Who is responsible?

Politics gets into everything. Our lives are dominated by the attitudes of those in power in Whitehall. The current government, though a coalition, is fairly true to Tory governments of the past that place emphasis upon personal responsibility with the state playing less of a role in governing peoples’ lives. In contrast, Labour has often looked at those who have less as being victims, feeling that the state has a duty to try and equalise society’s inequalities.

So what does this have to do with patient education? Well it is a subject which can be viewed with perspectives that mirror the two main parties’ points of view. Patients can be either held fully responsible for their health, or their health can be seen as a result of the environment which they inhabit and are not able to control. These two different viewpoints have often been in conflict. In recent times of financial hardship the general public is less likely to accept that responsibility has less of a role in health and as welfare is stretched, the public’s tolerance of those affected by their environment is waning.