This book examines the causes and consequences of suicide from the perspective of economics. The approach here differs from those in medical, psychiatric, epidemiological, and sociological studies of suicide and is thus novel in a way that highlights the importance of economic and institutional settings in the problem of suicide. The authors argue that suicide imposes a tremendous economic cost on contemporary society in a variety of ways, requiring the government to develop an effective prevention strategy. An empirical analysis using data from Japan and other developed countries shows that natural disasters and economic crises increase suicide rates, while liberal government policies favorable to the poor can decrease them. Further, the types of effective prevention strategies in the context of railway/subway suicides, celebrity suicides, public awareness campaigns, and education using data primarily from Japan are revealed. This book ultimately contributes to an understanding of suicides and the development of evidence-based policy proposals. The Japanese version of this book won the 56th Nikkei Prize for Economics Books (Nikkei Keizai Tosho Bunka Award) in 2013. Yasuyuki Sawada is Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank and Professor of Economics at The University of Tokyo. Michiko Ueda is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University. Tetsuya Matsubayashi is Associate Professor of Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University.

This important new study explores how American health care evolved in the 1990s, as well as the changes in public support and policy. Birenbaum examines where the interests of consumers and professionals have dovetailed and where they differ. He considers the health care systeM's future and suggested ways the system must be adjusted to provide better and wider coverage at reasonable costs. This volume is essential reading for scholars, students, and professionals in the medical field, as well as general readers concerned with health care issues.

The 90s saw the country moving toward a realization that health care had become unaffordable--or an enormous financial burden for people with otherwise adequate incomes. Health care providers and consumers alike worried that the problem was becoming uncontrollable. Doctors saw their autonomy and control eroded, employers saw their costs rising significantly, the costs began shifting to employees, and alternative approaches to cost containment were explored.

This timely study analyzes social, economic, political, provider, and patient factors shaping collective patient involvement in European health care from the postwar period to the present day. Examining representative countries England, the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden, it documents the roles of providers and legislatures in facilitating consumer involvement, and the varied forms of patient input into hospital operations. These findings are compared and contrasted against the intent and ideals behind patient involvement to assess the effectiveness of implementation policy, strengths and drawbacks of patient participation, and patient satisfaction and outcomes. The book's conclusions identify emerging forms of patient participation and predict the impact of health policy on the future of European collective patient involvement. Included in the coverage: * Patient involvement: who, what for, and in what way? * The Netherlands: the legislative process to collective patient involvement * England: formal means of public involvement-a continuous story of discontinuity * Germany: Joint Federal Committee-the "Little Legislator" * Sweden: reasons for a late emergence of patient involvement * Lessons to be learned from implementing patient involvement The Evolution and Everyday Practice of Collective Patient Involvement in Europe will interest and inspire scholars and researchers in diverse fields, including social policy, sociology, political sciences, and nursing studies, as well as patient organizations, policymakers, and healthcare providers.

For fifty years, Medicare and Medicaid have stood at the center of a contentious debate surrounding American government, citizenship, and health care entitlement. In Medicare and Medicaid at 50, leading scholars in politics, government, economics, health policy, and history offer a comprehensive assessment of the evolution of these programs and their impact on society - from their origins in the Great Society era to the current battles over the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"). These highly accessible essays examine Medicare and Medicaid from their origins as programs for the elderly and poor to their later role as a safety net for the middle class. Along the way, they have served as touchstones for heated debates about economics, social welfare, and the role of government. Medicare and Medicaid at 50 addresses key questions for understanding the past and future of health policy in America, including: DT What were the origins for these initiatives, and how were they transformed over time? DT What marks have Medicare and Medicaid left on society? DT In what ways have these programs produced innovation, even in eras of retrenchment? DT How did Medicaid, once regarded as a poor person's program, expand its benefits and coverage over the decades to become the platform for the ACA's future expansion? The volume's contributors go on to examine the powerful role of courts in these transformations, along with the shifting roles of Congress, public opinion, and state governors in the programs' ongoing evolution. From Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama on the left, and from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush on the right, American political leaders have tied their political fortunes to the fate of America's entitlement programs; Medicare and Medicaid at 50 helps explain why, and how those ongoing debates are likely to shape the future of the Affordable Care Act.

