In "The Politics of the Opioid Epidemic," leading political scientists from diverse theoretical traditions provide new insights into the enduring features of American policy and practice that have influenced state-level and national responses to the ongoing opioid crisis. Key among these features is the persistent power of race in shaping public opinion of the opioid crisis, influencing the development of punitive and treatment-oriented legislation, and impacting media portrayal of opioids and the communities they affect. Other factors include the development of the conservative welfare state and the challenges of delivering information and services to affected communities through existing, dysfunctional systems. Analyzing the manifold politics that have contributed to the current situation, contributors explain the depth of the current opioid epidemic and highlight the need for structural change to produce durable, effective policies. Contributors. Amanda Abraham, Christina M. Andrews, Clifford S. Bersamira, Andrea Louise Campbell, Sarah E. Gollust, Colleen M. Grogan, Gali Katznelson, Jin Woo Kim, Miriam Laugesen, Joanne M. Miller, Susan L. Moffitt, Evan Morgan, Brendan Nyhan, Eric M. Patashnik, Elizabeth Perez-Chiques, Harold A. Pollack, Marie Schenk, Carmel Shachar, Phillip M. Singer, Bikki Tran Smith, Patricia Strach, Paul Testa, Tess Wise, Katie Zuber

Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity is a collaborative effort by an international group of addiction scientists to improve the linkages between addiction science and alcohol policy. It presents, in a comprehensive, practical, and readily accessible form, the accumulated scientific knowledge on alcohol research that has a direct relevance to the development of alcohol policy on local, national, and international levels. It provides an objective basis on which to build relevant policies globally and informs policy makers who have direct responsibility for public health and social welfare. By locating alcohol policy primarily within the realm of public health, this book draws attention to the growing tendency for governments, both national and local, to consider alcohol misuse as a major determinant of ill health, and to organize societal responses accordingly. The scope of the book is comprehensive and global. The authors describe the conceptual basis for a rational alcohol policy and present new epidemiological data on the global dimensions of alcohol misuse. The core of the book is a critical review of the cumulative scientific evidence in seven general areas of alcohol policy: pricing and taxation, regulating the physical availability of alcohol, modifying the environment in which drinking occurs, drinking-driving countermeasures, marketing restrictions, primary prevention programs in schools and other settings, and treatment and early intervention services. The final chapters discuss the current state of alcohol policy in different parts of the world and describe the need for a new approach to alcohol policy that is evidence-based, global, and coordinated. A valuable resource for those involved in addiction science and drug policy, as well as those in the wider fields of public health, health policy, epidemiology, and practising clinicians.

Automatism is a notoriously difficult subject for law students, lawyers and judges. This book explores the science and medicine of sleep disorders and examines how the criminal process deals with such disorders when presented as a defence. It systematically examines the legal doctrines involved, and their implications for the use of the evidence key to establishing automatism, while also exploring the medical conditions that can cause automatism (particularly epilepsy, sleepwalking and diabetes). This book is a valuable resource for law students, lawyers, judges and expert witnesses.

As we approach the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, it's crucial to look back to the time when abortion was illegal. Leslie Reagan traces the practice and policing of abortion, which although illegal was nonetheless widely available, but always with threats for both doctor and patient. In a time when many young women don't even know that there was a period when abortion was a crime, this work offers chilling and vital lessons of importance to everyone. The linking of the words 'abortion' and 'crime' emphasizes the difficult and painful history that is the focus of Leslie J. Reagan's important book. Her study is the first to examine the entire period during which abortion was illegal in the United States, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century and ending with Roe v. Wade in 1973. Although illegal, millions of abortions were provided during these years to women of every class, race, and marital status. The experiences and perspectives of these women, as well as their physicians and midwives, are movingly portrayed here. Reagan traces the practice and policing of abortion. While abortions have been typically portrayed as grim 'back alley' operations, she finds that abortion providers often practiced openly and safely. Moreover, numerous physicians performed abortions, despite prohibitions by the state and the American Medical Association. Women often found cooperative practioners, but prosecution, public humiliation, loss of privacy, and inferior medical care were a constant threat. Reagan's analysis of previously untapped sources, including inquest records and trial transcripts, shows the fragility of patient rights and raises provocative questions about the relationship between medicine and law. With the right to abortion again under attack in the United States, this book offers vital lessons for every American concerned with health care, civil liberties, and personal and sexual freedom.

