Presents a unique view of social problems and conflicts over urban space from the cab of an ambulance. While we imagine ambulances as a site for critical care, the reality is far more complicated. Social problems, like homelessness, substance abuse, and the health consequences of poverty, are encountered every day by Emergency Medical Services (EMS) workers. Written from the lens of a sociologist who speaks with the fluency of a former Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), Medicine at the Margins delves deeply into the world of EMTs and paramedics in American cities, an understudied element of our health care system. Like the public hospital, the EMS system is a key but misunderstood part of our system of last resort. Medicine at the Margins presents a unique prism through which urban social problems, the health care system, and the struggling social safety net refract and intersect in largely unseen ways. Author Christopher Prener examines the forms of marginality that capture the reality of urban EMS work and showcases the unique view EMS providers have of American urban life. The rise of neighborhood stigma and the consequences it holds for patients who are assumed by providers to be malingering is critical for understanding not just the phenomenon of non- or sub-acute patient calls but also why they matter for all patients. This sense of marginality is a defining feature of the experience of EMS work and is a statement about the patient population whom urban EMS providers care for daily. Prener argues that the pre-hospital health care system needs to embrace its role in the social safety net and how EMSs' future is in community practice of paramedicine, a port of a broader mandate of pre-hospital health care. By leaning into this work, EMS providers are uniquely positioned to deliver on the promise of community medicine. At a time when we are considering how to rely less on policing, the EMS system is already tasked with treating many of the social problems we think would benefit from less involvement with law involvement. Medicine at the Margins underscores why the EMS system is so necessary and the ways in which it can be expanded.

Since 1945, a broad array of health care technologies have come into use, including antibiotics, anti-hypertensive drugs, oral diuretics, oral contraceptives, psycho-pharmaceuticals, corticosteroids, vaccines, open-heart surgery, genetics screening, automated clinical laboratories, renal dialysis, and cardiac pacemakers. Unquestionably, these technologies have brought benefits to millions. However, as costs of health care have risen rapidly, governments have increasingly singled out expensive technology as the culprit. The result has been changes in the methods of paying for health care in most countries to control cost rises. This has led to a slowing of technological change in some countries and increasing necessities to choose in all countries. This timely work describes how technology assessment critically evaluates the benefits, costs, and social implications of technology. The book presents an international perspective on health care technology's development and diffusion, and explains how health care technology can enlighten difficult choices faced by policy-makers, clinicians, and patients.

In 1983 The Economics of Health in Devloping Countries was published. This was a basic text, designed to illuminate ways in which economic concepts and techniques can be applied to health and health services, each chapter reviewing the state of the art' in a particular area. Since 1983, there has been a rapidly growing interest in this field. One striking feature has been considerably increased research effort, providing the basis for this publication which presents a number of empirical studies in order both to clarify research methodologies and report research results that are of key importance to policy-makers. Those economists most active in researching the health sector in developing countries were invited to contribute chapters: all have direct experience of working in developing countries, whether for governments, educational institutions, or international agencies.
This book will be of use to all those interested (as policy-makers, managers, academics, and students) in economic issues concerning the health sector, and in the application of the concepts and techniques of health economics to improve the efficiency and equity of resource use in the developing world.

This book presents the current place and future role of the community health worker. The majority of the world's population continues to suffer levels of ill-health and death that are only a distant memory in prosperous countries. Approaches to alleviating this burden are well-known, and range from specific medical interventions to broader development policies. Since the Chinese experience of mobilising 'barefoot doctors' became known, the approach of training villagers to offer local services has received strong support from international agencies and governments. More recently reports of the quality of the services offered by these workers has indicated that a large gulf may have existed between the rhetoric and the reality. Some have questioned the basic premise that such workers can make a valuable contribution. However, the debate has been informed only by a limited number of often dated accounts. This book analyses programmes in a limited number of countries whose experience is particularly relevant to understanding the role of these workers. The picture that emerges demonstrates the potential value of community health workers as individuals, but highlights the widespread failure of the programmes required to support them. Through case studies and an analytical overview, this book sets out the preconditions for effective community health worker programmes.

This book explores the methods and approach necessary to investigate the setting up and running of a health system. It will enable the reader to begin to investigate his own health system, and compare and contrast it with other systems. The continual monitoring of change allows for the detection and identification of longitudinal trends within and across systems, and evolution in systems can then occur. Looking at systems can furnish alternative ideas, and help to establish new models of care. The book presents a modular approach to analysing health care systems, and the author explains how this can be put to practical use. Topics are discussed at both conceptual and operational levels, and methods of applying the approach are outlined. Case histories illustrate the use of the modular approach in `real life' situations. An appendix of terms and concepts is provided to facilitate use.

