What does life ask of us, and how are we to answer that summons? Are we here just to propagate the species anew? Do any of us really believe that we are here to make money and then die? Does life matter, in the end, and if so, how, and in what fashion? What guiding intelligence weaves the threads of our individual biographies? What hauntings of the invisible world invigorate, animate, and direct the multiple narratives of daily life? In Hauntings, James Hollis considers how we are all governed by the presence of invisible forms spirits, ghosts, ancestral and parental influences, inner voices, dreams, impulses, untold stories, complexes, synchronicities, and mysteries which move through us, and through history. He offers a way to understand them psychologically, examining the persistence of the past in influencing our present, conscious lives and noting that engagement with mystery is what life asks of each of us. From such engagements, a deeper, more thoughtful, more considered life may come.

At present we are looking at increased life expectancies and prolonged periods of employment. The aged workforce as a natural result of this phenomenon presents society with great challenges.
At the 2nd International Symposium on Work Ability held in Verona, Italy between 18 and 20 October 2004 this problem was scientifically addressed. This book "Assessment and Promotion of Work Ability, Health and Well-being of Ageing Workers" contains the majority of papers presented here.
The book reflects the major themes of the meeting which are factors affecting work ability and employability of ageing workers, assessment of work ability in different occupations, Evaluation of work-related problems of ageing workers and promotion of health and work ability.
You will find very useful information and examples of methods, research and ongoing interventions.

With obesity rising at alarming rates in the U.S., UK, and developed countries around the world--so much that the U.S. Department of Health has officially classified obesity as an "illness" and the World Health Organization has dubbed it a "pandemic"--weight-loss surgery is also on the rise. Traditional weight-loss programs such as diet, exercise, and pharmaceuticals, are only effective for significant and sustained weight loss for about 10 percent of all people who try. The results are even more dismal for the obese aiming to lose not just a few pounds, but 50, 75, or more. Yet, the health of these individuals lies in the balance, because obesity or morbid obesity (100 pounds or more overweight by medical standards) increases by 50 to 100 percent their risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and certain cancers. Weight-loss surgery, however, is effective in bringing 80 percent of obese people to or close to average weight for their height, explains Dr. Hamilton, an Instructor at Harvard Medical School. Even more impressive, most sustain that weight loss for at least 10 years. Hamilton doesn't perform such surgeries, but this Tufts-educated doctor has more than general medical insight. She had the surgery herself six years ago, reducing from the size 20 she was then to the size 8 she is now. "Surgical weight loss is unequivocally more effective than any other method," she says. Certainly there are complexities, risks, and some "grueling decisions" involved. But life as an obese person can be more risky to health and more grueling to mental health, she adds. The National Institutes of Health apparently agree, as NIH has issued recommendations for morbidly obesepeople to have weight-loss surgery. In the United States alone weight-loss surgeries have risen from 12,700 in 1988 to more than 78,000 in 2005. "Still, fewer than one percent of the patients who fit the requirements for weight-loss surgery are ever referred to such a specialist," says Hamilton. "And in blacks, where the prevalence of obesity is even higher, the referral rates are even lower," she adds. Hamilton makes clear the rewards, and the risks, of surgery that reduces stomach size or removes a piece of the intestine so calories cannot be absorbed. This book includes interviews with previously obese males and females who've had the surgery, as well as descriptions of the procedures, recovery times, costs, and insurance issues.

Presenting a brief analysis of health care systems in industrialized nations, the author includes the history, current realities, financing and delivery of services, as well as the impact of the systems on the core sociological variables--age, sex, social class, and race and ethnicity. The systems spotlighted are those in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, and Japan. The author's study of these varied health care systems shows two models are significantly more comprehensive, regardless of country, and that health outcomes are differentiated on the basis of sociological variables, regardless of health care systems.

