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Books > Medicine > General issues > Public health & preventive medicine > Personal & public health > General
This book highlights both recent innovations in professional health curricula and continuing education and interventions aimed at improving student attitudes towards geriatrics and aging. The contributors cover areas including simulation, online training, and standardized patients for evaluation, but also emphasize the important end-result of clinical training: to take care of real older adults outside the classroom. Importantly, this underscores the development of powerful learning experiences of students by sensitizing them to the frameworks of palliative care, cancer care, sexuality, and aging research, all of which serves as a powerful catalyst for creating a 'pipeline' of students who embrace aging as a central theme of their future work. As increased training in geriatrics is required to attune the health care workforce to the needs of older adults, this book will be of interest to those seeking to create a more age-friendly healthcare curriculum. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Gerontology & Geriatrics Education journal.
Is health the absence of disease, or a more positive state of happiness and well-being? How healthy were people in ancient Greece and Rome, and how did they think about maintaining and restoring their health? Answers to these and many previously untouched questions are dealt with by renowned ancient historians, classical scholars and archaeologists. Using a multi-disciplined approach, the contributors assess the issues surrounding health in the Greco-Roman world from prehistory to Christian late antiquity . Sources range from palaeodemography to patristics and from archaeology to architecture and using these, this book considers what health meant, how it was thought to be achieved, and addresses how the ancient world can be perceived as an ideal in subsequent periods of history. For anyone studying Classics, The History of Medicine this book provides a fascinating insight into the health and perceptions of health in antiquity. A study aid must.
Divided into 15 chapters, this book provides the reader with an insight into certain representations of mothers and motherhood in history and today's societies in some areas of the world, notably in Britain and Asia. Key facts about the history of motherhood are presented, together with the use of very recent notions and phrases portraying 'good' and 'bad' mothers. An analysis of the concepts of naming and blaming, along with regret with respect to mothers in 21st century societies, provides food for thought. Other issues addressed are varied and numerous: the politics of early intervention, feminist critique, mothers with disabilities and mothers of disabled children, incarcerated mothers, surrogate mothers, teenage mothers, lesbian mothers, and mothering in Eastern Asia, namely in China, Japan, and Korea. Interestingly, both visual arts and literature play a crucial role in this analysis. The publication will appeal to students, academics, researchers, and the general public interested in and seeking to comprehend the shifts that have occurred over time in connection with the vast and inexhaustible subject of motherhood and mothers - a private and public matter. Readers are also provided with a rich reference section dealing with the latest publications on the issues tackled by prominent academics and researchers in human geography, women's studies, sociology, gender studies, contemporary history, and the arts.
The world is growing older and this is a historically unprecedented phenomenon. Negotiating such change, personally, socially and for governments and international organisations requires an act of cultural adaptation. Two key questions arise: What is the purpose of a long life? and How do we adapt to societies where generations are of approximately the same size? A number of pre-existing narratives can be identified; however, it is argued that contemporary policies have produced a premature answer which may eclipse the potential arising from lifecourse change. In this book Simon Biggs discusses ways of interrogating these questions and the adaptations we make to them. Four major areas, all of which have been suggested as solutions to population ageing, are critically assessed, including work as an answer, the relationship between work, ageing and health, narratives of spirit, belief and wisdom, the body and the natural, anti-ageing medicine, critical approaches to dementia, plus family and intergenerational relations. This book is particiularly useful for those trying to make sense of population ageing and negotiate solutions. It describes a number of concepts that can be used to assess what we are told about a long life and how generations can adapt together. With the cultural landscape moving away from traditional interpretations of old age, the question of adult ageing is of growing interest to a number of groups. This book is essential reading for social and health-care workers, other helping professionals, policy makers, social scientists and all who encounter the prospect of a long life.
Mass transportation has become central to the lifestyle of developed societies - but with what consequences for the environment and, ultimately, human health? Transport and the Environment investigates the major aspects of this emotive subject, with contributions from authors with international reputations for their research in the field. Discussions encompass air transport and its contribution to global pollution, the possible consequences of using hydrogen as a fuel, performance indicators and policy instruments for sustainable transport, the contamination of the atmosphere and surface waters by road vehicles, the impact of surface transport on climate, and the effects of transport pollutants on public health. This authoritative review of the current state of knowledge will be of great value to scientists, policy-makers and students on environmental science and engineering courses.