This book examines the worldwide growth of elderly populations and its consequences for future care, and the associated costs for this sector of the population. Living a longer life does not necessarily imply an improvement in the quality of life. Important issues concerning the overall quality of additional years gained through increase in life expectancy are addressed in this book. Progress in specific dimensions of wellbeing are described. Recent gains in knowledge are reviewed, together with advances in our understanding of falls, sensory disorders, mental health in old age, osteoporosis, incontinence, drug therapy and iatrogenic disorders. The book extends outside medical care to encompass the family, which is the key issue in developing countries, community care, nursing home and hospice care; health care services that are particularly appreciated by older people are described. It will provide readers with a knowledge base for developing policies and programs that will advance the wellbeing of the elderly people of the world.

In Command of Guardians: Executive Servant Leadership for the Community of Responders, Second Edition spotlights the philosophy of servant leadership and offers a pathway for strengthening first responder organizations. Responders work in high-risk, critical situations under the pressure of time and consequence. Being a responder means one must become an active player in the tragedies of others. Because these situations can change the responder over time, a special type of leader is needed to walk beside them while they navigate the realities of public safety and emergency service operations. This book illustrates how being a servant leader to these guardians allows the community of responders to strengthen their resiliency, foster individual growth, and perform at peak levels. "The book spans a wide breadth and depth, and is written in a way that engages the reader immediately. It is packed with sensitive and wise insights, as well as eminently practical advice for today's emergency services leaders, as well as those of tomorrow." - Emily Hough, Editor-In-Chief, Crisis Response Journal "Emotionally moving, research-based, and a compelling case for why any organization can benefit from a servant leadership organizational culture. Eric debunks the myth that servant leadership is "soft" and shows how the hard work of skilled servant-leaders is exactly what is needed in the alpha worlds of public safety and emergency services." - Duane Trammell, President, Trammell McGee-Cooper & Associates, Inc"Eric Russell is a pioneer in applying the principles of servant leadership to the communities of brave police, fire, and emergency services responders. This book is destined to be a classic reference work for the field." -Don M. Frick, PhD, Authorized Robert Greenleaf biographer and co-author of Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership: The Wisdom of Leading by Serving. "In Command of Guardian speaks great leadership truths to first responder communities throughout the world. This is an important work for those in command of the men and woman who put their lives on the line to save others." - Christophe Libeau, Lieutenant Colonel, Brigade de Sapeurs-Pompiers de Paris

Research that occurs in the context of emergencies and disasters requires attention to challenging contexts and circumstances. Qualitative Disaster Research walks readers through the ways in which those contexts can be managed to produce careful, rigorous, and scholarly work. Each chapter provides an overview of approaches, methods, and techniques with illustrations from established disaster studies. Step-by-step instructions outline ways to gather, analyze, and write up qualitative field data. User-friendly examples show readers how to move from initial research ideas to final publication. Throughout the volume, readers find helpful suggestions for a range of field-based scenarios. Qualitative Disaster Research stands out of the first volume of its kind with the singular intent to serve as a guide to those new to or wanting a refresher course in disaster studies. Students and faculty will find the book approachable and ideal for use in training the next generation of disaster researchers.

Originating in the armed forces of the early 20th century, weapons based on chemical, biological or nuclear agents have become an everpresent threat that has not vanished after the end of the cold war. Since the technology to produce these agents is nowadays available to
many countries and organizations, including those with terrorist aims, civil authorities across the world need to prepare against incidents involving these agents and train their personnel accordingly.
As an introductory text on NBC CBRN weapons and agents, this book leads the reader from the scientific basics to the current threats and strategies to prepare against them. After an introductory part on the history of NBC CBRN weapons and their international control, the three classes of nuclear/radiological, biological, and chemical weapons are introduced, focusing on agents and delivery vehicles. Current methods
for the rapid detection of NBC CBRN agents are introduced, and the principles of physical protection of humans and structures are explained.
The final parts addresses more general issues of risk management, preparedness and response management, as the set of tools that authorities and civil services will be needed in a future CBRN scenario as well as the likely future scenarios that authorities and civil services will be faced with in the coming years.
This book is a must-have for Health Officers, Public Health Agencies, and Military Authorities.

