The Sociology Of The Health Service

The Sociology of the Health Service responds directly to the need to develop a sociological analysis of current health policy. Topics covered vary from privatisation and health service management to health education and the politics of professional power. Also included is an histroical review of sociology's contributions to health policy and proposals for an agenda for sociological health policy research in the 1990s.

Health service policy and health policy have changed considerably over the past fifteen years and there is a pressing need for an up-to-date sociological analysis of health policy. Not only have policies themselves changed but new policy themes – such as evidence-based policy and practice, an increasing focus on a primary care led health service, a growing recognition of the need to address inequalities through public health policies and a focus on the views and the voice of the user and the public– have emerged alongside some of the old. Following up the very successful The Sociology of the Health Service, this all-new volume covers a broad range of key contemporary health services issues. It includes chapters on consumerism, technology, evidence-based practice, public health, managerialism and social care among others, and incorporates references to new developments, such as regulation and incentivization, throughout. The New Sociology of the Health Service provides a vital new sociological framework for analyzing health policy and healthcare. It is an important read for all students and researchers of medical sociology and health policy.

Traditionally, medical sociology texts have been written from a medical perspective, focusing primarily on health issues as they have been defined by doctors, and often reading much like health education textbooks. Weitz, instead, adopts a critical perspective, sometimes challenging medical perspectives, sometimes raising broader issues beyond those of interest to the medical world. This perspective, which is more thoroughly sociological, is now more common among instructors than the older medical perspective.

"The author's agenda in writing the book was to provoke critical thinking and awareness and to move beyond the simplistic rhetoric that so often characterizes much of public debate on health care matters.I have no doubt that he has achieved these aims...and more." Sociology Volume 43, Number 3, June 2009 “Sociology & Health Care is easy to read and offers an introduction into selected, but key areas, of the sociology of health and illness. It is a useful book for health care students as well as health care workers who are interested in the social aspects of their work, their job and how it all fits into the wider society.” Sociological Research Online Are patients ‘customers’? What does this mean for the patient-practitioner relationship? What should the relationship be between expert knowledge and our own experiences when dealing with health and illness? Do people who are better off get better access to health care? Debates about the future of health care bring questions about patient choice, paternalism and inequalities to the fore. This book addresses some of the sociological issues surrounding these questions including: The social distribution of knowledge The basis of professional power Sources of social inequalities in health The ability of health care services to address these issues The book provides suggestions and examples of how sociological concepts and insights can be used to help think about important contemporary issues in health care. For that reason, it has a practical as well as academic purpose, contributing to improvement of the quality of interaction between patients and practitioners. The core themes running throughout the book are inequalities in health and the rise of chronic disease, with particular attention being given to psycho-social models of illness which locate individual experiences within wider social relationships. Sociology and Health Care is key reading for student nurses and those on allied health courses, and also appeals to a wide range of professionals who are interested in current debates in health and social care.

Sociology and its applications are key components of the core foundation programme in nursing and healthcare. Sociology of health and health care is an essential textbook for all students of nursing and healthcare and is organised in four parts: the nature of sociology and sociological research; the social patterning of health and disease; the social aspects of illness and dying; and the organisation and delivery of health care. Sociology of health and health care explores the nature of sociology and sociological research and their application to health and health care. It explores the impact of current social contexts on health and healthcare and recent developments in healthcare policy and addresses their implications for nursing and inter-professional working. This fourth edition also examines new approaches to understanding social inequalities in health and experiences of chronic illness and dying.

Strohschein/Weitz' The Sociology of Health, Illness, and Health Care in Canada: A Critical Approach, first Canadian edition is the first in its field to take a critical approach, challenging students to use their 'sociological imagination' to question previously taken-for-granted aspects about health, illness, and health care. Comprehensive, current, and thoroughly Canadian, the authors consistently encourage students to acquire for themselves the tools needed to see the world around them in a new way. As one of the largest fields in the discipline, the sociology of health and illness is vibrant, theoretically-rich and diverse. As such, The Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healthcare in Canada: A Critical Approach places nearly equal balance of the three main areas in the field: the social patterning of health and illness, the social construction of health and illness, and the social organization of health care. It introduces students not only to structural functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism, but also to more recent theories such as Foucaultian theory, postmodernism, Bourdiesian theory and sociology of the body. The text places considerable effort into evaluating and interpreting the most current available research findings; Canadian statistics; and trends in health, creating a coherent 'story' that will engage students and stimulate active learning and independent thinking. The text's authors contextualize the sociology of health, illness, and healthcare in Canada's political, historical, and cultural landscape. At the same time, the authors examine the lessons to be learned by contrasting the Canadian situation with what occurs in the United States and other countries.