In 1981, Leonard Pearlin and his colleagues published an article that would ra- cally shift the sociological study of mental health from an emphasis on psychiatric disorder to a focus on social structure and its consequences for stress and psyc- logical distress. Pearlin et al. (1981) proposed a deceptively simple conceptual model that has now influenced sociological inquiry for almost three decades. With his characteristic penchant for reconsidering and elaborating his own ideas, Pearlin has revisited the stress process model periodically over the years (Pearlin 1989, 1999; Pearlin et al. 2005; Pearlin and Skaff 1996). One of the consequences of this continued theoretical elaboration of the stress process has been the development of a sociological model of stress that embraces the complexity of social life. Another consequence is that the stress process has continued to stimulate a host of empirical investigations in the sociology of mental health. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to suggest that the stress process paradigm has been primarily responsible for the growth and sustenance of sociological research on stress and mental health. Pearlin et al. (1981) described the core elements of the stress process in a brief paragraph: The process of social stress can be seen as combining three major conceptual domains: the sources of stress, the mediators of stress, and the manifestations of stress. Each of these extended domains subsumes a variety of subparts that have been intensively studied in recent years.
In today's globalised world, it is increasingly important to understand the otherness of different societies and their beliefs, histories and practices. This book focuses on a burning cultural issue: how concepts and constructions of gender and sexuality impact upon health, medicine and healthcare. Starting from the premise that health is neither a universal nor a unitary concept, it offers a series of interdisciplinary analyses of what sickness and well-being have been, are and can be. The originality of this book is its cross-cultural and trans-historical approach. Bringing together specially commissioned work by both major critical voices and young scholars in fields ranging from anthropology and art history to philosophy, political science and sociology, this volume challenges many traditional assumptions about gender, medicine and health-care. Issues addressed include: the politics and realities of female genital mutilation; sex-work and migration; the portrayal of mothering in contemporary African writing; the representation of AIDS in literature, photography and the media; the place of gender in ancient Egyptian health papyri; the dramatisation of morality and sexual over-indulgence in Thai literature; the relationship between myths of menstruation and power in early modern England; the role of anger in traditional Chinese medicine; and the ways in which both disease and sexual identities were redefined by cholera in the nineteenth century. The wide-ranging Introduction provides a historical and theoretical framework for what is defined here as Cultural Medicine, whilst fifteen original essays demonstrate from different perspectives that health is not merely a physiological and medical issue, but also a cultural and ethical one. An invaluable research and study resource, this book is written in a clear and accessible style and will be of interest to the general reader as well as to students of all levels, to teachers of a wide range of disciplines, and to specialist researchers of cultural studies and of medicine.
Originally published in 1995. This study collects and analyses the results of hunger studies carried out in the United States during the 1980s, whether national, state or local. It also reviews the history and development of food assistance programs and policy. This is an unusual and fascinating study of public health policy which employs meta-analysis to investigate the sociodemographic factors affecting those seeking food assistance and draws recommendations for future studies and to feed into policy decisions.
This book develops an analytical framework for understanding United States foreign agricultural policy through a "state interest" approach, and describes and analyses seven cases of food policy decisions through this perspective which shows that decision makers sought on most occasions to utilise US food resources to accomplish foreign policy objectives. A fundamental aspect of the statist approach is the recognition that those sectors representing the interest of the state will inevitably confront other actors in the policy process who are likely pursuing conflicting objectives. This book looks at contemporary circumstances in the formulation of US agricultural policy, in particular those alterations that occurred beginning in 1972. It offers an analysis of the nature of foreign economic policy and outlines the re-emergence of economics as an important component of US foreign policy, and an analysis of the concept of "food power".
This book explores the normalization of HIV and AIDS, reflecting upon the intended and unintended consequences of the multifarious "AIDS industry." The Normalization of the HIV and AIDS Epidemic in South Africa deals with the manner in which the HIV and AIDS epidemic has become such a well-known disease with such wide-ranging ramifications. With its focus on the "AIDS industry," this book examines issues such as the framing of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in a manner that greatly fostered notions of stigmatization and moralization. This book looks at the complexities of dealing with the epidemic in contemporary South Africa, examining the difficulties of addressing the social aspects of a disease in the context of increased focus on technological quick-fix solutions. De Wet explores these issues thoroughly, looking at the social determinants of the spread of the disease as well as the configuration and the nature of the responses to it, and their increasing marginalization as factors to address in an era of increased biomedicalization and concomitant normalization. This book will intrigue scholars and students of public health, global health care, medical sociology, and African Studies.
