Hodges' Model: Welcome to the QUAD: The INDIVIDUAL ↔ GROUP axis

Hodges' model is a conceptual framework to support reflection and critical thinking. Situated, the model can help integrate all disciplines (academic and professional). Amid news items, are posts that illustrate the scope and application of the model. A bibliography and A4 template are provided in the sidebar. Welcome to the QUAD ...

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

The INDIVIDUAL ↔ GROUP axis

Looking at the axes of Hodges' model, specifically the INDIVIDUAL ↔ GROUP axis, I realise (as ever) there's more than meets the eye. 

The labels for the axes are placeholders. To a certain degree they are open, flexible. In the template (link and figure in the sidebar), the what should now be familiar labels are provided for guidance, and convenience.

The care, knowledge domains can be viewed as giant - compound placeholders, even as an opportunity to abstract away a lot of detail. In care delivery, as we concentrate on patient care, , clinical interactions, procedures ... we tend to do this in political terms. Until that is, we are jolted to the wider situation and the true realities of policy, law, and practice.

While the HUMANISTIC ↔ MECHANISTIC labels are fixed, I've often shown how the I ↔ G is itself situated, so you could variously have (titles & names to follow...):

person, self, I, individual, client, patient,
carer, student, nurse x, dr y, allied health z ..

|

nurse .., husband, wife, partner, kin, couple, guardian, friend, family, team, group, community, region, nation, populations, Planet

Usually, what we have is a ONE-TO-MANY relationship, that is 1:N.

In Hodges' model can we also say that the team is the 'individual' and the organisation the group?

Another thought regarding self-care. ... Some times this state might be concurrent with being a patient.

Part of the journey in a patient's recovery. But at some point the person does not need a professional and is indepedently self-caring. Care episodes are not what they used to be. Although when 'true' self-care is achieved, it might appear One-to-None, but this is not correct. Not correct, that is, if we can credit society acting as a safety net. Usually, it would be One-to-Family; if there is no family, then the One-to-Community should (must) be the placeholder of choice.

On self-care, and the vertical axis of Hodges' model, is this also a way to define sustainable health and social care?

See also: https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2025/10/l-shaped-model.html