Health Systems and Policy

Addressing urgent challenges and debates in trans health, this book interweaves patient voices with social theory and autobiography, offering an innovative look at how shifting language, patient mistrust, waiting lists and professional power shape clinical encounters, and exploring what a better future might look like for trans patients.

Bringing together leading academics worldwide, this collection compares and critically examines the ways in which different countries are regulating healthcare in general, and health professions in particular, in the interest of users and the wider public.

This book is the first to investigate what role religion plays in health care in East Africa. Taking in to account the geopolitical and economic environments of the region, the authors examine the roles played by individual and group beliefs, government policies, and pressure from the Millennium Development Goals in affecting health outcomes.

This clear and succinct text offers a valuable introductory guide to health and social care, helping people who want to study or work in the field understand why these services matter, how they have developed and how they work.

Bringing together accounts of how intellectual disability was viewed, managed and experienced in countries across the globe, the book examines the origins and nature of contemporary attitudes, policy and practice and sheds light on the challenges of implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCPRD).

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. This book is a vital review of the impact of austerity on the wellbeing of the UK. Case studies from Stockton-on-Tees, home to some of the starkest health divides, are combined with a review of the repercussions of budget cuts and welfare reforms to show the vast inequalities in health in the UK today.

This timely book is the most comprehensive account yet of recent commissioning practice in the English NHS and its impact on health services and the healthcare system.

This original collection analyses the global experience of health care support workers (HSWs) and examines their interface with the health professions, regulatory practice risks, employment challenges and the dilemmas of an ageing population. Crucial future policy recommendations are also made for a world becoming increasingly dependent on HSWs.

Critical realism helps researchers to extend and clarify their analyses. This original text draws on international examples of health and illness research across the life course, from small studies to large trials, to show how versatile critical realism can be in validating research and connecting it to policy and practice.

Drawing on case studies from optometrists, physiotherapists, pedorthists and allied health assistants, this book offers an innovative comparison of allied health occupations in Australia and Britain. Adopting a theory of the sociology of health professions, it explores how the allied health professions can achieve their professional goals.

This book analyses the political and long-term systemic factors associated with the failures to control COVID-19 in England. Exploring the role of key policy actors, it focuses on two policy failings during the first wave: the establishment of a ‘Test, Trace and Isolate’ system and responses to the high death rate in care homes for older people.

Adult social care was the first major social policy domain in England to be transferred from the state to the market. This book meticulously charts this shift, challenges the dominant market paradigm, explores alternative models for a post-Covid-19 future and locates the debate within the wider political thinking and policy change literature.