Ageing populations have gradually become a major concern in many industrialised countries over the past fifty years, drawing the attention of both politics and science. The target of a raft of health and social policies, older people are often identified as a specific, and vulnerable, population. At the same time, ageing has become a specialisation in many disciplines - medicine, sociology, psychology, to name but three - and a discipline of its own: gerontology. This book questions the framing of old age by focusing on the relationships between policy making and the production of knowledge. The first part explores how the meeting of scientific expertise and the politics of old age anchors the construction of both individual and collective relationships to the future. Part II brings to light the many ways in which issues relating to ageing can be instrumentalised and ideologised in several public debate arenas. Part III argues that scientific knowledge itself composes with objectivity, bringing ideologies of its own to the table, and looks at how this impacts discourse about ageing. In the final part, the contributors discuss how the frames can themselves be experienced at different levels of the division of labour, whether it is by people who work on them (legislators or scientists), by people working with them (professional carers) or by older people themselves. Unpacking the political and moral dimensions of scientific research on ageing, this cutting-edge volume brings together a range of multidisciplinary, European perspectives, and will be of use to all those interested in old age and the social sciences.
It is estimated that at least 33 million people around the world have been displaced from their homes by war or persecution. Numerous studies have documented high rates of psychological distress among these survivors of extreme violence and forced migration, yet very few have access to clinic-based mental health care. In any case, clinic-based services cannot adequately address the constellation of displacement-related stressors that affect refugees daily, whether in a new region of their homeland or a new country--stressors such as social isolation, the loss of previously valued social roles, poverty and a lack of employment opportunities, and difficulties obtaining education and medical care. Additionally, many refugees from non-western societies find western methods of psychiatric and psychological healing culturally alien or stigmatizing, and therefore underutilize such services. This book brings together an international group of experts on the mental health of refugees who have pioneered a new approach to healing the psychological wounds of war and forced migration. Their work is guided by an ecological model, which, in contrast to the prevailing medical model of psychiatry and clinical psychology, emphasizes the development of culturally grounded mental health interventions in non-stigmatized community settings. The ecological model also prioritizes synergy with natural community resources to promote adaptation, prevention over treatment, the active involvement of community members in all phases of the intervention process, and the empowerment of marginalized communities to address their own mental health needs. Drawing on their expertise in community psychology, prevention science, anthropology, social psychology, social psychiatry, public health and child development, the authors present a variety of highly innovative, culturally grounded interventions designed to improve the mental health and psychosocial well-being of communities that have survived the nightmares of political repression, civil war, and genocide. They discuss the various conceptions of well-being and distress that have informed their projects, their own integrations of western and indigenous approaches to understanding and relieving psychological distress, and in several instances their creative use of well-trained paraprofessionals. They examine with remarkable candor the challenges they have faced in carrying out their work in extraordinarily demanding conditions. An extended introductory chapter reviews and analyzes what we know about the impact of political violence and exile on mental health, and lays out the ecological model in rich theoretical and empirical context. The first of two concluding chapters addresses the critical and often-neglected issue of the evaluation of community-based interventions in conflict and post-conflict settings; the second sums up the implications of the achievements and limitations of the programs described, poses questions that must be answered, such as "How adequate is the PTSD construct in capturing the nature of refugee trauma?", and suggests numerous directions for future research and practice. The Mental Health of Refugees: Ecological Approaches to Healing and Adaptation is an essential reference for all professionals who seek to serve members of this vulnerable population, for those who train and supervise them, and for program administrators and policymakers concerned with refugee well-being. It is also an excellent resource for graduate courses in public mental health, community psychology and psychiatry, refugee and immigrant studies, psychological trauma, medical anthropology, and ethnopolitical violence.