Today's workplace is fast-paced, highly complex, and sometimes even life-threatening. Yet it is possible to thrive in the 'pressure cooker' of modern work life. We all have the right to enjoy rather than just endure work. In the unpredictability of even the most challenging environments, the route to success and fulfilment at work is to build our resilience. This ground-breaking book provides a highly effective toolkit that will empower you to survive, thrive and flourish in the dynamic and fast-changing context of blue-light services. Discover how to: Be ready for the unexpected, feel calm and confident under pressure and avoid burnout Reduce stress and anxiety by understanding the essential components of a resilient work life Evaluate your own resilience factor with the Workplace Resilience Instrument "Jonathan Rees shows us through bright examples and actionable exercises that we, too, can thrive under pressure. Our own resilient behaviors can be modeled to match the situations we face. Although reading about what makes people resilient can be insightful, Jonathan's battery of self-assessment tools provides the reader with specific feedback to be more effective and view adverse situations as opportunities more so than danger." Dr. Larry Mallak, Western Michigan University, Author of 'The Workplace Resilience Instrument (WRI)' "This book represents the next stage of Jonathan's work and provides any senior leader in the public sector with an opportunity to learn and refresh the practical skills that will help them in these challenging roles. Whether you are a senior leader in policing, the NHS or elsewhere in the public sector I would recommend that you read this book and adopt its principles. I promise that it will help you to survive and thrive in the pressure cooker." Chief Superintendent Ian Wylie, Vice president, Police Superintendents' Association.

Designed to enable practitioners and students to evaluate a variety of real-life emergencies from every angle, this new edition of Case Studies in Disaster Response and Emergency Management provides clear, thorough, step-by-step descriptions of more than 50 major disasters or emergencies. Arranged chronologically, the case studies involve incidents from around the globe, with topics including natural disasters, industrial accidents, epidemics, and terrorist attacks. A series of questions throughout each case study encourages the reader to think critically about the problem at hand, to select a course of action, and to then see the results of the decisions that were made. This hands-on approach invites practitioners and students to apply learned theoretical emergency management techniques in a safe test environment. Case Studies in Disaster Response and Emergency Management, 2e provides readers with the most modern and current case studies in disaster response and emergency management and can be used in group project settings, as individual homework assignments in training courses for first responders, law enforcement, and government employees, or to complement existing emergency management textbooks in Public Administration, Public Management, and Public Affairs programs.

Thinking Orientals is a groundbreaking study of Asian Americans and the racial formation of twentieth-century American society. It reveals the influential role Asian Americans played in constructing the understandings of Asian American identity. It examines the unique role played by sociologists, particularly sociologists at the University of Chicago, in the study of the "Oriental Problem" before World War II. The book also analyses the internment of Japanese Americans during the war and the subsequent "model minority" profile.

You "can" get there
Where do you want to go? You might already be working in the emergency management field, and may be looking to expand your skills. You might be setting out on a new career path. Or, you might want to learn more about exciting opportunities in emergency management.
Wherever you want to go, "Emergency Planning" will help you get there. Easy-to-read, practical, and up-to-date, this text not only helps you learn fundamental emergency planning concepts; it also helps you master the core competencies and skills you need to succeed in the classroom and beyond. The book's brief, modular format and variety of built-in learning resources enable you to learn at your own pace and focus your studies.
With this book, you will be able to: Understand how emergency planning fits within the field of emergency management. Examine the components of an emergency plan, principles that guide the planning process, and resources that can be used in the planning process. Learn about the impacts of disasters on people's mental and physical health. Assemble an emergency planning team, motivate the team members, and train the team. Learn how people can protect themselves from the impact of different types of disasters. Estimate hazard exposure. Write a professional emergency plan. Implement continuity plans for both the government and businesses. Explore the relationship between emergency planning and mitigation planning. Detect disasters and warn the population of the disaster. Learn the best ways to communicate hazard adjustments to the public. Understand the role of the Emergency Operations Center and the Incident Management System. Balance local needs with federal laws andrequirements. Explore opportunities and trends in the profession of emergency planning

"Wiley Pathways" helps you achieve your goals
When it comes to learning about emergency management, not everyone is on the same path. But everyone wants to succeed. The new "Wiley Pathways" series in Emergency Management helps you achieve your goals with its brief, inviting format, clear language, and focus on core competencies and skills.
The books in this series--"Introduction to Emergency Management, Hazard Mitigation and Preparedness," "Emergency Planning, Technology in Emergency Management," and "Disaster Response and Recovery"--offer a coordinated curriculum for learning emergency management. Learn more at www.wiley.com/go/pathways.