This short book brings together novel cross-interdisciplinary investigation from both natural and social science, representing a true hybrid across disciplines examining the 'politics' and 'science' of COVID-19. Viruses, Vaccines, and Antivirals: Why Politics Matters considers the dynamics surrounding viruses, proposed vaccines, and antiviral therapies, contextualizing what governments have done during the COVID-19 crisis. The four basic phases of a pandemic are considered with a strong focus on COVID-19, namely the anticipating and early virus detection, containment strategies, policies to control and mitigate the spread of the virus and policies aimed at opening up society. Viruses, Vaccines, and Antivirals: Why Politics Matters examines policy developments throughout these phases in key nations worldwide and puts forward a blueprint for countries developing public policies to deal with a pandemic.

This is a significant and timely book. The chapters are rich in describing clinical considerations and approaches to the immigrant patient in a broad range of disease areas. I recommAnd this book to all administrators and clinicians who serve or plan to serve the growing immigrant populations in the United States.
--Henry Chung, medical director, Chinatown Health Clinic, New York, New York

Immigrant Women's Health offers doctors, nurses, and administrators the knowledge and tools they need to meet the challenge to provide quality care for one of the United States' most vulnerable patient populations?immigrant women.

Providing readers insights into the knowledge, attitudes, health beliefs, health care practices, and health care seeking behavior of immigrant women, the contributors offer effective strategies for providing culturally-competent, high-quality, cost-effective care to migrant women. Health care planners, policy makers, and administrators who seek a clear understanding of the issues surrounding health services utilization by immigrants and the devastating effects of recent changes to federal policies will find this book a vital and practical reference.

Satire, Comedy and Mental Health examines how satire helps to sustain good mental health in a troubled socio-political world. Through an interdisciplinary dialogue that combines approaches from the analytic philosophy of art, medical and health humanities, media studies, and psychology, the book demonstrates how satire enables us to negotiate a healthy balance between care for others and care of self. Building on a thorough philosophical explication and close analysis of satire in various forms - including novels, music, TV, film, cartoons, memes, stand-up comedy and protest artefacts - Declercq investigates how we can harness satirical entertainment to ease the limits of critique. In so doing, the book presents a compelling case that, while satire cannot hope to cure our sick world, it can certainly help us to cope with it.

This book is a study of the pioneer early county asylums, which were intended to provide for the 'cure', and 'safe custody' of people suffering from the ravages of insanity. It considers the origins of the asylums, how they were managed, the people who staffed them, their treatment practices, and the experiences of the people who were incarcerated. 'Community care' in the late twentieth century has led us to abandon the network of nineteenth century lunatic asylums. This book reminds us of the ideals that lay behind them. The book contains extensive material regarding particular cities/counties, e.g. Nottingham, Lincoln, Stafford, Wakefield, Lancaster, Bedford, West Riding, Norfolk, Cornwall, Dorset, Suffolk, etc.

A holistic view of the factors that impact the health of a patient beyond the illness itself, this book examines what it is like to be a patient. It espouses the view that terminal illness may not be a tragedy but, an opportunity for emotional growth. The inadequacies of medical care today are discussed, from the failure of health care professionals to see the person with the disease, to the many ways in which managed-care organizations jeopardize the doctor/patient relationship.

The work reviews concrete ways in which health care professionals can enhance the quality of their care, by remaining compassionate, continuing to offer patients hope (even if their condition is terminal), acknowledging and addressing patients' suffering, and counseling patients so that they can obtain the support needed. A new advocacy role for doctors is presented that enables patients to make advised decisions about their own treatment. This book encourages patients to take back their lives from the diseases that overwhelm them. It also discusses advance directives, living wills, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and do not resuscitate orders. Information is provided to help patients assume self advocacy on end-of-life issues from an emotional perspective as well as a legal perspective.

Health care reforms around the world--from Europe and North America to Africa, Latin America and Asia--seem to all be market-oriented reforms driven by international business interests and right wing political parties. There seems to be a sudden and broad concern with the "efficiency" of medical care, with the assertion that democratically or professionally run systems are inherently inefficient. Far less concern is evident for the more traditional values held regarding medical care, "effectiveness" (or quality) and "equity." The fact is that we have little good cross-national research that systematically addresses the reform issue.

