Sarah Redshaw thinks our healthcare model is sometimes too focused on disease.

On the surface, this seems like a weird thing to say, given how we go to doctors when we’re ill; we expect them to make it about disease and illness. But Sarah argues that this approach can divorce the individual from any financial, social and cultural pressures they’re is facing outside the consultation room. In other words, the individual is separated from their lives outside the hospital, which can lead to an incomplete picture of the individual’s life and times.

On this episode of What’s Sociology Got To Do With It?, that is the logic Sarah applies to arguments of ‘well, take responsibility for yourself!’ She argues that there are large–scale problems many Australians face which limit their available opportunities. For example, homelessness or mental health struggles can stop holdback even the brightest. From this, she argues that some Australians need different resources, advice and support, which must move beyond ‘I did it without any supporting, so why can’t you?’ And so, simply asking our fellow Australians to pull themselves up by their bootstraps becomes problematic (and increasingly impossible) if all Australians are treated like we’re on the same playing field. She calls on Australians to re–focus on community responsibility for each other, for supporting and thinking of each other as a first instinct.

If you want to contact Sarah Redshaw, she is on LinkedIn. Sarah’s work can also be found through her ResearchGate profile or her Academia page.