Human Rights Dignity And Autonomy In Health Care And Social Services

The overall theme of this volume is the understanding of human dignity, autonomy, and human rights in health care and social services in modern welfare states, with special reference to the Nordic countries. Focus is put on vulnerable groups such as children, individuals with cognitive impairment or mental illness, and persons with physical disabilities. Experts from different disciplines identify the ethical and legal dilemmas in modern welfare services and describe how basic values and/or rights come in conflict in concrete situations. Of particular interest is how the human rights perspective challenges the policies and regulations of modern welfare states while at the same time providing the overall normative direction for solving ethical, legal, and social conflicts or shortcomings. Although the human rights perspective is the most dominant, insights from philosophy and the social sciences provide both a necessary and fruitful supplement to the legal approach. The volume will be of interest for academics, researchers, and students in the field of health care ethics, human rights, and welfare state policies. It presents a challenging outlook on dilemmas that are characteristic for the modern welfare state in general, and for the Nordic countries in particular, and it will give the reader important insights and references for further studies.

This open access textbook represents a vital contribution to global health education, offering insights into health promotion as part of patient care for bachelor’s and master’s students in health care (nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiotherapists, social care workers etc.) as well as health care professionals, and providing an overview of the field of health science and health promotion for PhD students and researchers. Written by leading experts from seven countries in Europe, America, Africa and Asia, it first discusses the theory of health promotion and vital concepts. It then presents updated evidence-based health promotion approaches in different populations (people with chronic diseases, cancer, heart failure, dementia, mental disorders, long-term ICU patients, elderly individuals, families with newborn babies, palliative care patients) and examines different health promotion approaches integrated into primary care services. This edited scientific anthology provides much-needed knowledge, translating research into guidelines for practice. Today’s medical approaches are highly developed; however, patients are human beings with a wholeness of body-mind-spirit. As such, providing high-quality and effective health care requires a holistic physical-psychological-social-spiritual model of health care is required. A great number of patients, both in hospitals and in primary health care, suffer from the lack of a holistic oriented health approach: Their condition is treated, but they feel scared, helpless and lonely. Health promotion focuses on improving people’s health in spite of illnesses. Accordingly, health care that supports/promotes patients’ health by identifying their health resources will result in better patient outcomes: shorter hospital stays, less re-hospitalization, being better able to cope at home and improved well-being, which in turn lead to lower health-care costs. This scientific anthology is the first of its kind, in that it connects health promotion with the salutogenic theory of health throughout the chapters. the authors here expand the understanding of health promotion beyond health protection and disease prevention. The book focuses on describing and explaining salutogenesis as an umbrella concept, not only as the key concept of sense of coherence.

In these hard times of global financial peril and growing social inequality, injuries to dignity are pervasive. "Indignity has many faces," one man told Nora Jacobson as she conducted interviews for this book. Its expressions range from rudeness, indifference, and condescension to objectification, discrimination, and exploitation. Yet dignity can also be promoted. Another man described it as "common respect," suggesting dignity's ordinariness, and the ways we can create and share it through practices like courtesy, leveling, and contribution. Dignity and Health examines the processes and structures of dignity violation and promotion, traces their consequences for individual and collective health, and uses the model developed to imagine how we might reform our systems of health and social care. With its focus on the dignity experiences of those often excluded from the mainstream--people who are poor, or homeless, or dealing with mental health problems--as well as on vulnerabilities like age or sickness or unemployment that threaten to make us all feel "less than," Dignity and Health recognizes dignity as a moral matter embedded in the choices we make every day.

Offering a unique perspective that views human rights as the foundation of social justice, Joseph Wronka’s groundbreaking text outlines human rights and social justice concerns as a powerful conceptual framework for policy and practice interventions for the helping and health professions. This highly accessible, interdisciplinary text urges the creation of a human rights culture as a "lived awareness" of human rights principles, including human dignity, nondiscrimination, civil and political rights, economic, social, and cultural rights, and solidarity rights. The Second Edition includes numerous social action activities and questions for discussion to help scholars, activists, and practitioners promote a human rights culture and the overall well-being of populations across the globe. Intended Audience This text is applicable for courses in social work, psychology, sociology, public health, law, medicine, philosophy, political science, as well as "newer" disciplines like peace studies, world citizenship, and environmental sustainability. Scholars, activists, and practitioners will find it a valuable reference for years to come.

This book examines the concept of dignity from a variety of global perspectives. It scrutinizes how dignity informs policy and practice, and is influenced by international and domestic law, human rights values, and domestic politics. An exciting collection of essays, this edited volume provides an analysis of human rights as they are experienced by real people who have in many cases been forced to take action to further their own interests. Readers will discover an extensive range of issues discussed, from the internet, climate change and disabilities, to globalization, old-age, and migrants' rights. The last section deals with the impact of various issues on indigenous and migrant populations, specifically violence in Columbia, border issues in Tijuana, women's and children's rights violations, and the complex problems experienced by refugees, particularly in regards to citizenship. The interdisciplinary nature of this work makes it an invaluable read for scholars of Health Studies, Law, Human Rights, Sociology and Politics.

Medicine is a complex social institution which includes biomedical research, clinical practice, and the administration and organization of health care delivery. As such, it is amenable to analysis from a number of disciplines and directions. The present volume is composed of revised papers on the theme of "Responsibility in Health Care" presented at the Eleventh Trans Disciplinary Symposium on Philosophy and Medicine, which was held in Springfield, illinois on March 16-18, 1981. The collective focus of these essays is the clinical practice of medicine and the themes and issues related to questions of responsibility in that setting. Responsibility has three related dimensions which make it a suitable theme for an inquiry into clinical medicine: (a) an external dimension in legal and political analysis in which the State imposes penalties on individuals and groups and in which officials and governments are held accountable for policies; (b) an internal dimension in moral and ethical analysis in which individuals take into account the consequences of their actions and the criteria which bear upon their choices; and (c) a comprehensive dimension in social and cultural analysis in which values are ordered in the structure of a civilization ([8], p. 5). The title "Responsibility in Health Care" thus signifies a broad inquiry not only into the ethics of individual character and actions, but the moral foundations of the cultural, legal, political, and social context of health care generally.

Pamphlet is a succinct statement of the ethical obligations and duties of individuals who enter the nursing profession, the profession's nonnegotiable ethical standard, and an expression of nursing's own understanding of its commitment to society. Provides a framework for nurses to use in ethical analysis and decision-making.