The Health Gap by Michael Marmot
In this groundbreaking book, Michael Marmot, president of the World Medical Association, reveals social injustice to be the greatest threat to global health In Baltimore's inner-city neighborhood of Upton/Druid Heights, a man's life expectancy is sixty-three; not far away, in the Greater Roland Park/Poplar neighborhood, life expectancy is eighty-three. The same twenty-year avoidable disparity exists in the Calton and Lenzie neighborhoods of Glasgow, and in other cities around the world. In Sierra Leone, one in 21 fifteen-year-old women will die in her fertile years of a maternal-related cause; in Italy, the figure is one in 17,100; but in the United States, which spends more on healthcare than any other country in the world, it is one in 1,800 (and now, with the new administration chipping away at Obamacare, the statistics stand to grow even more devastating). Why? Dramatic differences in health are not a simple matter of rich and poor; poverty alone doesn't drive ill health, but inequality does. Indeed, suicide, heart disease, lung disease, obesity, and diabetes, for example, are all linked to social disadvantage. In every country, people at relative social disadvantage suffer health disadvantage and shorter lives. Within countries, the higher the social status of individuals, the better their health. These health inequalities defy the usual explanations. Conventional approaches to improving health have emphasized access to technical solutions and changes in the behavior of individuals, but these methods only go so far. What really makes a difference is creating the conditions for people to have control over their lives, to have the power to live as they want. Empowerment is the key to reducing health inequality and thereby improving the health of everyone. Marmot emphasizes that the rate of illness of a society as a whole determines how well it functions; the greater the health inequity, the greater the dysfunction. Marmot underscores that we have the tools and resources materially to improve levels of health for individuals and societies around the world, and that to not do so would be a form of injustice. Citing powerful examples and startling statistics ("young men in the U.S. have less chance of surviving to sixty than young men in forty-nine other countries"),The Health Gap presents compelling evidence for a radical change in the way we think about health and indeed society, and inspires us to address the societal imbalances in power, money, and resources that work against health equity.
Call Number: RA 418.5 .P6 M385 2015
ISBN: 1632860783
Publication Date: 2015-11-03
Dying of Whiteness by Jonathan M. Metzl
A physician reveals how right-wing backlash policies have mortal consequences -- even for the white voters they promise to help Named one of the most anticipated books of 2019 by Esquire and the Boston Globe In the era of Donald Trump, many lower- and middle-class white Americans are drawn to politicians who pledge to make their lives great again. But as Dying of Whiteness shows, the policies that result actually place white Americans at ever-greater risk of sickness and death. Physician Jonathan M. Metzl's quest to understand the health implications of "backlash governance" leads him across America's heartland.Interviewing a range of everyday Americans, he examines how racial resentment has fueled progun laws in Missouri, resistance to the Affordable Care Act in Tennessee, and cuts to schools and social services in Kansas. And he shows these policies' costs: increasing deaths by gun suicide, falling life expectancies, and rising dropout rates. White Americans, Metzl argues, must reject the racial hierarchies that promise to aid them but in fact lead our nation to demise.
Call Number: RA 563 .M56 M48 2019
ISBN: 1541644980
Publication Date: 2019-03-05
Health Disparities, Diversity, and Inclusion by Patti R. Rose
Despite the many Public Health successes over the last century, health disparity continues to exist in in American society. This introductory text addresses this topic head on, exploring steps that must be taken to prepare for the rapidly changing demographics in American society, including immigration reform (emerging majorities), and evidenced based information substantiating the fact that diversity matters in terms of the provision of health care. Diversity is examined in terms of patient satisfaction and quality outcomes with an emphasis on racial, ethnic, gender, and linguistic diversity. The book highlights steps that key stakeholders, including federal, state, and private health care and public health entities, should take to ensure that representatives from emerging majority groups are involved with and serve as leaders in terms of the provision of health care at every level. The discussion of diversity is contrasted with the concept of cultural competency and how both go hand in hand in terms of the ultimate goal of closing the health status gap in the United States.
Call Number: RA 563 .M56 R67 2018
ISBN: 9781284090161
Publication Date: 2017-02-14
Subprime Health by Nadine Ehlers (Editor); Leslie R. Hinkson (Editor)
From race-based pharmaceutical prescriptions and marketing, to race-targeted medical "hot spotting" and the Affordable Care Act, to stem-cell trial recruitment discourse, Subprime Health is a timely examination of race-based medicine as it intersects with the concept of debt. The contributors to this volume propose that race-based medicine is inextricable from debt in two key senses. They first demonstrate how the financial costs related to race-based medicine disproportionately burden minorities, as well as how monetary debt and race are conditioned by broader relations of power. Second, the contributors investigate how race-based medicine is related to the concept of indebtedness and is often positioned as a way to pay back the debt that the medical establishment--and society at large--owes for the past and present neglect and abuses of many communities of color. By approaching the subject of race-based medicine from an interdisciplinary perspective--critical race studies, science and technology studies, public health, sociology, geography, and law--this volume moves the discussion beyond narrow and familiar debates over racial genomics and suggests fruitful new directions for future research. Contributors: Ruha Benjamin, Princeton U; Catherine Bliss, U of California, San Francisco; Khiara M. Bridges, Boston U; Shiloh Krupar, Georgetown U; Jenna M. Loyd, U of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Anne Pollock, Georgia Tech.
