The BioPsychoSocial Model is a holistic perspective grounded in general systems theory and works to address health-related issues. It is based on the idea that suffering, disease, and illness are all affected by multiple levels of organization, from the societal to the molecular. It is a way of understanding a patients subjective experiences as an essential contributor to accurate diagnoses, health outcomes, and health care delivery.
Its central mission is to improve wellbeing, which can be defined as an overall state of health and happiness at the biological, psychological, and social levels. As such, we must consider the psychological, behavioral, and social dimensions that contribute to illness-related events.
The advantages of this perspective are in its holism; the awareness of levels of nature are considered, as well as it’s inclusiveness of diverse perspectives. This allows health-care practitioners to better understand and respond to the patients suffering. Recently, many researchers have proposed that the Biopsychosocial model be expanded to include a spiritual dimension as well. A researcher by the name of Katerndahl illustrated the relevance of spiritual symptoms and their interactions for understanding health outcomes. He noted that for holistic health care to be genuine, it must address the totality of a patients relational existence (Katerndahl, 2008). Similarly, the World Health Organization in 1948 adopted a definition of health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. However, in 1999 it was proposed to be amended to insert spiritual well-being into the concept to be defined as “a dynamic state of complete physical, mental, spiritual and social well-being” (WHO, 1999).
Although spirituality has received many definitions by many different authors, it can perhaps be most comprehensively defined as “the search for ultimate meaning, purpose and significance, in relation to oneself, family, others, community, nature, and the sacred, expressed through beliefs, values, traditions and practices”.
This connection to the essence of life is ubiquitous and experienced by each human at some point in his or her life, and I believe it is worth while to include this dimension in considering truly holistic health care practices and treatments. In order for us to truly work with and improve every aspect of human experiences, we absolutely should explore further the implications spiritual health has on our wellbeing and subjective health.
References
WHO (World Health Organization) Fifty-Second World Health Assembly. 1999 Apr 7; Available online: http://apps.who.int/gb/archive/pdf_files/WHA52/ew24.pdf.
Katerndahl D.A. Impact of Spiritual Symptoms and Their Interactions on Health Services and Life Satisfaction. Ann. Fam. Med. 2008;6:412–420. doi: 10.1370/afm.886
Additionally the biopsychosocial model “sees health as being determined by biological, psychological, and social factors” (Gruman, 2017). This gives psychology more room to make discoveries that won’t be limited by following one concept alone, biological ones. There seems to never be one answer for all in the field of psychology.
References: Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 978-1-4833-6973-0
Hey there! This blog is actually linked close with my most recent post. This is because I discussed the predecessor to the biopsychosocial model, the biomedical model. One of the reasons I had chosen the biomedical model was to delve into the flaws behind it and the need for a new theory to arise. Consequently, this new theory is the one in which you have elaborated on in this blog. The biopsychosocial model recognizes the fact that psychology goes beyond biological factors. Identifying spirituality is a great way to drive that point home! Spiritual beliefs and different cognitive processes can all contribute to a specific mental illness that biological factors would not be fully able to solve. Would you say spirituality needs to be given more attention in psychology?