U.S. military conflicts abroad have left nine million Americans dependent on the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) for medical care. Their "wounds of war" are treated by the largest hospital system in the country-one that has come under fire from critics in the White House, on Capitol Hill, and in the nation's media. In Wounds of War, Suzanne Gordon draws on five years of observational research to describe how the VHA does a better job than private sector institutions offering primary and geriatric care, mental health and home care services, and support for patients nearing the end of life. In the unusual culture of solidarity between patients and providers that the VHA has fostered, Gordon finds a working model for higher-quality health care and a much-needed alternative to the practice of for-profit medicine.

American health care is in crisis because of exploding medical malpractice litigation. Insurance premiums for doctors and malpractice lawsuits are skyrocketing, rendering doctors both afraid and unable to afford to practice medicine. Undeserving victims sue at the drop of a hat, egged on by greedy lawyers, and receive eye-popping awards that insurance companies, hospitals, and doctors themselves struggle to pay. The plaintiffs and lawyers always win; doctors, and the nonlitigious, always lose; and affordable health care is the real victim.
This, according to Tom Baker, is the myth of medical malpractice, and as a reality check he offers "The Medical Malpractice Myth," a stunning dismantling of this familiar, but inaccurate, picture of the health care industry. Are there too many medical malpractice suits? No, according to Baker; there is actually too much medical malpractice, with only a fraction of the cases ever seeing the inside of a courtroom. Is too much litigation to blame for the malpractice insurance crisis? No, for that we can look to financial trends and competitive behavior in the insurance industry. Point by point, Baker--a leading authority on insurance and law--pulls together the research that demolishes the myths that have taken hold and suggests a series of legal reforms that would help doctors manage malpractice insurance while also improving patient safety and medical accountability.
"The Medical Malpractice Myth" is a book aimed squarely at general readers but with radical conclusions that speak to the highest level of domestic policymaking.

Why do present-day mental health professionals practice the way that they do? Over the past fifty years, a number of landmark court holdings have changed such basic principles as what material is confidential, how civil commitment and involuntary treatment are conducted, and when a therapist has a duty to protect the public from a dangerous patient. Unlike most legal texts, this volume explores these complex principles through the human stories of the litigants involved.

In Ailing in Place, Michele Morrone explores the relationship between environmental conditions in Appalachia and health outcomes that are too often ascribed to individual choices only. She applies quantitative data to observations from environmental health professionals to frame the ways in which the environment, as a social determinant of health, leads to health disparities in Appalachian communities. These examples--these stories of place--trace the impacts of water quality, waste disposal, and natural resource extraction on the health and quality of life of Appalachian people. Public health is inextricably linked to place. Environmental conditions such as contaminated water, unsafe food, and polluted air are as important as culture, community, and landscape in characterizing a place and determining the health outcomes of the people who live there. In some places, the state of the environment is a consequence of historical activities related to natural resources and cultural practices. In others, political decisions to achieve short-term economic objectives are made with little consideration of long-term public health consequences.

This new collection of essays on HIV viruses spans disciplines to topple popular narratives about the origins of the AIDS pandemic and the impact of the disease on public health policy. With a death toll in the tens of millions, the AIDS pandemic was one of the worst medical disasters of the past century. The disease was identified in 1981, at the height of miraculous postwar medical achievements, including effective antibiotics, breakthrough advances in heart surgery and transplantations, and cheap, safe vaccines--smallpox had been eradicated just a few years earlier. Arriving as they did during this era of confidence in modern medicine, the HIV epidemics shook the public's faith in health science. Despite subsequent success in identifying, testing, and treating AIDS, the emergence of epidemics and outbreaks of Ebola, Zika, and the novel coronaviruses (SARS and COVID-19) are stark reminders that such confidence in modern medicine is not likely to be restored until the emergence of these viruses is better understood. This collection combines the work of major social science and humanities scholars with that of virologists and epidemiologists to provide a broader understanding of the historical, social, and cultural circumstances that produced the pandemic. The authors argue that the emergence of the HIV viruses and their epidemic spread were not the result of a random mutation but rather broader new influences whose impact depended upon a combination of specific circumstances at different places and times. The viruses emerged and were transmitted according to population movement and urbanization, changes in sexual relations, new medical procedures, and war. In this way, the AIDS pandemic was not a chance natural occurrence, but a human-made disaster. Essays by: Ernest M. Drucker, Tamara Giles-Vernick, Ch. Didier Gondola, Guillaume Lachenal, Amandine Lauro, Preston A. Marx, Stephanie Rupp, Francois Simon, Jorge Varanda

