On any given day, nearly half a million children are served by foster care services in the U.S. at an annual cost of over $25 billion. Growing demand and shrinking funds have so greatly stressed the child welfare system that calls for orphanages have re-entered the public debate for the first time in nearly half a century. New ideas are desperately needed to transform a system in crisis, guarantee better outcomes for children in foster care, and reduce the need for out-of-home care in the first place. Yet little is known about what works in foster care. Very few studies have examined how alumni have fared as adults or tracked long-term health effects, and even fewer have directly compared different foster care services. In one of the most comprehensive studies of adults formerly in foster care ever conducted, the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study found that quality foster care services for children pay big dividends when they grow into adults. Key investments in highly trained staff, low caseloads, and robust supplementary services can dramatically reduce the rates of mental disorders and substance abuse later in life and increase the likelihood of completing education beyond high school and remaining employed. The results of this unparalleled study document not only the more favorable outcomes for youth who receive better services but the overall return when an investment is made in high quality foster care: every dollar invested in a child generates $1.50 in benefits to society. These findings form the core of this book's blueprint for reform. By keeping more children with their families and investing additional funds in enhanced foster care services, child welfare agencies have the opportunity to greatly improve the health, well being, and economic prospects for foster care alumni. What Works in Foster Care? presents a model foster care program that promises to revolutionize the way policymakers, administrators, case workers, and researchers think about protecting our most vulnerable youth.

This timely text examines the causes and consequences of population displacement related to climate change in the recent past, the present, and the near future. First and foremost, this book includes an examination of patterns of population displacement that have occurred or are currently underway. Second, the book introduces a three-tier framework for both understanding and responding to the public health impacts of climate-related population displacement. It illustrates the interrelations between impacts on the larger physical and social environment that precipitates and results from population displacement and the social and health impacts of climate-related migration. Third, the book contains first-hand accounts of climate-related population displacement and its consequences, in addition to reviews of demographic data and reviews of existing literature on the subject. Topics explored among the chapters include: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans Hurricane Maria and Puerto Rico The California Wildfires Fleeing Drought: The Great Migration to Europe Fleeing Flooding: Asia and the Pacific Fleeing Coastal Erosion: Kivalina and Isle de Jean Charles Although the book is largely written from the perspective of a researcher, it reflects the perspectives of practitioners and policymakers on the need for developing policies, programs, and interventions to address the growing numbers of individuals, families, and communities that have been displaced as a result of short- and long-term environmental disasters. Global Climate Change, Population Displacement, and Public Health is a vital resource for an international audience of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers representing a variety of disciplines, including public health, public policy, social work, urban development, climate and environmental science, engineering, and medicine.

The continuous development of new technologies has led to significant socio-economic advances in modern society. When applied in the medical sector, healthcare delivery techniques are optimized. Health Information Systems and the Advancement of Medical Practice in Developing Countries is a comprehensive reference source for the latest scholarly research on technology utilization for delivering reliable and accurate health information to patients and clinical staff. Highlighting pivotal perspectives on topics such as mobile health, telemedicine, and healthcare access, this book is ideally designed for professionals, practitioners, researchers, academics, and graduate students interested in the benefits and challenges of technology applications in healthcare systems.

HIV/AIDS continues to be the pandemic of our times. It is estimated that 36 to 45 million people including 2-3 million children already are infected worldwide and an additional 4-7 million more are infected each year.
There has not been a comprehensive medically based AIDS prevention book published in the last five years. Since that time many new program interventions have been tried and much has been learned through evidence-based research. HIV Prevention will place special focus on the array of interventions that have been proven effective through rigorous study. If there is one theme that has been learned to date it is that there is no one-size-fits-all prevention approach that will work in all the geographic, demographic and socio-cultural environments impacted by the worldwide AIDS pandemic.
* Discusses all aspects of AIDS prevention, from epidemiology, molecular immunology and virology to the principles of broad-based public health prevention interventions.
* Special focus on the array of interventions that have been proven effective through rigorous study
* Identifies new trends in HIV/AID epidemiology and their impact on creating and implementing prevention interventions
* Incorporates virology, biology, infectious diseases, vaccinology, microbicides and research methodologies into AIDS prevention