It is estimated that at least 33 million people around the world have been displaced from their homes by war or persecution. Numerous studies have documented high rates of psychological distress among these survivors of extreme violence and forced migration, yet very few have access to clinic-based mental health care. In any case, clinic-based services cannot adequately address the constellation of displacement-related stressors that affect refugees daily, whether in a new region of their homeland or a new country--stressors such as social isolation, the loss of previously valued social roles, poverty and a lack of employment opportunities, and difficulties obtaining education and medical care. Additionally, many refugees from non-western societies find western methods of psychiatric and psychological healing culturally alien or stigmatizing, and therefore underutilize such services. This book brings together an international group of experts on the mental health of refugees who have pioneered a new approach to healing the psychological wounds of war and forced migration. Their work is guided by an ecological model, which, in contrast to the prevailing medical model of psychiatry and clinical psychology, emphasizes the development of culturally grounded mental health interventions in non-stigmatized community settings. The ecological model also prioritizes synergy with natural community resources to promote adaptation, prevention over treatment, the active involvement of community members in all phases of the intervention process, and the empowerment of marginalized communities to address their own mental health needs. Drawing on their expertise in community psychology, prevention science, anthropology, social psychology, social psychiatry, public health and child development, the authors present a variety of highly innovative, culturally grounded interventions designed to improve the mental health and psychosocial well-being of communities that have survived the nightmares of political repression, civil war, and genocide. They discuss the various conceptions of well-being and distress that have informed their projects, their own integrations of western and indigenous approaches to understanding and relieving psychological distress, and in several instances their creative use of well-trained paraprofessionals. They examine with remarkable candor the challenges they have faced in carrying out their work in extraordinarily demanding conditions. An extended introductory chapter reviews and analyzes what we know about the impact of political violence and exile on mental health, and lays out the ecological model in rich theoretical and empirical context. The first of two concluding chapters addresses the critical and often-neglected issue of the evaluation of community-based interventions in conflict and post-conflict settings; the second sums up the implications of the achievements and limitations of the programs described, poses questions that must be answered, such as "How adequate is the PTSD construct in capturing the nature of refugee trauma?", and suggests numerous directions for future research and practice. The Mental Health of Refugees: Ecological Approaches to Healing and Adaptation is an essential reference for all professionals who seek to serve members of this vulnerable population, for those who train and supervise them, and for program administrators and policymakers concerned with refugee well-being. It is also an excellent resource for graduate courses in public mental health, community psychology and psychiatry, refugee and immigrant studies, psychological trauma, medical anthropology, and ethnopolitical violence.
This book considers how largely accepted 'legal truths' about drugs and addiction are made and sustained through practices of lawyering. Lawyers play a vital and largely underappreciated role in constituting legal certainties about substances and 'addiction', including links between alcohol and other drugs, and phenomena such as family violence. Such practices exacerbate, sustain and stabilise 'addicted' realities, with a range of implications - many of them seemingly unjust - for people who use alcohol and other drugs. This book explores these issues, drawing upon data collected for a major international study on alcohol and other drugs in the law, including interviews with lawyers, magistrates and judges; analyses of case law; and legislation. Focussing on an array of legal practices, including processes of law-making, human rights deliberations, advocacy and negotiation strategies, and the sentencing of offenders, and buttressed by overarching analyses of the ethics and politics of such practices, the book looks at how alcohol and other drug 'addiction' emerges and is concretised through the everyday work lawyers and decision makers do. Foregrounding 'practices', the book also shows that law is more fragile than we might assume. It concludes by presenting a blueprint for how lawyers can rethink their advocacy practices in light of this fragility and the opportunities it presents for remaking law and the subjects and objects shaped by it. This ground-breaking book will be of interest not only to those studying and working within the field of alcohol and drug addiction but also to lawyers and judges practising in this area and to scholars in a range of disciplines, including law, science and technology studies, sociology, gender studies and cultural studies
First published in 1998, this volume examines a major function of research which is to strengthen the knowledge base of health professions and so enhance patient care. The rapid growth has unfortunately led to it being seen by many as an elitist activity full of jargon, carried out by academics. This to some degree has led to a theory practice gap with some professionals not recognising their important role within the research process. It is important to dispel the myth that all practitioner should carry out research, though they should use elements of the research process to develop a questioning and evaluative approach to care. This book will enable reader to demystify and enhance their understanding of terminology used in research and contains almost 300 terms. It offers readers a unique approach to explanations for each term by offering its Everyday use; its Research use; an Example and Related terms.
First published in 1999, this volume responds to a large and growing interest among health policy and research circles on the use of purchasing alliances to leverage change in health care. This book gives detailed and useful specifics on how a leading alliance has fared in California, the most competitive health care market in the United States. Although it is generally accepted that large organizations are more effective purchasers of health insurance, little work has been done to carefully examine the reasons that underlie that phenomenon. Yet, creating interventions and designing potential solutions requires a thorough understanding of the issues. The econometric analysis adds to the limited literature on the influence of premium on choice behaviour for employees of small firms, and introduces an analysis of choice behaviour in a purchasing cooperative setting. The political section of this book presents a much more detailed historical account and analysis of California's small group market reforms, the most significant health-related legislation in the state in the prior decade, than has been previously available. The conclusions are becoming particularly relevant, both in California and elsewhere, as the issues of reform of the individual market for health insurance comes to the forefront.