A Medic's Guide to Essential Legal Matters offers practitioners highly practical advice on the legal principles which they need to apply to everyday clinical practice. Thirteen chapters cover key areas of medical law from the structure of the legal system, confidentiality, mental health capacity, through to current legal practices. Each chapter is written in an easy-to-digest format with helpful summary boxes covering key legal terms, laws, and statutes, and 'key point' boxes highlighting important take-home facts. An alphabetical glossary of legal terms at the end of the book offers a rapid reference that supports every chapter. A Medic's Guide to Essential Legal Matters has been carefully crafted to be concise yet informative and practical, covering the key aspects of this daunting subject. Written by a team of doctors and legal practitioners in the field of medical law, this resource offers you the expertise and experience needed to get to grips with medical law. A Medic's Guide to Essential Legal Matters includes access to online-only content, consisting of 65 multiple choice questions and answers that can be used to reinforce understanding, along with further reading sources to supplement and explore topics of interest. You can access and use this online material by activating your unique access code.

`Jenkins' book makes the law relevant, understandable and manageable to counsellors and psychotherapists. It makes clear, reassuring and essential reading for therapists in training as well as those in practice. [All] counsellors and psychotherapisys need to be up to speed with the law and with how it relates to their work. This book is more than timely with the impending introduction of regulation, and the fact that increasingly the work of counsellors and psychotherapists is being subjected to legal scrutiny' - Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal Counselling, Psychotherapy and the Law is the long-awaited Second Edition of Peter Jenkins' comprehensive introduction to legal issues in relation to counselling and psychotherapy in the UK. This text has been fully updated to include coverage of the key developments in the law that have had major impact on therapists' practice with regard to data protection and the management of confidentiality. The book breaks new ground by exploring in detail the relationship of ethics to the law and providing a framework for relating the BACP Ethical Framework to legal decision-making. Key features of this new edition include: " extensive use of case studies. These bring legal examples to life and give a human dimension to powerful ethical dilemmas such as seeking agreement to end medical treatment, or client's gaining access to their own confidential records " key points, which provide quick summaries of complex material and reference guides for professional practice " the multiple points of crossover and intersection of law and therapy. These are identified and explored, ranging from the use of narrative theory, to the provision of pre-trial therapy for abused children, to the role of the therapist as expert witness. This new edition provides clarity and reassurance for practitioners at all levels about the exact nature of their responsibilities, and how these can best be managed, in order to enable them to comply with the law and focus on their therapeutic work with clients. Counselling, Psychotherapy and the Law, Second Edition provides an essential source of reference in a single volume, making a fascinating and complex topic understandable and bringing it to life. Peter Jenkins, formerly a member of the BACP Professional Conduct Committee and currently a member of the Ethics Committee of the UKCP, has been described by Counselling at Work as 'probably the foremost authority on legal issues in counselling'. He is Co-Director of the Counselling and Psychotherapy Directorate at the University of Salford. More reviews: `Despite requiring real concentration, this is an essential read for counsellors and psychotherapists irrespective of background and theoretical orientation. Trainers, supervisors and agency coordinators especially would benefit from the up to date material contained here' - Therapy Today `Peter Jenkins has consulted widely over the content of this book, both within the psychological therapies field and with legal eagles. [His] use of clear flow diagrams and comparison boxes enable the reader to identify the similarities and differences between professional and moral/ethical debates. It is a thoroughly researched and accessible text' - Association for University and College Counselling Journal `a comprehensive overview of a rapidly evolving field. This book represents a helpful addition to practitioners' bookshelves as a reference work, but also a beneficial read to stimulate thoughtful responses to practical dilemmas. It provides a good support to both therapeutic and supervision practices across the spectrum of experience and theoretical models' - The Psychotherapist

