Using an innovative, action research approach, Margaret Vickers explores the lives of women who work full time while caring for a child with significant chronic illness or disability. She demonstrates that such women can be disconnected from those around them, overwhelmed with responsibility at home and work, and dealing with ongoing grief and anxieties while largely unsupported. On the other hand, there are narratives of survival, kindness and resilience. This qualitative study makes use of data poems, fictional diary entries, firsthand interviews, research reflections and constructed vignettes in conveying the life experiences of this group of women.

Community Care in Perspective fills a major gap in medical and social history by offering a detailed account of community provision for so-called 'vulnerable adults' in the UK from 1948-2005. This collection focuses primarily on people with learning difficulties to offer insights into community care more broadly, examining key issues such as charity versus rights, the role of the market in care provision and the changing construction of social categories. Charting the evolution of community care since the formation of the NHS, this study will be invaluable in contextualizing the work of policymakers and service providers.

In this volume of "Research in the Sociology of Health Care" a variety of topics concerning patients, consumers, providers and caregivers are covered.

This book contributes to the growing scholarly interest in the history of disability by investigating the emergence of 'idiot' asylums in Victorian England. Using the National Asylum for Idiots, Earlswood, as a case-study, David Wright investigates the social history of institutionalization and reveals the diversity of the 'insane' population and the complexities of institutional committal in Victorian England. He contends that institutional confinement of mentally disabled and mentally ill individuals in the nineteenth century cannot be understood independently of a detailed analysis of familial and community patterns of care.

The first systematic survey of Healthcare Infrastructure, this book describes the inevitable future of health systems. It gives a concrete plan for improved quality at diminished cost, via merger of personal medicine and public health. It discusses general aspects of infrastructure engineering and specific aspects of healthcare systems. It discusses current and future technologies for health measurement and management. This book outlines how the health of populations will be measured at the level of individuals, combining engineering and medicine to support viable health systems for the first time. This book is unique, in combining a systematic survey of health determinants with a research monograph on health technologies. Readers will gain a broad context and a deep knowledge of future information technology applied to health systems.

A new and effective combination of case studies and macro data sets examines the structure of the highly regulated hospital industry. Provides a close scrutiny of hospital establishment management during a period of increasing public concern about the quality and cost of health service delivery. Based on research undertaken at the Joint Center for Urban Studies of MIT and Harvard University.

This book offers an analysis of the formation of contemporary hospital systems between the mid-19th century and the mid-20th century. Based on extensive archival material and a broad international literature review, it focuses on the case of the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, and uses a triple approach that discusses technological innovations, hospital management, and health policy. This research is a major contribution to the history of medicine which gives a unique overview of the formation of contemporary hospital systems.

Despite great improvement in service delivery, patient violence remains a major problem at mental health facilities. Focusing equally on causes, management, and prevention, this groundbreaking book represents the state of knowledge on this crucial topic. Violence in Mental Health Settings brings together salient theories, valuable data, and real-world interventions in one accessible volume. The contributors include psychiatrists, nurses, researchers, and academics (many affiliated with the European Violence in Psychiatry Research Group), offering an integrative context for understanding patient aggression and identifying areas where research is lacking. Chapters review the latest theories of violence, proven prevention strategies, and examples of positive organizational change. Practical highlights include: Assessing and measuring risk: self-versus other-reporting scales; how the ward environment can contribute to violence? pharmaceutical interventions; training issues and course development in violence management; professional coping after patient attacks; and developing a non-violent culture at the institutional level. Throughout, the material is illustrated liberally with graphs and clinical case examples, and coverage bridges the patient-rights and zero-tolerance ends of the spectrum. Therapists, nurses, social workers, and counselors in hospitals and other inpatient and community facilities will find Violence in Mental Health Settings a source of vital insights and ideas for future policy. Regardless of one's setting or specialty, the authors share a critical aim with their readers: a safer and more humane experience.