What is the relevance of epidemiology to decision-making in health services? If our ability to launch large-scale experimental studies of health services is limited, what are some alternative approaches to study design? How can we best make use of routinely collected data from health information systems? How can we best synthesize information to make more reasonable inferences? These are some of the questions that Epidemiology and Health Services tries to answer.L The book starts with three chapters on strategies for problem investigation, problem solving, and program development and evaluation. These are followed by nine chapters that give a theoretical overview of specific methods and then present case studies. The cases are based on important investigations of health services and are followed by questions and discussions that guide readers through the most salient issues of these studies.LThis is a book that addresses the needs of a broad spectrum of health professionals. It will help health service administrators, managers and other professional design and conduct evaluative and intervention research on the delivery of health services. And it will give epidemiology and public health students a wider perspective on applicatons of the discipline.

One of the most fundamental issues in health care delivery is who should decide which items of medical care are not worth their cost. This book is a fresh and comprehensive exploration of how health care rationing decisions are made. Unlike prior works, its focus is not on the specific criteria for rationing, like age or quality of life. Instead, the author provides comparative analysis of alternative social mechanisms for making medical spending decisions: (1) consumers paying for their medical treatment out of pocket; (2) payers, government officials, or other centralized authorities setting limits on what doctors can do and what insurance will pay for; and (3) physicians motivated to make these decisions at the bedside level. His analysis of each of these mechanisms reveals that none is uniformly superior, and each is better suited for certain decisions that others. Therefore, a mix of all three is inevitable. The author develops his analysis along three dimensions: political economics, ethics, and law. The political economic dimension discusses the practical and theoretical aspects of each method for making spending decisions, synthesizing empirical studies of the situations in which each mechanism has been tested. The ethical dimension is based on several strands of philosophical theory, principally classic liberalism, social contract theory, and communitarianism, as well as conceptual analysis of terms such as autonomy and coercion. The legal dimension addresses recent developments in legal doctrine such as informed consent, insurance coverage disputes, and the emerging direction of federal regulation. Hall concludes that physician rationing at the bedside is far more promising than medical ethicists and the medical profession have traditionally allowed. The best way to allocate authority for making medical spending decisions in both public and private systems, he believes, is the informed purchase of different types of health insurance in a managed competition framework.

The increasing life expectancy seen in developing countries has coincided with massive migrations due to urbanization, industrialization, and disasters, both natural and man-made, to cause acute physical and psychological suffering for many old people and their dependents. In this study, Tout takes the first in-depth look at this phenomenon and proposes a new approach to the special needs of the elderly in developing countries. Describing successful national programs already in place for the elderly, he highlights lesser-known difficulties, such as the responsibilities grandmothers may have to assume in the face of heterosexually-transmitted AIDS, and the consequences of the disintegration of the traditional extended family in countries too poor to provide pension schemes.

Food aid has played a key role in responding to the extreme poverty and disasters afflicting millions of people in the developing world. It is at the centre of much political discussion, both nationally and internationally, and there have been notable successes, yet there is doubt and criticism about the appropriateness of food aid and confusion about the deep-rooted problems which perpetuate these calamities. Is food aid doing more harm than good? Can food aid help, not hinder, long-term development and self-reliance? Would a cheque not be better than food?;This book is designed to give a clear insight into the key issues, presenting a balanced assessment of the uses and misuses of food aid and relating these to the complex realities of the international economy. It is aimed at first-degree courses in development economics, scholars and policy-makers in the field and the general reader concerned with these issues.

The health services in South Africa have undergone a major reorientation in an attempt to provide the poorest and most vulnerable segments of society with increased access to affordable, quality health care. Unfortunately, the new policies and health plans have not translated into a commensurate improvement of actual health service delivery and health status. A key missing element has been the lack of an appropriate financial planning and budgeting system. This book, "Transformation in Action", attempts to fill the void that exists between planning, budgeting and implementation in the public health sector. Drawing on local and international research and policy experiments, it outlines an alternative system called the Performance Budgeting System (PBS). Unlike the current budgeting system, the PBS system integrates financial planning and management with strategic, operational, performance and quality management objectives to ensure that, within budget constraints, service delivery outputs have the greatest possible impact on health outcomes. In so doing, this system can contribute substantially to achieving the objectives of recent public sector reform initiatives and the ideals of the Constitution.

The tragedy that occurred in the United States on September 11, 2001 brought enhanced emergency preparedness among first responders to the forefront of public awareness. Since those events and despite significant progress made in many of the areas previously deemed deficient some response areas are still woefully inadequate. Cross-Training for First Responders highlights these weaknesses that, in many cases, still remain in the response community. The book presents concrete solutions that arm first responders with vital knowledge so that they are better prepared in the event of another major incident.