In "The Case against Assisted Suicide: For the Right to End-of-Life Care," Dr. Kathleen Foley and Dr. Herbert Hendin uncover why pleas for patient autonomy and compassion, often used in favor of legalizing euthanasia, do not advance or protect the rights of terminally ill patients. Incisive essays by authorities in the fields of medicine, law, and bioethics draw on studies done in the Netherlands, Oregon, and Australia by the editors and contributors that show the dangers that legalization of assisted suicide would pose to the most vulnerable patients. Thoughtful and persuasive, this book urges the medical profession to improve palliative care and develop a more humane response to the complex issues facing those who are terminally ill.

The second and thoroughly revised edition of the 1999 reference provides substantially expanded citations in vital areas such as institutional liability, genetics, managed care, integrated delivery systems, professional regulation, and antitrust law. This comprehensive reference work is unique in its scope, accuracy, timeliness, and viability. It is endorsed by the American Health Lawyers Association and the American Hospital Association.

With medication errors in healthcare an internationally recognised problem, this much-needed book delivers a comprehensive approach to understanding medication safety in the perioperative period. It reviews what medication adverse events are, and how often and where these errors occur, as well as exploring human cognitive psychology and explaining why things can go wrong at any time in a complex system. Detailed discussions around mistakes, judgement errors, slips and lapses, and violations, are presented alongside real-life examples of the indistinct line between negligence and inevitable error. The co-authors bring a wide and practical perspective to the theories and interventions that are available to improve medication safety, including legal and regulatory actions that further or impede safety. Essential reading for anesthesiologists, nurses, pharmacists and other perioperative team members committed to improving medication safety for their patients, and also an invaluable resource for those who fund, manage and regulate healthcare.

How ought the law to deal with novel challenges regarding the use and control of human biomaterials? As it stands the law is ill-equipped to deal with these. Quigley argues that advancing biotechnology means that the law must confront and move boundaries which it has constructed; in particular, those which delineate property from non-property in relation to biomaterials. Drawing together often disparate strands of property discourse, she offers a philosophical and legal re-analysis of the law in relation to property in the body and biomaterials. She advances a new defence, underpinned by self-ownership, of the position that persons ought to be seen as the prima facie holders of property rights in their separated biomaterials. This book will appeal to those interested in medical and property law, philosophy, bioethics, and health policy amongst others.

Systematically improving patient safety is of the utmost importance, but it is also an extremely complex and challenging task. This illuminating study evaluates the role of professionalism, regulation and law in seeking to improve safety, arguing that the 'medical dominance' model is ill-suited to this aim, which instead requires a patient-centred vision of professionalism. It brings together literatures on professions, regulation and trust, while examining the different legal mechanisms for responding to patient safety events. Oliver Quick includes an examination in areas of law which have received little attention in this context, such as health and safety law, and coronial law, and contends in particular that the active involvement of patients in their own treatment is fundamental to ensuring their safety.

Sudden unexpected infant death, including sudden infant death syndrome, is the leading cause of death in infants one month to one year of age, in the developed world. A thorough investigation is crucial for accurate diagnosis. As part of the Diagnostic Pediatric Pathology Series, this book provides a detailed guide to various diagnoses and strong frameworks across continents, for strong support in conducting a multi-professional approach to the physiopathological mechanisms behind SIDS. Offering sensitive consideration for parents in mourning, this book rigorously explores current standards of police investigation and post-mortem, incorporating all aspects of the investigation, including the home visit, medical history and autopsy findings. Written by multidisciplinary experts, this vital guide uses clear reference tables and diagrams to present cutting-edge knowledge for use by paediatric and general pathologists, paediatricians, medico-legal practitioners, and all involved in the investigation of sudden infant death.

The written report is central to the practice of psychiatry in legal settings. It is required of mental health professionals acting as expert witnesses in criminal cases, civil litigation situations, child custody proceedings and risk assessments. This book provides a theoretical background to psychiatric writing for the law and a practical guide to the preparation of the report. The first section addresses practical and ethical concerns, including the conduct of the forensic psychiatric evaluation, conflicts of interest, record keeping and confidentiality. The second section contains practical and detailed advice on preparing various types of report, including reports for use in criminal and civil litigation, civil commitment hearings and child custody proceedings. A final section covers special issues arising during report preparation including the use of psychological tests and the detection of malingering. This is an essential guide for anyone required to write a psychiatric report.