A comprehensive exploration of the increasing availability of health information on the Internet. The accessibility of health information on the Internet has revolutionized access to clinical information for health practitioners and patients. This access to information has the potential to make a major contribution to health care. However, the effective use of this accessibility depends on an understanding of all the issues involved, from the underlying technologies and economic pressures, to questions of how best to manage quality and privacy, how people seek and use information, and what the barriers to its use are. Cullen's book examines the extent of health information on the Internet, the providers of websites and their content, and outlines the nature of the paradigm shift affecting knowledge in the health sector.

This is the first book to explore the impact of 'burnout' on the current NHS GP workforce and how this can be addressed, from an insider GP perspective. Adam Staten, recently qualified GP, and Euan Lawson, Fellow of the RCGP with over 20 years experience, discuss in engaging, accessible chapters how burnout manifests psychologically, the complex reasons why GPs burn out and the individual and broader impact this can have. Most importantly, the book offers practical advice on how to avoid burning out and combat the negative effects of an increasingly high-pressure role, exploring how GPs can develop resilience and work in a way that builds a healthier work-life balance. A section is dedicated to the array of GP job options, with testimonies from practitioners working in diverse areas from education and academia to military and humanitarian settings. This book explores the challenges of working in general practice today, but it also demonstrates the potential for every GP to experience a personally and professionally satisfying career. Providing practical, workable advice and links to resources for help and support, the book enables readers to find opportunity within the perceived 'crisis'. By reading this book, you will find the means to improve not just your own working life but also to enhance the way you deliver care to your patients.

In this intriguing volume, Merrie G. Klapp explains how regulatory decisions in such crucial areas as public health, technological safety, and environmental quality are molded and recast. She finds that scientific uncertainty is a key factor, with agencies, interest groups, Congress, and the courts attempting to shift responsibility of proof or varying the standard of proof according to the pressures brought to bear on the issue. In general, Professor Klapp finds that when citizens or industrialists organize to protest a regulatory decision and when the legislature or the courts take scientific uncertainty into account, then the initial regulatory decision is changed.

By contrast with the United States, where scientific uncertainty is used as a public resource and rationale for change, in France and Britain scientific uncertainty is treated as a private resource. French and British scientists do not treat regulatory decisions as opportunities to reveal scientific uncertainty to the public--instead, discussions of uncertainties are held behind closed doors and, when reports are made to the public about regulatory decisions, scientific information is presented as if it were certain. Bargaining with Uncertainty will be a provocative analysis to those scholars and researchers concerned with the making of public policy as well as those concerned with risk assessment in public health, the environment, and technology.

This is the eighth volume in a series on research in community and mental health.

Both international and internal migration brings new challenges to public health systems. This book aims to critically review theoretical frameworks and literature, as well as discuss new practices and lessons related to culture, migration, and health communication in different countries. It features research and applied projects conducted by scholars from various disciplines including media and communication, public health, medicine, and nursing.

DESCRIPTION: People with mental illness in the criminal justice system are a vexing problem in many countries. Efforts to cope with this problem have taken a number of forms and this volume explores the key issues in this area. Whether and to what extent any of these efforts achieve their goals remains a significant question for researchers from a range of disciplines and for actors and stakeholders from various sectors of the mental health and criminal justice systems TABLE OF CONTENTS: Contributors; Introduction; Criminal Justice Involvement and Severe Mental Illness; Where is the 'illness' in the criminalization of mental illness?; Treatment Modalities for Offenders with Mental Illness; Community mental health services and criminal justice involvement among persons with mental illness; Case management and the forensic client; The impact of 'new generation' anti-psychotic medications on criminal justice outcomes; Embedding Community Mental Health Service System Interventions in the Criminal Justice Process: From Arrest to Release; Jail diversion for people with mental illness: what do we really know); The nature of the alliance: an anthropological look at the practice of forensic psychiatry; Courting the court: courts as agents for treatment and justice; Prison, hospital or community: community re-entry and mentally ill offenders.