This book addresses that problem, and attempts to look at health care reforms in a number of countries, representing as wide a spectrum as possible, and using a common conceptual framework that allows for comparable information to be gathered and presented on each, despite differing levels of socio-economic development. The authors agreed on a set of models that were thought to provide reasonable guidance in answering the questions of the source of pressures for reform, the alternative modes of organization that have been found in the world in recent years, and the direction of change among those alternatives.

This book provides a general overview of intelligence in health policy, health-care organizations and health services in the light of the current EU digital agenda, which aims to make health data and e-health tools publicly available. The first part analyses the implications of knowledge management and decision-making procedures for intelligent health policies and governance. The second part discusses in detail the concept of intelligence and illustrates why the perspective of organizational intelligence offers a solution to contemporary problems in health care, while the third part focuses on intelligent leadership models in health-care organizations. Providing a guide to new ways of understanding, developing, and reforming health policy and health services, it appeals to scholars as well as decision-makers in health governance and health-care institutions.

Mental Health Outcome Evaluation bridges the gap between traditional research and evaluation methods by presenting an alternative to the highly technical and statistical methods developed in the laboratory for mental health care professionals. It focuses on outcome evaluation of mental health services for adults, concentrating on the general principles that can be used to assess the service effectiveness of community health centers, clinics, and private practices. The book presents a formidable argument for descriptive outcome studies through its evaluation of the results and consequences of care and treatment as well as clinician ratings. It is written in a non-technical style, making it accessible to anyone in the mental health industry.
Key Features
* Addresses industry efforts to monitor and assess information about results and consequences of mental health care and treatment
* Evaluates use of clinician ratings as outcome information
* Offers accessible general principles for managers and mental health services researchers
* Presents the best argument for descriptive outcome studies

In 2009 three consultants, green to the consulting industry were tasked with a new challenge, the activation and licensing of a new, 100 bed hospital, in only 90 days. Pulling from concept of "Day in the Life" simulations used in the military, the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS), and adult learning theories the consultants developed a method that healthcare facilities could use to ensure readiness. Thus, was born the concept of Dress Rehearsal. A Guide to Healthcare Facility Dress Rehearsal Simulation Planning: Simplifying the Complex provides a step-by-step scalable framework to coordinate an Interdisciplinary Dress Rehearsal event for a project or facility of any size. Developed for use as a resource throughout your Dress Rehearsal journey, each chapter of this guide builds upon the last and should be read in succession. We hope you leverage our lessons learned and experience and apply them to your facility to support a safe Day 1 activation.

With the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, Central and Eastern European states have had to confront fundamental changes in economic, social, and governmental structures. So far, many of these countries in transition from a command to a market-based system have experienced rapid deterioration of socioeconomic conditions and standards of living. Although there have been successes in some areas, such as greater political and consumer choices, the overall situation has reached crisis proportions, as evidenced by increased unemployment, crime, and family disorganization.

The essays in this collection address significant issues dealing with the frameworks of social justice and equality, policies for families and women, implications for the welfare state, and the impact on health care. As such, the collection is invaluable for all scholars and researchers involved with contemporary Central and Eastern European public policy and social conditions.

This multifaceted book examines the free market reform of the Chinese healthcare system in the 1980s and the more collectivist or socialist counter-reforms that have been implemented since 2009 to remedy some of the problems introduced by marketization. The book is based on an ethnographical study in a Chinese county from 2011 to 2012, which investigated local people's experience of healthcare reforms and the various ways in which they have adapted their own behavior to the constraints and opportunities introduced by these reforms. It provides a vivid depiction of the morality and emotionality of people's experiences of the Chinese healthcare system and the myriad frustrations and sometimes desperation it induces not only among patients with significant health problems and their families, but also healthcare practitioners caught between their desire to do right by their patients and the penalties they personally incur if they do not adhere to institutionalized cost-saving measures. The people's experiences within China's health sector presented reflect many similar experiences in the wider Chinese society. The book is thus a valuable resource for researchers and graduate students interested in China's healthcare reforms and scholars concerned with issues of contemporary Chinese society.