This essential collection on maternal and child health focuses on the rites of giving birth from a cross-cultural perspective. The distinguished list of contributors describe the many customs surrounding birth through infancy, highlighting a wide range of variation in practices across cultures. They discuss attitudes and techniques in childbirth, the interaction between human evolutionary form and birthing procedures, the influence of societal factors that differentiate Western from non-Western maternal birthing positions, and the art of midwifery. Also treated are less well-known areas of birthing such as the imagery of birthing, placenta rituals, and popular beliefs about the amniotic membrane called a caul. In addition, the authors explore the humoral medical tradition used in birthing, the possible influence of cultural practices on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), customs and beliefs regarding breastfeeding, weaning, swaddling, and finally a sociobiological perspective on early infant behavior. This book will be valuable for courses in medical sociology and anthropology, public health or behavioral sciences, psychology and psychiatry, and for pre-med students.

The Handbook of Rural Aging goes beyond the perspective of a narrow range of health professions, disciplines, and community services that serve older adults in rural America to encompass the full range of perspectives and issues impacting the communities in which rural older adults live. Touching on such topics as work and voluntarism, technology, transportation, housing, the environment, social participation, and the delivery of health and community services, this reference work addresses the full breadth and scope of factors impacting the lives of rural elders with contributions from recognized scholars, administrators, and researchers. This Handbook buttresses a widespread movement to garner more attention for rural America in policy matters and decisions, while also elevating awareness of the critical circumstances facing rural elders and those who serve them. Merging demographic, economic, social, cultural, health, environmental, and political perspectives, it will be an essential reference source for library professionals, researchers, educators, students, program and community administrators, and practitioners with a combined interest in rural issues and aging.

A Groundbreaking Guide to the HPV Vaccine and the science, safety, and business Behind It Cancer strikes fear in people's hearts around globe. So the appearance of a vaccine to prevent cancer-as we are assured the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine will-seemed like a game-changer. Since 2006, over eighty countries have approved the vaccine, with glowing endorsements from the world's foremost medical authorities. Bringing in over $2.5 billion in annual sales, the HPV vaccine is a pharmaceutical juggernaut. Yet scandal now engulfs it worldwide. The HPV Vaccine on Trial is a shocking tale, chronicling the global efforts to sell and compel this alleged miracle. The book opens with the vaccine's invention, winds through its regulatory labyrinths, details the crushing denial and dismissal of reported harms and deaths, and uncovers the enormous profits pharma and inventors have reaped. Authors Holland, Mack Rosenberg, and Iorio drill down into the clinical trial data, government approvals, advertising, and personal accounts of egregious injuries that have followed in countries as far-flung as Japan, Australia, Colombia, India, Ireland, the U.K. and Denmark. The authors have written an unprecedented expose about this vaunted vaccine. Written in plain language, the book is for everyone concerned - parents, patients, doctors, nurses, scientists, healthcare organizations, government officials, and schools. Ultimately, this book is not just about the HPV vaccine, but about how industry, government, and medical authorities may be putting the world's children in harm's way.

This essential collection on maternal and child health focuses on the rites of giving birth from a cross-cultural perspective. The distinguished list of contributors describe the many customs surrounding birth through infancy, highlighting a wide range of variation in practices across cultures. They discuss attitudes and techniques in childbirth, the interaction between human evolutionary form and birthing procedures, the influence of societal factors that differentiate Western from non-Western maternal birthing positions, and the art of midwifery. Also treated are less well-known areas of birthing such as the imagery of birthing, placenta rituals, and popular beliefs about the amniotic membrane called a caul. In addition, the authors explore the humoral medical tradition used in birthing, the possible influence of cultural practices on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), customs and beliefs regarding breastfeeding, weaning, swaddling, and finally a sociobiological perspective on early infant behavior. This book will be valuable for courses in medical sociology and anthropology, public health or behavioral sciences, psychology and psychiatry, and for pre-med students.

This title was first published in 2001. Enhancing the quality of health services remains a key challenge for all health systems, whatever their stage of development. This collection of leading-edge research from Europe and America explores both quantitative and qualitative approaches to identifying and remedying deficiencies in health care.

