Developing Character Through the Health, Society, and Policy Framework

Connor Simper

HSP 5000 – Capstone

Dr. CoCo James

Dr. Anne Yeagle

April 2, 2020
 Introduction
My educational experience at the University of Utah has given me confidence to identify,
understand, and challenge issues of great consequence. Early in my education I became oriented
towards public health, realizing the importance of health within society and my ability to make a
difference. The Health, Society, and Policy major has allowed me to take a diversity of classes
tackling the many dimensions of health and understanding problems in the context of the
humanities, social sciences, and hard sciences. In this essay, I will demonstrate the outcomes of
my degree by showing personal development. I will enlist several concepts acquired from my
coursework to identify problems within society, and I will focus in on the problem of addiction.
In conclusion, I will show how action has followed education through both professional and
volunteer efforts.
Developed Sensitivities
The HSP major has instilled in me the identity of a social justice advocate. My
knowledge of society has contributed to a heightened sensitivity that has helped me better
understand and challenge issues of social disparity. In my science of society and bioethics
classes, I learned to understand microaggressions, prejudices, and implicit biases. I have come to
understand topics of gender identity, sexual identity, race and many more. I aspire to use my
heightened sensitivities to act as an ally for diverse groups and create safe environments. In the
following paragraphs, I will show my development of sensitivities through the identification of
issues within the framework of the HSP major.
Rifts
First introduced to me by my environmental sociology professor in the context of the
environment, the metabolic rift refers to the disruption of the social metabolism leading to
environmental degradation and inequality (Foster, 1999). A good example of a rift-less cycle can
be seen when an apple falls from a tree, is consumed by maggots and living creatures, and the
remnants go on to fertilize the ground so the apple tree can continue to produce. In our system,
an apple is picked, driven to a city, partially consumed, and thrown into a landfill. Fertilizer is
taken from other location to replace nutrients that would have come from the dropped apple, and
the landfill becomes polluted with over nutrients. In the short run, the consumer can’t
immediately realize the true cost of the apple. The rift can be seen in the displacement of
resource resulting in the buildup of waste.
Other rifts can be identified in our environment, healthcare systems, and social
organization. Using the framework of the metabolic rift, I am able identify problems within
politics and healthcare and understand how these problems affect society on individual, social,
cultural, ecological, and global levels. My education has convinced me that the greatest task of
my generation will be to challenge some of society’s rifts.
Addiction and the Opioid Epidemic
Addiction is an issue that has been greatly emphasized in my coursework and has gone
on to shape my volunteer and professional experiences. Addiction is a multitudinous issue that is
important to understand from a social, behavioral, and scientific perspective. My education has
enabled me to be an advocate for people with substance use disorders through social justice and
empathy. My ethics, economics, and psychology classes have given me an intimate
understanding of addiction. The policy part of my degree has helped me to participate in
discussions regarding addiction and take action in the community. In this section I will illustrate
some of the HSP learning outcomes by exploring the ethics, social conditions, and polices
surrounding addiction.
“What is addiction?”
This was a question posed to me by my bioethics professor. To illustrate the ethical
perspectives of addiction, we were initially given two options: addiction as personal
responsibility, or addiction as a disease. The personal responsibility model assumes that
addiction is the result of an individual’s poor senses of responsibility and bad choices. The
disease model describes addiction as being a disease separate from the individual, that
undermines an individual’s autonomy to decide to stop using (Leshner, 1997). Through the
disease model, society and genetics are the causes of addiction, and addiction is a public health
issue rather than a criminal one.
My economics and sociology coursework introduced the causality behind addiction,
introducing the issue as the result of a diseased society. The famous Rat Park experiment showed
that rats in social isolation become addicted to heroin and rats in healthy social environments do
not become addicted (Alexander et al, 1980). People who develop substance use disorders are
often the victims of social trauma. Our current system treats drug users as criminals. Treating
addiction as a personal responsibility has exacerbated the issue, causing more isolation and
leading to other social issues of incarceration and overdose. Through understanding the social
causation and philosophical perspectives of addiction, I am better able to empathize with loved
ones who suffer from substance use disorders.
I have learned to understand addiction from a legislative perspective. Criminality of
substance use has created stigma surrounding addiction. Institutional discrimination has affected
many people with substance use disorders. An example of this is the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA), whereby relapse is not covered as a consequence of the disability of addiction
(Westreich, 2002). The observation of discrimination against people with substance use disorders
has driven me to community action.
As a volunteer at One Voice Recovery, the largest syringe exchange in the state, I interact
with IV drug users on a regular basis performing harm reduction services. My HSP course work
has given me the awareness I need to be an affective ally of people who use drugs. I have used
the policy aspect of my degree to be a more involved citizen by tracking and supporting bills. I
work as a team with other volunteers to create relationships with legislatures and apply for grants
to further our cause.
Conclusion
Majoring in Health, Society, and Policy has built my character by developing
sensitivities, the ability to identify issues, and the skills to challenge these issues. As an avid
volunteer and health educator, I apply my education to real life situations every day, and I aspire
to use my degree to challenge larger healthcare inequalities in the future.
 Work Cited
Alexander, B. K., Hadaway, P., & Coambs, R. (1980). Rat park chronicle. British Columbia
medical journal, 22(2), 32-45.
Foster, J. B. (1999). Marx's theory of metabolic rift: Classical foundations for environmental
sociology. American journal of sociology, 105(2), 366-405.
Leshner, A. I. (1997). Addiction is a brain disease, and it matters. Science, 278(5335), 45-47.
Westreich, L. M. (2002). Addiction and the Americans with Disabilities act. Journal of the
American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online, 30(3), 355-363.