This ambitious book provides the latest research in leading topics of behavioral medicine and evidence-based strategies for its application in solving clinical problems. Each of the book's clinical chapters, covering a breadth of topics from doctor-patient communication to patient adherence, preparation for surgery and cancer, begins with a clinical case study that guides the reader through the chapter. The author expertly takes the reader through relevant background information, including the epidemiology and medical background of the disease, the psychological predictors of onset or prognosis in the condition, and relevant psychological interventions. The chapters conclude by revisiting the case study with an evidence-based solution that applies the topics discussed to better treat the patient's body and mind. Included among the topics: Models of stress and methodological considerations in behavioral medicine Doctor-patient communication and increasing patient adherence Psychosocial factors in coronary heart disease Psychosocial factors and the prognosis of cancer Psychological aspects of health and illness in the elderly Emergency mental health after traumatic events This depth of clinical guidance and exploration of biobehavioral mechanisms makes Behavioral Medicine: An Evidence-Based Biobehavioral Approach an essential resource for practitioners and practitioners-in-training, including medical students, health psychologists and other professionals in health promotion, disease prevention, psychotherapy and counseling, and primary care medicine.

This issue of Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice, guest edited by Dr. Diane M. Harper, is devoted to Women's Health. Articles in this issue include: Social Constructs of How Women View and Obtain Their Healthcare; Becoming Reproductive; Family Planning and Contraception; Termination of Pregnancy; Female Athlete Triad; Menopause; Bone Health in Women; Cancers in Women; Cancer Survivor Health Needs for Women; Women's Health and the Military; Transgendered Women: Female to Male and Male to Female; Plastic Surgery for Women; Integrative Health for Women; Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Care for Women; and Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Considerations for Women with Opiate Addiction Disorders.

Medical breakthroughs and adult literacy have made it easier than ever before to acquire the knowledge, skills, and values needed to lead a productive and satisfying life, yet many Americans have difficulty understanding and acting upon the health information they acquire. The Handbook of Research on Adult and Community Health Education: Tools, Trends, and Methodologies presents educational and social science perspectives on the state of the healthcare industry and the information technologies surrounding it. It presents a collection of the latest research on methods, programs, and procedures practiced by health literate societies. This groundbreaking compilation provides cutting-edge content for researchers, social scientists, academicians, and adult educators and learners interested in how available technologies affect our health today.

Due to massive technological and medical advances in the life sciences (molecular genetics, biology, biochemistry, etc.), modern medicine is increasingly effective in treating individual patients, but little technological advancement has focused on advancing the healthcare infrastructure. Management Engineering for Effective Healthcare Delivery: Principles and Applications illustrates the power of management engineering for quantitative managerial decision-making in healthcare settings. This understanding makes it possible, in turn, to predict performance and/or real resource requirements, allowing decision-makers to be truly proactive rather than reactive. The distinct feature of this book is that it provides international exposure to this challenging area.

While there are a number of clinical practices for treating a variety of diseases, there is an urgent need to integrate bio-psychosocial perspectives and practices in order to promote comprehensive healthcare. Current research reports that diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and heart diseases are a growing threat to the heath and quality of life of individuals across the globe. Considering that nearly all these diseases are directly related to the lifestyle of an individual, prevention and intervention should be devised to address psychological, emotional, social, and spiritual factors. Biopsychosocial Perspectives and Practices for Addressing Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases is a collection of theoretical research that promotes good health and quality of life through psychosocial interventions to address psychosocial problems facing individuals such as discrimination and stigma, stress, depression, alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, lack of physical activity, and many other socio-economic factors. While highlighting topics including mental health, traditional healthcare, and global health, this book is ideally designed for therapists, counselors, psychologists, medical professionals, hospital administrators, researchers, academicians, and students in fields that include public health, nursing, community-based healthcare, health psychology, HIV/AIDS education, human movement education, and sport psychology.

This issue of Physician Assistant Clinics, guest edited by Heather P. Adams, MPAS, PA-C and Aleece R. Fosnight, PA-C, is devoted to Women's Health. Articles in this issue include: Female Athlete Triad; Sexual Health Counseling for the Gynecologic Provider; Overcoming Barriers to LARCS; PCOS; Benign Breast Disease; Menopause; Female Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD); HIV and Pregnancy: Medication management, delivery options, and postpartum complications; Adolescent GYN and HPV: Oral, anal, and cervical; Challenging Vaginitis; Infertility and Non-invasive Prenatal Testing; Pregnancy Centering: A Novel Approach to Prenatal Care; The Role of Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy for the Female Patient; and Diagnosis and Management of Recurrent Miscarriages.