The scale of maternal mortality and morbidity today is staggering. This book focuses on a vital part of a human rights response to maternal mortality, viz. accountability. Accountability encompasses monitoring, review and redress at the local, national and international levels. The book's context includes the UN Human Rights Council maternal mortality and morbidity resolutions, as well as Millennium Development Goal 5. It comes out of a roundtable conference held in Geneva during 2010 that examined maternal mortality, human rights and accountability and provided a forum where maternal health and human rights experts could listen to, and learn from, each other. As well as revised and updated conference papers, this volume includes a rich collection of additional resource material on maternal mortality, human rights and accountability.

Described in the New York Times as "an astonishingly clear 'user's manual' that explains our health care system and the policies that will change it," The Health Care Handbook, by Drs. Elisabeth Askin and Nathan Moore, offers a practical, neutral, and readable overview of the U.S. health care system in a compact, convenient format. The fully revised third edition provides concise coverage on health care delivery, insurance and economics, policy, and reform-all critical components of the system in which health care professionals work. Written in a conversational and accessible tone, this popular, highly regarded handbook serves as a "one stop shop" for essential facts, systems, concepts, and analysis of the U.S. health care system, providing the tools you need to confidently evaluate current health care policy and controversies. Provides essential introductory coverage while also offering depth and focus gained through the authors' experience over three editions of this best-selling handbook Features new, realistic narratives throughout that provide a more human focus on the effects of today's policies and issues Contains a new chapter that synthesizes multifaceted issues such as breast cancer screening guidelines, readmissions and value, and the rising cost of insulin Includes more data visualization such as maps and infographics for quick comprehension of complex information Offers multiple viewpoints and suggested readings so readers can develop their own opinions on key topics Used as a curricular resource in more than 150 training programs nationwide, including schools of medicine, nursing, physician assistant, pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, business, sociology, pre-medical, health administration, health law, and health policy; also used for employee training in a variety of organizations within the pharmaceutical, medical device, health care system, health insurance, and health IT fields Features supplemental digital content for instructors, ideal for classroom use Enrich Your eBook Reading Experience Read directly on your preferred device(s), such as computer, tablet, or smartphone. Easily convert to audiobook, powering your content with natural language text-to-speech.

Judith Lorber and Lisa Jean Moore consider the interface between the social institutions of gender and Western medicine in this brief, lively textbook. They offer a distinct feminist viewpoint to analyze issues of power and politics concerning physical illness. SIGNS labeled the first edition 'a rich and imaginative work.' In the extensively revised second edition of this successful text, the authors add chapters on disability and genital surgeries. They also update and expand their discussions of social epidemiology, AIDS, the health professions, PMS, menopause, and feminist health care. For a creative, feminist-oriented alternative to traditional texts on medical sociology, medical anthropology, and the history of medicine, this is an ideal choice.

This is the first book to offer a critical examination of the delivery of before and after-school physical activity programs, from global perspectives. It introduces key theory and best practice in before and after-school physical activity research and programming, and is an essential resource for educators involved in the design and implementation of after-school programs. With contributions from leading international researchers and practitioners in the field of health and physical education, the book provides an overview of research methods in before and after-school physical activity. It offers insight on theoretical frameworks and the implementation of programs as they relate to policy in schools, as well as an overview of social and emotional learning in after-school programs. The book also explores inclusive before and after-school physical activity programming for underserved communities, covering key topics from Positive Youth Development and urban programming to developing adult leaders and working with LGBTQI populations and children with disabilities. This book is important reading for researchers in health and physical education, and policy-makers, teachers, youth workers and coaches working with children in physical education, health education, physical activity or sport.

This book explores the experiences of Muslims in the United States as they interact with the health care system during serious illness and end-of-life care. It shifts "actively dying" from a medical phrase used to describe patients who are expected to pass away soon or who exhibit signs of impending death, to a theoretical framework to analyze how end-of-life care, particularly within a hospital, shapes the ways that patients, families, and providers understand Islam and think of themselves as Muslim. Using the dying body as the main object of analysis, the volume shows that religious identities of Muslim patients, loved ones, and caregivers are not only created when living, but also through the physical process of dying and through death. Based on ethnographic and qualitative research carried out mainly in the Washington, D.C. region, this volume will be of interest to scholars in anthropology, sociology, public health, gerontology, and religious studies.