First published in 1999, this aims to shift the balance from current concerns about individual behaviour and its health effects to an understanding of the social factors that shape both circumstances and behaviour conducive to health. Its focus is the fact that organized work in paid employment is the common experience of most adults before their sixties, and that individuals have widely varied employment security, working conditions and job control that are likely to affect health (for good and ill) beyond working age itself. It brings together usually disparate work in the sociologies of health and illness and the body; and the sociologies of work and organizations. Importantly, the book is research-based. The argument is supported with primary data that the author has collected in varied workplaces in Britain - a pottery manufacturer, a food-processing firm and the NHS among them and analysis of official statistics and large data sets, as well as secondary literature which is international in scope. The audience includes first and higher degree students in sociology, health and environmental sciences and management studies.
First published in 1999, this volume examines the history of psychiatry and pathogenic parenting models over the past two centuries and contains the results of a study carried out by the author on the experiences of the parents of patients with Schizophrenia drawn from a sample of parents of patients in a forensic and a community setting. Michael Ferriter draws out the themes of the rival claims of organic and non-organic explanations of disorder, therapeutic optimism and therapeutic pessimism and rivalry between the medical professions and the non-medical for supremacy in the treatment of the mentally disordered. Ferriter further explores the issues of blame and guilt, the quality of interaction between mental health professionals and parents and the relevance of attribution theory as an explanation of why parents might still experience self-blame, even when they have nothing to blame themselves for.
First published in 1997, this study reports on a study of 221 sex workers in Queensland, Australia. The workers were interviewed by an interviewer with experience in the industry. They were asked a variety of questions relating to how they came to enter the industry, their knowledge of and attitudes towards safe sex, and a variety of other questions to do with lifestyle, service use and sexual health, and contact with the police and legal system. Sex work emerges as an activity which has a number of advantages. The pay is good, the hours are short and the work enables the worker to meet some interesting people and engage in social activities. Unlike other occupations, entry into sex work is somewhat haphazard (few appearing to plan entry to this industry as a career path) but, once in the industry many find it has benefits as well as disadvantages. Primary amongst these latter are the risks of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease (AIDS being uppermost in their minds) or the fear of violence which is associated with the context in which services are provided. In addition, sex workers often manifest a lifestyle which includes substance use and abuse. Relationships with police are often problematic and many workers report experiences which are critical of the legal system. This book provides a broad insight into the industry which, for parts of Australia, is subjected to substantial change. Such insights contribute not only to our understanding of the industry itself but also to the kind of health promoting activities which need to be initiated.
First published in 1998, this volume recognises that the face is important in human relationships and a facially impaired person is therefore disadvantaged. In this study the causes and social consequences of facial disfigurement are considered, the means whereby people adapt to revised appearance are explored, and an evaluation is made of professional help. Suggestions are given for improving the contribution of social work to rehabilitation.
First published in 1999, this innovative book explores in detail the essential components of working with families whose children are on the Child Protection Register. It provides a comprehensive guide to professionals, highlighting and addressing the gaps and ambiguities in central government guidance. The chapters, written by academics and leading professionals in the field, offer multi-disciplinary perspectives on models of assessment, core group practice, child protection plans and working in partnership with children and families. Practical guidance is offered to those who participate in post-registration practice and to those who participate in post-registration practice and to those who supervise or train professionals working in this area. This volume is of particular relevance to practitioners, students, managers and trainers in social work, health, education, probation and voluntary settings. It provides a unique collection of case examples, checklists and exercises enabling the reader to develop their own practice or use the material as a framework for promoting inter-agency practice within the supervision nor training context.
First published in 1998, this volume considers the Nuremberg Code in light of new ethical grey areas which have become evident due to recent scientific advancements, particularly the questions of DNA and cloning. The contributors reflect in 26 articles on the impact of the Code, events which prompted it including Japan, and more recent ethical issues raised. The book contains the results of two European/American preparatory workshops for the First World Conference on Ethics Codes in Medicine and Biotechnology (October 1997 Freiburg, Germany) supported by the leading national institutions in the field. It aims to stimulate research about codes, the effects of codification and other forms of implementing ethics. It breaks new ground with interdisciplinary and international discourse on the subject, emphasising the need for a complete collection of codes for systematic research and evaluation and filling the gap in literature on the subject to date.
First published in 1997, this volume emerged in the ongoing struggle between those favouring centralized and those favouring decentralized government, and has three goals: 1) To illustrate how theories of federalism and intergovernmental relations can provide a useful framework for examining how to 'divide up the job in the health care area'; 2) To assess the capacity of the states to actually implement health care policy changes; 3) To weigh the merits of alternative visions of the future roles of states and the federal government in health care policy. |
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