Call Number: RA 448.5 .N4 S83 2017
ISBN: 9781517901509
Publication Date: 2017-07-15
The Safety-Net Health Care System by Gunnar Robert Almgren; Taryn Lindhorst
This is the only book currently available that fully addresses all aspects of the safety net for healthcare." Score: 96, 4 Stars--Doody's Medical Reviews T]his complex treatment of a complex topic represents a valuable contribution to the health services literature."--INQUIRY The Safety-Net Health Care System offers a road map to help safety-net providers overcome personal prejudices, understand why certain patients become "difficult" or fail to adhere to treatment, and deal with the stress of working in safety-net environments."--Health Affairs A unique and authoritative guide to the US safety-net health care system, this book addresses how various populations and their difficult health and socio-economic issues are dealt with and impacted by the system. Drs. Gunnar Almgren and Taryn Lindhorst, experts in the fields of social work and public health, provide critical, much-needed insight into the safety-net system and how the recession, unemployment, and reform have accelerated its growth. Ideal for graduate students and early professionals in the health professions, this textbook: Includes narratives from patients and caregivers that help readers understand and empathize with the poor, homeless, and other vulnerable populations affected by the safety-net system Discusses various health issues, including: violence, chronic diseases, mental illness, victimization, and substance abuse/addiction Examines overlaps in US public health, social work, nursing, and medical education Analyzes the differences between the populations that depend on safety-net system providers and more advantaged populations that have access to the mainstream health care system
Call Number: electronic resource
ISBN: 0826105718
Publication Date: 2012-01-01
Community Organizing and Community Building for Health and Welfare by Meredith Minkler (Editor)
The third edition of Community Organizing and Community Building for Health and Welfare provides new and more established ways to approach community building and organizing, from collaborating with communities on assessment and issue selection to using the power of coalition building, media advocacy, and social media to enhance the effectiveness of such work. With a strong emphasis on cultural relevance and humility, this collection offers a wealth of case studies in areas ranging from childhood obesity to immigrant worker rights to health care reform. A "tool kit" of appendixes includes guidelines for assessing coalition effectiveness, exercises for critical reflection on our own power and privilege, and training tools such as "policy bingo." From former organizer and now President Barack Obama to academics and professionals in the fields of public health, social work, urban planning, and community psychology, the book offers a comprehensive vision and on-the-ground examples of the many ways community building and organizing can help us address some of the most intractable health and social problems of our times. Dr. Minkler's course syllabus: Although Dr. Minkler has changed the order of some chapters in the syllabus to accommodate guest speakers and help students prep for the midterm assignment she uses, she arranged the actual book layout in a way that should flow quite naturally if instructors wish to use it in the order in which chapters appear.
Call Number: electronic resource
ISBN: 9780813552996
Publication Date: 2012-07-01
Social Injustice and Public Health by Barry S. Levy (Editor); Victor W. Sidel (Editor)
This second edition of Social Injustice and Public Health is a comprehensive, up-to-date, evidence-based resource on the relationship of social injustice to many aspects of public health. With contributions from leading experts in public health, medicine, health, social sciences, and other fields, this integrated book documents the adverse effects of social injustice on health and makes recommendations on what needs to be done to reduce social injustice and thereby improve the public's health.Social Injustice and Public Health is divided into four parts:· The nature of social injustice and its impact on public health· How the health of specific population groups is affected by social injustice· How social injustice adversely affects medical care, infectious and chronic non-communicable disease, nutrition, mental health, violence, environmental and occupational health, oral health, and aspects of international health· What needs to be done, such as addressing social injustice in a human rights context, promoting social justice through public health policies and programs, strengthening communities, and promoting equitable and sustainable human developmentWith 78 contributors who are experts in their respective subject areas, this textbook is ideal for students and practitioners in public health, medicine, nursing, and other health sciences. It is the definitive resource for anyone seeking to better understand the social determinants of health and how to address them to reduce social injustice and improve the public's health.
Call Number: electronic resource
ISBN: 9780199939237
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
Seeing Patients by Augustus A. White; David Chanoff (As told to)
If you're going to have a heart attack, an organ transplant, or a joint replacement, here's the key to getting the very best medical care: be a white, straight, middle-class male. This book by a pioneering black surgeon takes on one of the few critically important topics that haven't figured in the heated debate over health care reform?the largely hidden yet massive injustice of bias in medical treatment. Growing up in Jim Crow?era Tennessee and training and teaching in overwhelmingly white medical institutions, Gus White witnessed firsthand how prejudice works in the world of medicine. And while race relations have changed dramatically, old ways of thinking die hard. In Seeing Patients White draws upon his experience in startlingly different worlds to make sense of the unconscious bias that riddles medical treatment, and to explore what it means for health care in a diverse twenty-first-century America. White and coauthor David Chanoff use extensive research and interviews with leading physicians to show how subconscious stereotyping influences doctor?patient interactions, diagnosis, and treatment. Their book brings together insights from the worlds of social psychology, neuroscience, and clinical practice to define the issues clearly and, most importantly, to outline a concrete approach to fixing this fundamental inequity in the delivery of health care.
Call Number: electronic resource
ISBN: 0674049055
Publication Date: 2011-01-15
Evidence-based practice: Can medicine be unbiased? by Carrie Wade
Zine addresses what evidence-based practice is, what makes strong evidence, definitions of meta-analysis, systematic reviews, randomized control trials, and cohort studies. Includes references. Written by a health sciences librarian.
Call Number: ask at help desk
Publication Date: 2018