Sorrows of a Century
Sorrows of a Century

Author: John C. Weaver

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2013-12-01

Total Pages: 636

ISBN-13: 0773589961

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In Sorrows of a Century, John Weaver describes how personal relationships, work, poverty, war, illness, and legal troubles have driven thousands to despair. His study is set in twentieth-century New Zealand where - in spite of high standards of living and a commitment to social welfare - citizens have experienced the profound losses and stresses of the human condition. Focusing on New Zealand because it has the most comprehensive and accessible coroners' records, Weaver analyzes a staggering amount of information to determine the social and cultural factors that contribute to suicide rates. He examines the country's investigations into sudden deaths, places them within the context of major events and societal changes, and turns to witnesses' statements, suicide notes, and medical records to remark on prevention strategies. His extensive survey of twelve thousand cases also provides an insightful assessment of psychiatry and psychology in the last century. In reviewing the motives and methods of suicide, Weaver points out the complications facing deterrence. Moving beyond the timeless present of the social sciences and the irrationality emphasized in psychology, Sorrows of a Century marshals testimony to highlight the historical context and rational conduct behind suicide.

Planners and Politicians
Planners and Politicians

Author: Penny Bryden

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780773516519

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Canada's national social security system is a valued and integral part of our national character. However, with recent government cutbacks, the future of the welfare state is now in jeopardy. Focusing on the development of the Canada Pension Plan and medicare - the cornerstones of Canada's social net - Planners and Politicians is a timely examination of the Liberal Party's role in the development of national social policies.

Foreign Practices
Foreign Practices

Author: Sasha Mullally

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2020-11-18

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 0228004926

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When the CBC organized a national contest to identify the greatest Canadian of all time, few were surprised when the father of Medicare, Tommy Douglas, won by a large margin: Medicare is central to Canadian identity. Yet focusing on Douglas and his fight for social justice obscures other important aspects of the construction of Canada's national health insurance - especially its longstanding dependence on immigrant doctors. Foreign Practices reconsiders the early history of Medicare through the stories of foreign-trained doctors who entered the country in the three decades after the Second World War. By making strategic use of oral history, analyzing contemporary medical debates, and reconstructing doctors' life histories, Sasha Mullally and David Wright demonstrate that foreign doctors arrived by the hundreds at a pivotal moment for health care services. Just as Medicare was launched, Canada began to prioritize "highly skilled manpower" when admitting newcomers, a novel policy that drew thousands of professionals from around the world. Doctors from India and Iran, Haiti and Hong Kong, and Romania and the Republic of South Africa would fundamentally transform the medical landscape of the country. Charting the fascinating history of physician immigration to Canada, and the ethical debates it provoked, Foreign Practices places the Canadian experience within a wider context of global migration after the Second World War.

Toward the Health of a Nation
Toward the Health of a Nation

Author: Leslie A. Boehm

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2020-10-22

Total Pages: 586

ISBN-13: 022800229X

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Canadians view their healthcare – recognized throughout the world as an exemplary system – as iconic and integral to their identity. In Toward the Health of a Nation Leslie Boehm recounts the first seventy years in the life of one of the foundations of Canada's healthcare system, the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Boehm – a graduate of IHPME, and an instructor there throughout his career – charts the institute's history from its inception in 1947 as the Department of Hospital Administration to the present day. The first program of its kind in Canada, and one of the few in the world, the school was founded at a time when the issue of healthcare was becoming a significant part of national and provincial discussions and policies. Initially concentrating on hospital management and professional degrees, it has expanded to offer academic degrees and facilitate important research into health systems, policies, and outcomes. In Toward the Health of a Nation Boehm demonstrates the excellence of the program, its faculty, and its graduates, as well as their accomplishments in major government initiatives and royal commissions. In the seventy years since IHPME's inception healthcare has grown to become a major part of government and business activity, and it will only increase in coming years. An in-depth history of a major program in graduate health education, Toward the Health of a Nation highlights how important healthcare is to a modern, functional society.

Parting at the Crossroads
Parting at the Crossroads

Author: Antonia Maioni

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-11-10

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 0691221286

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As almost all newspaper or magazine readers know, Canada figured prominently in the turbulent U.S. debates over health care reform in the early Clinton presidency. Furthermore, future news analysts and policymakers will undoubtedly again use Canada to cite the "good" and the "bad" aspects of single-payer national health insurance. Beyond the debate about the desirability of Canadian-style health care reforms, Antonia Maioni sees another question: Why did the United States and Canada, alike in so many ways, part "at the crossroads" to produce such different systems of health insurance? She answers this previously neglected query so interestingly that her book will hold the attention of anyone concerned with health care in either country or both. The author explores the development of health insurance in the United States and Canada, from the emergence of health care as a political issue in the 1930s to the passage of federal health insurance legislation in the 1960s. Focusing on how political institutions influence policy development, she shows that Canada's federal structure and its parliamentary institutions encouraged a social-democratic third party that became pivotal in demonstrating the feasibility of universal, public health insurance. Meanwhile, the constraints of the U.S. political system forced health care reformers to temper their own ideas to appeal to a wide coalition within the Democratic party. Even readers previously unfamiliar with Canadian politics will find in this book important clues about the "realm of the possible" in the uncertain future of U.S. health care.