This book presents papers from an International Symposium on Contact Disputes and Allegations of Domestic Violence: Identifying Best Practices, held in London in May 2017. The editors invited a group of international experts to explain the approaches taken in their jurisdictions to allegations of domestic violence in child contact cases, with a view to identifying international best practices in such cases. The book includes contributions from England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Sweden and Spain, as well as information presented at the symposium from New Zealand and Australia. The chapters include attention to particular issues such as specialist domestic violence courts, judicial training and hearing children's voices. Collectively, the chapters identify a set of common problems experienced across all of the jurisdictions, including an overwhelming emphasis on the value of children's ongoing contact with non-resident parents and the consequent minimisation of domestic violence and the muting of the voices of children who do not wish to have contact with abusive parents. Best practices in taking domestic violence seriously and providing adequate protection from further abuse for children and non-abusive parents were less in evidence. However, the concluding chapter draws together details of several initiatives and approaches which offer promising ways forward. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law.

• Provides a historical context for the developments in health over several decades prior to the study • Shows how oral history methods have increasingly been used in medical history research and explores the benefits of this approach • Covers many of the themes of the oral history which enabled and encouraged patients to comment on what was important to them in their encounter with health care • Follows the increasing acceptance of women in medicine, demonstrating how women doctors were viewed by patients within the practice compared to changes in the wider society • Presents a ‘history from below’, using voices that are not normally heard in the medical discourse illustrating the importance of the doctor-patient interface

This book explores the series of issues that emerge at the intersection of disability, care and family law. Disability studies is an area of increasing academic interest. In addition to a subject in its own right, there has been growing concern to ensure that mainstream subjects diversify and include marginalised voices, including those of disabled people. Family law in modern times is often based on an "able-bodied autonomous norm" but can fit less well with the complexities of living with disability. In response, this book addresses a range of important and highly topical issues: whether care proceedings are used too often in cases where parents have disabilities; how the law should respond to children who care for disabled parents - and the care of older family members with disabilities. It also considers the challenges posed by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, particularly around the different institutional and state responsibilities captured in the Convention, and around decision-making for both disabled adults and children. This interdisciplinary collection - with contributors from law, criminology, sociology and social policy as well as from policy and activist backgrounds - will appeal to academic family lawyers and disability scholars as well as students interested in issues around family law, disability and care.

This report considers the evidence relating to cancer risk associated with exposure to low doses of low-LET radiation, and particularly doses below current recommended limits for protection of radiation workers and the general public. It looks at the possibility of establishing a universal threshold dose below which there is no risk of radiation-related cancer. The focus is on evidence regarding linearity of dose response for all cancers considered as a group, but not necessarily individually, at low doses (the so-called linear, no-threshold (LNT) hypothesis). The report concludes that while existence of a low-dose threshold does not seem unlikely for radiation-related cancers, it does not favor the existence of a universal threshold. The LNT hypothesis, combined with an uncertain dose and dose rate effectiveness factor (DDREF) for extrapolation from high doses, remains a prudent basis for radiation protection at low doses and low dose rates.

Patients are increasingly encouraged to take an active role in managing their health and health care. New technologies, cultural shifts, trends in healthcare delivery, and policies have brought to the forefront the "work" patients, families, and other non-professionals perform in pursuit of health. Volume I provides a theoretical and methodological foundation for the emerging discipline of Patient Ergonomics - the science of patient work. The Patient Factor: Theories and Methods for Patient Ergonomics, Volume I defines Patient Ergonomics, explains its importance, and situates it in a broader historical and societal context. It reviews applicable theories and methods from human factors/ergonomics and related disciplines, across domains including consumer technology, patient-professional communication, self-care, and patient safety. The Patient Factor is ideal for academics working in health care and patient-centered research, their students, human factors practitioners working in healthcare organizations or at technology companies, frontline healthcare professionals, and leaders of healthcare delivery organizations.