Millions of people each year decide to participate in clinical trials--medical research studies involving an innovative treatment for a medical problem. For the patient, such participation can sometimes be a life-saving choice. But it can also be just the opposite. Our country years ago adopted rules designed to assure that people are making informed choices about participation. This book explains the reality behind those rules: that our current system of clinical trials hides much of the information patients need to make the right choices.
Witness the following scenarios:
-Hundreds of patients with colon cancer undergo a new form of keyhole surgery at leading cancer centers--never being told that 85% of colorectal surgeons, worried that it increases the risk of the cancer returning, would not themselves undergo that procedure.
-Tens of thousands of women at high risk of developing breast cancer are asked to participate in a major research study. They are told about the option of having both breasts surgically removed--but not told about the option of taking a standard osteoporosis pill that might cut the risk of getting breast cancer by one-half or more.
What The Doctor Didn't Say, principally written by a nationally prominent expert, is the first book to reveal many heretofore hidden aspects about the true nature of participation in clinical trials. It shows why options not commonly known--including getting a new treatment outside of a research study--can often be the best choice. It explains how patients can make good decisions even if there is only limited information about a treatment's effect. And it does this through the eye-opening stories of what is happeningdaily to thousands of people.
This book ends up confronting the fundamental dilemma of medical research: Participation in clinical trials plays a vital role in advancing knowledge, and many experts fear that if the information provided herein became widely known, fewer people would participate. But the authors demonstrate that there is no need to deceive people into participating in research. We can have a system that promotes participation while still providing truthful information to participants.

We live in a time when the business of health care has superseded the care of health. Health-care reform isn't just political rhetoric: it's a reality. It's happening every day-and for you it means new ways of getting your care. Virtually every American understands we are experiencing dramatic changes in the delivery of health care and the insurance programs that pay for it. In Surviving American Medicine, Dr. Cary Presant lays the foundation to help you take control of these issues and help you become your own advocate.

"Surviving American Medicine" shows you how to make the best decisions by providing inside tips about getting the best doctors, good insurance, safe hospitals, and affordable medicines-from an author and physician who is a national expert on health care. With insights from his medical experience and reliable internet resources, Presant gives you the information to survive, reduce the risk of illness, and cure or control diseases.

Relying on his forty years of experience as a physician, professor, administrator, and researcher, Presant empowers you to work with your team of doctors, nurses, hospitals, and even insurance companies to maintain your health and prolong your life. He helps you learn to make choices about your health are so you feel confident you're getting the best treatment possible.

Based on almost a decade of research in the Kathmandu Valley, Planning Families in Nepal offers a compelling account of Hindu Nepali women as they face conflicting global and local ideals regarding family planning. Promoting a two-child norm, global family planning programs have disseminated the slogan, ""A small family is a happy family,"" throughout the global South. Jan Brunson examines how two generations of Hindu Nepali women negotiate this global message of a two-child family and a more local need to produce a son. Brunson explains that while women did not prefer sons to daughters, they recognized that in the dominant patrilocal family system, their daughters would eventually marry and be lost to other households. As a result, despite recent increases in educational and career opportunities for daughters, mothers still hoped for a son who would bring a daughter-in-law into the family and care for his aging parents. Mothers worried about whether their modern, rebellious sons would fulfill their filial duties, but ultimately those sons demonstrated an enduring commitment to living with their aging parents. In the context of rapid social change related to national politics as well as globalization - a constant influx of new music, clothes, gadgets, and even governments - the sons viewed the multigenerational family as a refuge. Throughout Planning Families in Nepal, Brunson raises important questions about the notion of ""planning"" when applied to family formation, arguing that reproduction is better understood as a set of local and global ideals that involve actors with desires and actions with constraints, wrought with delays, stalling, and improvisation.