usually in cargo freight containers, on planes, private helicopters, small
boats which land illegally and skip customs checks, air mail or smaller airports. If we were to check
everyone in Heathrow airport, the queue would be held up for a very long time. Much like when
Terminal 3 had its disastrous launch.

According to the National Statistics, 1 in 3 young men men use cannabis, that's years 16 to 24. Now
that’s a lot. That just goes to show how difficult it is for the government to eradicate drug usage.

Drug usage in Birmingham has increased, this is because cases of drug poisoning have increased by
16 per cent since 2004. You can even by ecstasy pills for £1.

Drug Action Team is a service run by the NHS, which provides services for people who are already
using drugs. Services such as, needle exchange, self help groups, and substance misuse services for
people who would like help getting off drugs.

If someone is taking drugs, you can get them sent to prison for up to 7 years, or get an up to
unlimited fine, or both, which may not be a wise choice, because you don’t want to throw
someone’s childhood and education away. If they are on hard drugs such as heroin, you should take
them to the nearby doctor straight away to be put on a drug withdrawal program. Someone is known
to have died from a brain haemorrhage due to withdrawal symptoms, 72 hours whilst filming a
video diary to his family about going cold turkey. Intent to supply gives you life in prison for class a
drugs and up to 14 years in prison for class b or c drugs; or a fine, or both.

There are various charities such as FRANK, previously the National Drugs Helpline; which its main
audience is teenagers. Its website gives information on nearby places drug addicts can get help.
UNIT 19: Applied Sociological Perspectives for Health & Social Care
The application of demography to health and social care

Childhood Poverty

p3: use examples to describe the application of demography to health and social care
service provision

Children who live in poverty are 10 times more likely to die as an infant and five times more likely
to die in an accident.
Preventing child poverty means improving family incomes.
According to the United Nations, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, London and Birmingham - have
by far the worst rates of child poverty in the UK. The parliamentary constituency with the highest
number of children in or close to poverty is Birmingham Ladywood, with 81% (28,420 individuals).

The epicenter of UK child poverty is in Birmingham, where children in 81% of families are
affected, says a disturbing new report. However, the website The Guardian does not state where that
information came from. According to the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion and Donald
Hirsch, 81% of children from the West Midlands come from low income families.

“The indicator is broken down into those who are out of work (in families receiving out of work
benefits) and those in low income work (and in receipt of working tax credit), this is expressed as a
percentage of children in the area. The stacked bar chart allows comparison between the local
authority, region and national picture for the latest available data.”
UNIT 19: Applied Sociological Perspectives for Health & Social Care
The application of demography to health and social care

People are also coming off benefits, and the childcare places in Birmingham are increasing.

Social class also has something to do with childhood poverty.

Your social class is determined by your job, unless you’re from the royal family. And evidence
shows that the higher social class, the less likely you are to die early, get ill, smoke, take drugs, and
have time off work. If someone has a higher social class, they are less likely to get ill. This is
because richer people can afford the latest treatments, and that they typically live in the good areas,
where people don’t usually get stabbed or shot, or typically know anybody round their area who
takes drugs. The more money someone has, the higher their life expectancy. The health expenses are
generally on the increases.

The higher the social class, the lower the death rate. The higher social class someone is, the less
likely they are to smoke. The reason for this may be escapism, because people are unhappy with
their lives. The higher social class some is, the less absence they take from work. Not only does this
show that people those people are unhappier with their jobs so they take time off, but they may also
UNIT 19: Applied Sociological Perspectives for Health & Social Care
The application of demography to health and social care
get injured in manual jobs.

Childhood poverty is something that causes social inequalities. In the past many people had to go to
dry cleaners to get their clothes washed. Not anymore as 80% of people on the lowest income group
have a washing machine.

Access to consumer goods and services is one indicator of people’s living standards. 11 per cent of
households without access to a car said they had difficulty in accessing their GP. What if they want
to get to the shops, or somewhere else for that matter?

If people live in a disadvantaged area, they might mix in with the wrong people, and get in petty
crimes such as stealing from the corner shop.

Having unemployed parents, or single parents who work for just above the minimum wage doing
cleaning or catering who are struggling to survive does not help. Struggling to survive encourages
people to turn to drugs and crime.
UNIT 19: Applied Sociological Perspectives for Health & Social Care
The application of demography to health and social care
m3: explain the value of the application of demography to health and social care
service provision
Demographics let us know we have a problem, how widespread it is, and whether our efforts have
helped to tackle those problems. They allow community groups, and government organisations to
come up with strategies and campaigns to tackle problems.

Demographics teach us that the gaps in the income and wealth remain large. And that exam results
differ by social status. All of these things are not going to change. It seems like society likes to put
people in boxes.

If we didn’t have demographics on teenage pregnancies, we wouldn’t be able to fully understand

Demographics let us know we have a problem, how widespread it is, and whether our efforts have
helped to tackle those problems. They allow community groups, and government organisations to
come up with strategies and campaigns to tackle problems.

The reason why the amount of care centres in Birmingham are increasing is because Birmingham is
a place where people are on benefits, unemployed, in poverty, so places like SureStart are only
going to be in places where they are needed. Because of demographics,

Drugs are a widespread problem. How would we know that one in three people admit to taking
drugs if we didn’t collect statistics? How would the police have an idea of how much drug users
they have to catch in the area if we didn’t collect statistics? The fact is we wouldn’t. The
government does not take statistics for the sake of it. Their statistics have an actual purpose to it.

Society is a pyramid with the few higher class people at the top and the massive lower class people
at the bottom. As Britain is a capitalist society, this pyramid is needed in order for our society and
economy to function. This is why there was a big fuss in the media when we stopped spending as
much as we used to. High street stores closed down. And Alistair Darling cut the VAT rate got cut
by 15%.

Demographics let us understand our society, how it is changing, and lets the government move the
lower class up when they feel that they have become to poor and poverished.

Demographics help the government improve society, and more importantly, its country.

Some things which won’t change however, is the rich and poor divide. If we can learn anything
from demographics, it’s that the lower class you are, the more likely it is for you to get pregnant
underage, be involved in crime, have little money, and take drugs. The lower class is getting richer
and better off, but will never be at the level of the working class citizens. Some people believe that
in a capitalist society, the government wants a certain amount of people to stay on lower class,
which is why GCSEs got made harder, that it wasn’t due to cheating at all. And education has a
strong correlation with social class, so making exams harder makes people more likely to take
drugs, get pregnant underage, and get wrapped up in crime. There will always be an imbalance of
money. The sad fact is that things cost money, and millions of pounds get put into community
centres and advertising campaigns. That money has to come from somewhere, so then some areas
will get less treatment from others. And sometimes, that money is wasted. Not everyone can be born
into wealth.
UNIT 19: Applied Sociological Perspectives for Health & Social Care
The application of demography to health and social care

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UNIT 19: Applied Sociological Perspectives for Health & Social Care
The application of demography to health and social care
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