From the author of the bestselling introduction to evidence-based medicine, this brand new title makes sense of the complex and confusing landscape of implementation science, the role of research impact, and how to avoid research waste. How to Implement Evidence-Based Healthcare clearly and succinctly demystifies the implementation process, and explains how to successfully apply evidence-based healthcare to practice in order to ensure safe and effective practice. Written in an engaging and practical style, it includes frameworks, tools and techniques for successful implementation and behavioural change, as well as in-depth coverage and analysis of key themes and topics with a focus on: * Groups and teams * Organisations * Patients * Technology * Policy * Networks and systems. How to Implement Evidence-Based Healthcare is essential reading for students, clinicians and researchers focused on evidence-based medicine and healthcare, implementation science, applied healthcare research, and those working in public health, public policy, and management.

This is the tenth volume in a series on research in community and mental health.

Health experts independently state that the most critical urban problems are preventable. This brings an added challenge to public health practitioners working in inner cities with predominately minority communities. In addition to deadly diseases - including transmittable diseases - violence, whether it is physical, sexual or child abuse, is the other predominant morbidity factor that urban areas confront.
Because of these concerns, there is a need for health professionals working with the communities to critically examine health behavior theories and prevention methodologies. Additionally, new prevention practices and programs need to be developed for community-based interventions to better serve the populations in need including programs in:

-HIV Prevention;
-Evaluation and Policy Research;
-Cancer Prevention and Screening;
-Urban Public Health Policy;
-Youth Violence Prevention.

The theme of this book is health outcomes in India, in particular to outcomes relating to its caste and religious groups and, within these groups, to their women and children. The book's tenor is analytical and based upon a rigorous examination of recent data from both government and non-government sources. The major areas covered are sanitation, use by mothers of the government's child development services, child malnutrition, deaths in families, gender discrimination, and the measurement of welfare.

The global nature of today's society has created more international students than ever, and these students face an increasing variety of demands while living and learning across cultures. Counselors are one of the key resources available to such students, yet they themselves have often not had significant training in this area. Addressing this need, Counseling International Students: Clients From Around the World, provides essential information for professionals working with students during cross-cultural transition. This book introduces readers to contributions made by international students in higher education, and supplies in-depth information about the nature of cross-cultural transitions including initial entry to the host culture as well as the return home. A framework of multicultural counseling competencies is applied with suggestions for counselors to increase their self-awareness, knowledge, skills, and abilities for organizational development. Case examples, throughout, highlight the range of roles and strategies that can be used in counseling international students, and the book is filled with practical information for enhancing counseling services for this population. The audience for this book is counselors and other mental health professionals who deal with cross-cultural issues as well as students in this area.

This text focuses on various factors associated with orphan diseases and the influence and role of health information technologies. Orphan diseases have not been adopted by the pharmaceutical industry because they provide little financial incentive to treat or prevent it. It is estimated that 6,000-7,000 orphan diseases exist today; as medical knowledge continues to expand, this number is likely to become much greater. The book highlights the opportunities and challenges in this increasingly important area. The book explores new avenues which are opened by information technologies and Health 2.0, and highlights also economic opportunities of orphan disease medicine. The editors of this new book have international experience and competencies in the key areas of patient empowerment, healthcare and clinical knowledge management, healthcare inequalities and disparities, rare diseases and patient advocacy.

This volume deals with the reorganizing of health care delivery systems: problems of managed care and other models of health care delivery. Issues of how to best organize a health care delivery system are not new, but the amount of interest in this topic in the US (as well as in other countries) has grown in recent decades. Reorganizing health care delivery systems is a concern of many systems of the world, and this volume contains some papers from countries other than the US, although the majority of the papers do relate issues to the US health care delivery system. While most papers relate to structural and organizational factors, the impact of individual patients is not neglected. The volume contains 11 papers, organized into four sections. The sections cover managed care issues and organizational features, special groups of patients and health issues, lessons from other countries, and broader policy concerns and health insurance reform. This book addresses important themes in medical sociology, with papers that range from those with an explicit policy point of view to narrower papers on more specific issues in health care delivery. It aims to contribute to improving our understanding of these issues and provides a sociological focus for the exploration of them. This should make the volume essential reading for medical sociologists and other social scientists studying health care delivery issues. The information should be also helpful to health services researchers, policy analysts and public health researchers.