In recent decades, American medicine has become increasingly politicized and politics has become increasingly medicalized. Behaviors previously seen as virtuous or wicked, wise or unwise are now dealt with as healthy or sick--unwanted behaviors to be controlled as if they were health issues. The modern penchant for transforming human problems into diseases and judicial sanctions into treatments, replacing the rule of law with the rule of medical discretion, leads to the creation of a type of government social critic Thomas Szasz calls pharmacracy.

Medicalizing troublesome behaviors and social problems is tempting to voters and politicians alike: it panders to the people by promising to satisfy their needs for dependence on medical authority and offers easy self-aggrandizement to politicians as the dispensers of more and better health care. Thus, the people gain a convenient scapegoat, enabling them to avoid personal responsibility for their behavior. The government gains a rationale for endless and politically expedient wars against social problems defined as public health emergencies. The health care system gains prestige, funding, and bureaucratic power that only an alliance with the political system can provide.

However, Szasz warns, the creeping substitution of pharmacracy for democracy--private medical concerns increasingly perceived as requiring a political response--inexorably erodes personal freedom and dignity. "Pharmacracy: Medicine and Politics in America" is a clear and convincing presentation of this hidden danger, all too often ignored in our health care debates and avoided in our political contests.

Interest in Information and Communication Technologies for human monitoring, smart health and assisted living is growing due to the significant impact that these technologies are expected to have on improving the quality of life of ageing populations around the world. This book brings together chapters written by a range of researchers working in these topics, providing an overview of the areas and covering current research, developments and applications for a readership of researchers and research-led engineering practitioners. It discusses the promises and the possible advantages of these technologies, and also indicates the challenges for the future. Topics covered include: personal monitoring and health data acquisition in smart homes; contactless monitoring of respiratory activity; technology-based assistance of people with dementia; wearable sensors for gesture analysis; design and prototyping of home automation systems for the monitoring of elderly people; multi-sensor platform for circadian rhythm analysis; smart multi-sensor solutions for activity detection; human monitoring based on heterogeneous sensor networks; mobile health for vital signs and gait monitoring systems; and smartphone-based blood pressure monitoring for falls risk assessment.

This issue of Physician Assistant Clinics, devoted to Geriatrics, is guest edited by Steven D. Johnson, PA-C. Articles in this issue include: Falls and the Older Adult: Prevention and evaluation; Cognitive Decline and Dementia; Shared Medical Appointments for Older Adults; Advanced Care Planning and Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment Program (POLST); Palliative Care; Home Care; Successful Aging; Functional Assessment and Pain Management; and more! CME is also available for subscribers to the series.

ADHD Complex: Practicing Mental Health in Primary Care, written by Dr. Harlan Gephart, provides a comprehensive review of key subjects of importance for primary care and family practitioners to help them better assess, diagnose, treat, and manage patient populations with ADHD. Dr. Gephart, Emeritus Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at University of Washington, has used his many years of experience and practice with this patient population to put together this helpful guide. Rating scales, questionnaires, and behavior checklists Identifying, screening, diagnosing, and treating learning problems in children and adolescents General principles of multi-modality treatments ADHD with coexistent psychiatric and behavioral disorders Resources for clinicians, parents, and patients

This provocative appraisal unpacks commonly held beliefs about healthcare management and replaces them with practical strategies and realistic policy goals. Using Henry Mintzberg's "Myths of Healthcare" as a springboard, it reveals management practices that undermine care delivery, explores their cultural and corporate origins, and details how they may be reversed through changes in management strategy, organization, scale, and style. Tackling conventional wisdom about decision-making, cost-effectiveness, service quality, and equity, contributors fine-tune concepts of mission and vision by promoting collaboration, engagement, and common sense. The book's multidisciplinary panel of experts analyzes the most popular healthcare management "myths," among them: * The healthcare system is failing. * The healthcare system can be fixed through social engineering. * Healthcare institutions can be fixed by bringing in the heroic leader. * The healthcare system can be fixed by treating it more as a business. * Healthcare is rightly left to the private sector, for the sake of efficiency. The Myths of Health Care speaks to a large, diverse audience: scholars of all levels interested in the research in health policy and management, graduate and under-graduate students attending courses in leadership and management of public sector organization, and practitioners in the field of health care.