Innovative training

The author demonstrates that the best way responders can prepare for, react to, and mitigate an incident is to require them to train outside their traditional responsibilities thereby developing an understanding of other first responder agencies terms, methods, and operational procedures. Despite this enhanced situational training, communication gaps can occur during cross-response and across regions. The book explains the kind of training required to prevent a lack of situational awareness by those thrust into unfamiliar territory during crisis events or mass disasters. Other topics include ways to curtail the inherent tensions that arise between voluntary and career responders, how to turn conflicts between various responding agencies into collaboration, innovative training strategies, grant opportunities to pay for training and equipment, and the rising trend of on-line training courses.

Testing readiness before an incident occurs

Finally, the book covers mechanisms for testing first responders ability to apply their new cross-training techniques, demonstrates how to plan and conduct a "tabletop" drill, and explains how to review the drill results to determine the areas in which participants are still deficient.

By identifying problem areas and offering concrete solutions, this book enables first responders to harness every possible advantage so that they are prepared and ready to confront the next crisis, no matter where it may strike.

"At a pace matching the flashing lights on a 911 console, Caroline Burau puts us in the hot seat and shows us the madness, the sadness, and the gallows humor of a profession that serves and protects in ways we never dream. And by telling us what goes on when the microphone is silent, she has taken the voice on the radio and given it heart." Michael Perry, author of "Population 485" and "Truck: A Love Story" "A witty, gritty look at life on the receiving end of our cries for help." "Reader's Digest" (Editor's Choice)
You answer a call from a fourteen-year-old boy asking for someone to arrest his mother, who is smoking crack in their bathroom. You talk with him until the cops arrive, making sure there are no weapons around and learning that his favorite subject in school is lunch. Five minutes later, you have to deal with someone complaining about his neighbor's clarinet practice. What is it like to be on the receiving end of desperate calls for help . . . every day? Caroline Burau, a former newspaper reporter and nursing student who couldn't stand the sight of blood, takes a job as an emergency dispatcher because she likes helping people. But on-the-job training at the comm center proves to be more than she bargained for. As she adjusts to a daily life of catastrophe and comedy, domestics and drunks, cops and robbers, junk food and sarcasm, lost cats and suicides, she discovers that crisis can become routine, that coworkers can be mean--that she must continue to care and, at times, learn how to let go. "The day may come when I have to dial 911. I hope to God that the person who answers is Caroline Burau or someone like her. Funny, honest, and elegantly simple, this book left me witha sense of grace and hope."--Alison McGhee, author of "Shadow Baby, Rainlight, Was It Beautiful? "and "Falling Boy" Caroline Burau is a 911 dispatch operator for the police and fire departments in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.

In rapidly developing emergencies, it is vital for aid agencies to understand how to establish an agile supply chain that resists the chaos of a crisis and can cater to unknown needs. Now in its fourth edition, Humanitarian Logistics presents chapters from a wide range of academics and practitioners and offers cutting edge research into how complex problems such as distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine and provision of relief to victims of natural disasters can be solved. New chapters cover topics such as cash-based humanitarian logistics (HL) systems, sustainability in a HL context and providing logistics services for humanitarian relief. In recent years, a number of global crises have highlighted the critical role that logistics plays in humanitarian response. There is a vital need to understand how to conduct operations in confused and swiftly changing environments. This book is essential reading for anyone who needs to understand how to effectively manage supply networks during a rapidly developing emergency.

As almost all newspaper or magazine readers know, Canada figured prominently in the turbulent U.S. debates over health care reform in the early Clinton presidency. Furthermore, future news analysts and policymakers will undoubtedly again use Canada to cite the "good" and the "bad" aspects of single-payer national health insurance. Beyond the debate about the desirability of Canadian-style health care reforms, Antonia Maioni sees another question: Why did the United States and Canada, alike in so many ways, part "at the crossroads" to produce such different systems of health insurance? She answers this previously neglected query so interestingly that her book will hold the attention of anyone concerned with health care in either country or both.

The author explores the development of health insurance in the United States and Canada, from the emergence of health care as a political issue in the 1930s to the passage of federal health insurance legislation in the 1960s. Focusing on how political institutions influence policy development, she shows that Canada's federal structure and its parliamentary institutions encouraged a social-democratic third party that became pivotal in demonstrating the feasibility of universal, public health insurance. Meanwhile, the constraints of the U.S. political system forced health care reformers to temper their own ideas to appeal to a wide coalition within the Democratic party. Even readers previously unfamiliar with Canadian politics will find in this book important clues about the "realm of the possible" in the uncertain future of U.S. health care.