Deficiencies and shortfalls in the supply of human organs for transplantation and human tissue for research generate policy dilemmas across the world and have often given rise to major and deleterious controversies, such as those relating to organ and tissue retention practices following post-mortem examination. They also create an environment in which illegitimate commercial activities flourish. At the same time, patients are denied the therapy they desperately require and researchers are impeded from carrying out vital work into the causes of, and efficacious treatments for, major illnesses and diseases. David Price sets out a clear and integrated legal and policy framework which emanates from the tissue source but protects the interests of donors and relevant professionals through tailored property entitlements, but without presupposing rights to trade in 'original' materials.

Learning medical professionalism is a challenging, evolving, and life-long endeavor. Professionalism in Medicine: A Case-Based Guide for Medical Students helps begin this process by engaging students and their teachers in reflection on cases that resonate with the experiences of life in medicine. Through the book's seventy-two cases, commentaries, videos, and literature-based reviews, students explore the many challenging areas of medical professionalism. Readers will appreciate the provocative professionalism dilemmas encountered by students from the pre-clinical years and clinical rotations and by physicians of various specialties. Each case is followed by two commentaries by writers who are involved in health care decisions related to that case, and who represent a wide variety of perspectives. Authors represent 46 medical schools and other institutions and include physicians, medical students, medical ethicists, lawyers, psychologists, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, health care administrators, and patient advocates.

This thought-provoking volume is based on papers given by practising and academic lawyers, judges, psychiatrists, forensic experts and sociologists to a recent conference in Cambridge. The contributors consider possible approaches towards the resolution of the main dilemmas that face psychiatry, society and the law, and towards healing the rifts that have developed between the different professions concerned with the mentally ill. They also consider the best means of promoting more humane, successful and socially efficient services.

The field of refugee family research and intervention forms a growing field of scientific study, focussing on the refugee family as the central niche of coping with, and giving meaning to, trauma, cultural uprooting, and exile. This important new book develops an understanding of the role of refugee family relationships in post-trauma healing and provides an in-depth analysis of central clinical-therapeutic themes in refugee family psychosocial interventions. Expert contributions from across transcultural psychiatry, psychology, psychotherapy and social work have provided chapters on post-trauma reconstruction in refugee family relationships, trauma care for refugee families, and intersectorial psychosocial interventions with refugee families. This exploration of refugee family systems in both research and clinical practice aims to promote a systemic perspective in health and social services working with families in refugee mental health care.

This timely book analyses and evaluates ethical and social implications of recent developments in reporting surgeon performance. It contains chapters by leading international specialists in philosophy, bioethics, epidemiology, medical administration, surgery, and law, demonstrating the diversity and complexity of debates about this topic, raising considerations of patient autonomy, accountability, justice, and the quality and safety of medical services. Performance information on individual cardiac surgeons has been publicly available in parts of the US for over a decade. Survival rates for individual cardiac surgeons in the UK have recently been released to the public. This trend is being driven by various factors, including concerns about accountability, patients??? rights, quality and safety of medical care, and the need to avoid scandals in medical care. This trend is likely to extend to other countries, to other clinicians, and to professions beyond health care, making this text an essential addition to the literature available.

In America, in direct response to indefinite delays on the national transplantation waitlists and an inadequate supply of organs, a growing number of terminally ill Americans are turning to international underground markets and coordinators or brokers for organs. Chinese inmates on death-row and the economically disadvantaged in India and Brazil are the often compromised co-participants in the private negotiation process, which occurs outside the legal process - or in the shadows of law. These individuals supply kidneys and other organs for Americans and other Westerners willing to shop and pay in the private process. This book contends that exclusive reliance on the present altruistic tissue and organ procurement processes in the United States is not only rife with problems, but also improvident. The author explores how the altruistic approach leads to a 'black market' of organs being harvested from Third World individuals as well as compelled donations from children and incompetent persons.