Young Refugees and Forced Displacement is about young Syrian and Iraqi refugees navigating the complex realities of forced displacement in Beirut. It is based on a British Academy funded two-year project with 51 displaced youths aged 8 to 17 and under the care of three local humanitarian organisations. Focus groups, interviews and innovative arts-based methods were used to learn about their everyday lives. At the end of the project, we coproduced with them a public mural, allowing unexpected epistemological and methodological reflections on researching refugees and the "right to opacity." Families and friendships, humanitarian caregiving, racism, discrimination and everyday decencies and civilities make up the stuff of their ordinary, everyday encounters within refugeedom, defining both its sharper edges and its more inadvertent and quietly political ones. Thus, refugeedom, as we conceive it, includes "the humanitarian condition" but goes a little beyond it, to become also a human condition of political alterity. In navigating refugeedom, the young Syrians and Iraqis become sophisticated political and moral actors, using emotional reflexivity as they engage layered subjectivities to define the terms of their own forced displacement. This book will be of interest to policymakers, humanitarian organisations, social science scholars and students working on refugees, displacement, humanitarianism, intimacies and emotions, racism and discrimination. It may also be of interest to displaced youth.

Patients are increasingly encouraged to take an active role in managing their health and health care. New technologies, cultural shifts, trends in healthcare delivery, and policies have brought to the forefront the "work" patients, families, and other non-professionals perform in the pursuit of health. This volume closely examines notable application areas for the emerging discipline of Patient Ergonomics - the science of patient work. The Patient Factor: Applications of Patient Ergonomics, Volume II reviews the definition of Patient Ergonomics and discusses the application of Patient Ergonomics across contexts. It analyzes patient work performed in emergency departments, transitions of care, home and community settings, retail pharmacies, and online communities. It also examines applications to groups including veterans, pediatric patients, older adults, the underserved, and people engaged in health promotion. The Patient Factor is ideal for academics working in health care and patient-centered research, their students, human factors practitioners working in healthcare organizations or at technology companies, frontline healthcare professionals, and leaders of healthcare delivery organizations.

'Practical, useful counsel emanates throughout. Impressively grounded in real world experiences.' - Michael Quinn Patton, author of Utilisation-Focused Evaluation Effective evaluation can provide valuable insights into the way a program, a course or an organisation is being run, and direction for improvement. This widely-used introduction to evaluation is intended for non-specialists in the human services who need to do evaluation as part of a busy workload. Everyday Evaluation on the Run offers a practical over view of the main approaches to evaluation, strategies for involving stakeholders, and the evaluation industry's toolbox of models and techniques. The author emphasises the core principles and concepts of evaluation, and the idea of building a culture of evaluation. This third edition of Everyday Evaluation on the Run reflects current thinking on values in organisations and the need to use evaluation to guide future practice rather than just as an auditing process. With extensive examples, it is a handy reference for professionals and students in health, welfare, and community work, and in government and non-profit agencies.

Social work educators can play an important part in ensuring that the promotion of health and well-being is firmly on the social work agenda for service users, as well as for students and educators. Nevertheless, this has not been a priority within social work education and presents a challenge which requires some re-thinking in terms of curriculum content, pedagogy, and how social workers respond to social problems. Furthermore, if the promotion of health and well-being is not considered a priority for social workers, this raises important questions about the role and relevance of social work in health, and thus poses challenges to social work education, both now and in the future. This book contains contributions from social work educators from Australia, America, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. They reflect on how best to prepare students to put health and well-being to the forefront of practice, drawing on research on quality of life, subjective well-being, student well-being, community participation and social connectedness, religion and spirituality, mindful practices, trauma and health inequalities. This book is an extended version of a special issue of Social Work Education.

