Central to this book is the idea that the United States is in the midst of a health care crisis, one that will be exacerbated as the population continues to age. Longino and Murphy trace the philosophical and technological development of the biomedical model and show its inadequacy to deal with the massive chronic disease demand of the present and the future. They argue that the delivery of health care will meet and survive the old age challenge only if the medical system is thoroughly democratized. A more inclusive system must be devised that encourages a more reasonable allocation of resources, gives more attention to prevention, adopts a wider range of non-medical interventions, and invites citizens to become more involved in their own health care and the planning of services.
Central to this book is the idea that the United States is in the midst of a health care crisis, one that will be exacerbated as the population continues to age. Longino and Murphy trace the philosophical and technological development of the biomedical model and show its inadequacy to deal with the massive chronic disease demand of the present and the future. They argue that the delivery of health care will meet and survive the old age challenge only if the medical system is thoroughly democratized. A more inclusive system must be devised that encourages a more reasonable allocation of resources, gives more attention to prevention, adopts a wider range of non-medical interventions, and invites citizens to become more involved in their own health care and the planning of services.
This open access book is a unique resource for health professionals who are interested in understanding the philosophical foundations of their daily practice. It provides tools for untangling the motivations and rationality behind the way medicine and healthcare is studied, evaluated and practiced. In particular, it illustrates the impact that thinking about causation, complexity and evidence has on the clinical encounter. The book shows how medicine is grounded in philosophical assumptions that could at least be challenged. By engaging with ideas that have shaped the medical profession, clinicians are empowered to actively take part in setting the premises for their own practice and knowledge development. Written in an engaging and accessible style, with contributions from experienced clinicians, this book presents a new philosophical framework that takes causal complexity, individual variation and medical uniqueness as default expectations for health and illness.
The ambition of this two-volume publication is to illustrate the applicability of social pedagogy - as an academic and professional paradigm - to work with the most diverse target populations. It is launched at a moment when important and highly interesting developments can be observed in the United Kingdom: a country without a traditional social pedagogy model has started importing social pedagogy from countries with a social pedagogy tradition. Social Pedagogy for the Entire Lifespan illustrates how social pedagogy - as a model in theory and practice - has been and is currently being used, around and across Europe, for work with people of all age groups. Volume II proposes chapters on work with adults (including social problems, physical and mental disabilities) and older people, written by authors based in Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Readers will find chapters discussing the implications regarding the use of educational theories to conceptualise social pedagogy, as well as the relevance of life-long learning debates, not only in academia but also in politics. The global (worldwide) dimension is covered by a chapter on the relationship between Latin American and European social pedagogy.
This open access book is a systematic update of the philosophical and scientific foundations of the biopsychosocial model of health, disease and healthcare. First proposed by George Engel 40 years ago, the Biopsychosocial Model is much cited in healthcare settings worldwide, but has been increasingly criticised for being vague, lacking in content, and in need of reworking in the light of recent developments. The book confronts the rapid changes to psychological science, neuroscience, healthcare, and philosophy that have occurred since the model was first proposed and addresses key issues such as the model’s scientific basis, clinical utility, and philosophical coherence. The authors conceptualise biology and the psychosocial as in the same ontological space, interlinked by systems of communication-based regulatory control which constitute a new kind of causation. These are distinguished from physical and chemical laws, most clearly because they can break down, thus providing the basis for difference between health and disease. This work offers an urgent update to the model’s scientific and philosophical foundations, providing a new and coherent account of causal interactions between the biological, the psychological and social.
Culture, Bodies and the Sociology of Health explores the boundaries between bodies and society with special reference to uncovering the cultural components of health and the ways in which bodies are categorized according to a form of culturally embedded 'health orthodoxy'. Illustrating the importance of contextualizing the body as a cultural entity, this book demonstrates that the spaces and boundaries between healthy bodies are becoming more diverse than ever before. The volumes international team of scholars engage with a range of issues surrounding the cultural construction of the body as a site of health and illness. As such, it will be of interest not only to sociologists, especially sociologists of health, but also to scholars of media and communication studies as well as cultural theorists.
Reason and Rationality in Health and Human Services Delivery is the first book to discuss the topic of decisionmaking and services from a multidisciplinary approach. It uses theory and social considerations, not just technology, as a basis for improved services. Health and human service students and professionals will learn how to form rational and reasonable decisions that take their clients’cultural backgrounds into consideration when identifying an illness or appropriating any kind of intervention. With a particular emphasis on theories, models, organizational settings, technologies, and practitioner training methods that lead to culturally sensitive decisions, Reason and Rationality will help you deliver efficient and improved medical and social services to clients from all ethnic backgrounds. Recognizing reason as the centerpiece of most of Western philosophy, this text reveals how our idea of truth, fact, and order are wrongly thought to be universal; yet, Western principles are continually used in the decision-making process for health and social services. Focusing on the policy implications of decisionmaking in medical and social service settings, this text works to incorporate a broad range of factors into the reasoning process, such as cultural traditions and beliefs, that will result in better treatment for patients. Giving you suggestions and strategies for upgrading reasoning and decision-making processes and applying them to every area of service, Reason and Rationality discusses different themes that will help you improve services to patients, such as: the rationale currently used to justify decision-making strategies concerning medical and human services using computer technology to make clinical assessments revising administrative structure, management theories, and organizational strategies so that decision-making processes enhance the overall quality of service delivery how the practitioner/patient relationship is important in choosing the proper treatment soliciting community-based input to assess the public’s health and human service needs in order to lessen political involvement in decision-making stages In addition, Reason and Rationality provides information and examples that show why you should consider the “life-world”--the values, beliefs, and commitments of a culture’s history-- as the key to understanding the powers of reasoning that specify parameters of health and illness.
Provides an overview of models and theories relevant to rehabilitation, identifying the use of models in practice to facilitate interdisciplinary teamwork and to enable a client-centred approach. The approach is essentially practical, employing case studies and questions for practice to aid the application of the theory to clinical practice.
Americans' health and well-being are slowly but steadily disintegrating at an alarming rate. We are living longer, but may not neccessarily be living better. Having observed the inability of patients, clinicians, and administrators to practice disciplined stewardship related to limited healthcare resources, the author makes a case for implementing healthcare stewardship that focuses on the issues of healthcare inflation, cost, accountability, quality, and outcomes. Other topics discussed include: exploring the state of our public health system, identifying environmental issues in healthcare, measuring health care performance, introducing conservative medicine.
This book examines different settings where elderly die, including hospitals, family homes and palliative set-ups. The discourse is set in the backdrop of international attempts to restructure and reconfigure the health delivery system for ageing population.