Although drinking, smoking and obesity have attracted social and moral condemnation to varying degrees for more than two hundred years, over the past few decades they have come under intense attack from the field of public health as an 'unholy trinity' of lifestyle behaviours with apparently devastating medical, social and economic consequences. Indeed, we appear to be in the midst of an important historical moment in which policies and practices that would have been unthinkable a decade ago (e.g., outdoor smoking bans, incarcerating pregnant women for drinking alcohol, and prohibiting restaurants from serving food to fat people), have become acceptable responses to the 'risks' that alcohol, tobacco and obesity are perceived to pose. Hailing from Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and the USA, and drawing on examples from all four countries, contributors interrogate the ways in which alcohol, tobacco and fat have come to be constructed as 'problems' requiring intervention and expose the social, cultural and political roots of the current public health obsession with lifestyle. No prior collection has set out to provide an in-depth examination of alcohol, tobacco and obesity through the comparative approach taken in this volume. This book therefore represents an invaluable and timely contribution to critical studies of public health, health inequities, health policy, and the sociology of risk more broadly.

The lack of significant improvement in people s health status and other mounting health challenges in China raise a puzzling question about the country s internal transition: why did the reform-induced dynamics produce an economic miracle, but fail to reproduce the success Mao had achieved in the health sector? This book examines the political and policy dynamics of health governance in post-Mao China. It explores the political-institutional roots of the public health and health care challenges and the evolution of the leaders policy response in contemporary China. It argues that reform-induced institutional dynamics, when interacting with Maoist health policy structure in an authoritarian setting, have not only contributed to the rising health challenges in contemporary China, but also shaped the patterns and outcomes of China s health system transition. The study of China s health governance will further our understanding of the evolving political system in China and the complexities of China s rise. As the world economy and international security are increasingly vulnerable to major disease outbreaks in China, it also sheds critical light on China s role in global health governance.

Originally published in 1979, The Care of the Sick is a detailed and comprehensive exploration of the emergence of modern nursing. Beginning with primitive and early historical nursing, the book traces the development of nursing through the ages and covers a variety of key topics, including the rise of the trained nurse; the problems faced by nursing during its development as a profession; education and working conditions; the government and nursing; the economics of nursing; and how the image of nursing has changed over time. Extensive and thorough, The Care of the Sick will appeal to those with an interest in the history of nursing, the history of medicine, and social history.

The last twenty years have witnessed an important movement in the aspirations of public policy beyond meeting merely material goals towards a range of outcomes captured through the use of the term 'wellbeing'. Nonetheless, the concept of wellbeing is itself ill-defined, a term used in multiple different contexts with different meanings and policy implications. Bringing together a range of perspectives, this volume examines the intersections of wellbeing and place, including immediate applied policy concerns as well as more critical academic engagements. . Conceptualisations of place, context and settings have come under critical examination, and more nuanced and varied understandings are drawn out from both academic and policy-related research. Whilst quantitative and some policy approaches treat place as a static backdrop or context, others explore the interrelationships of emotional, social, cultural and experiential meanings that are both shape place and are shaped in place. Similarly, wellbeing may be understood as a relatively stable and measurable entity or as a more situation-dependent and relational effect. The book is structured into two sections: essays that explore the dynamics that determine wellbeing in relation to place and essays that explore contested understandings of wellbeing both empirically and theoretically.

On October 16 and 17, 2000, we hosted an international workshop entitled "Statistical Design, Measurement, and Analysis of Health Related Quality of Life." The workshop was held in the beautiful city of Arradon, South Brittany, France with the main goal of fostering an interdisciplinary forum for discussion of theoretical and applied statistical issues arising in studies of health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Included were biostatisticians, psychometricians and public health professionals (e.g., physicians, sociologists, psychologists) active in the study ofHRQoL. In assembling this volume, we invited each conference participant to contribute a paper based on his or her presentation and the ensuing and very interesting discussions that took place in Arradon. All papers were peer-reviewed, by anonymous reviewers, and revised before final editing and acceptance. Although this process was quite time consuming, we believe that it greatly improved the volume as a whole, making this book a valuable contribution to the field ofHRQoL research. The volume presents a broad spectrum of papers presented at the Workshop, and thus illustrates the range of current research related to the theory, methods and applications of HRQoL, as well as the interdisciplinary nature ofthis work. Following an introduction written by Sir David Cox, it includes 27 articles organized into the following chapters."