Health and social care

A critical examination of the contradictory ideas and practices that have shaped community development in the US and the UK. It exposes a problematic politics that have far-reaching consequences for those committed to working for social justice.

Using a bio-communities of practice framework, this thought-provoking empirical analysis explores the emotional and material dimensions of the growing phenomenon of milk sharing in the Global North and its implications for contemporary understandings of infant feeding in the US, providing new insights into a much-debated topic.

This unique study of social work provides a bold and challenging view of the subject from an anthropological perspective. Combining research and personal reflection, it explores cultural and symbolic representations of social work, evolving identities of social work practitioners and the ways in which they and society now view one another.

This book offers a new approach to scrutinising the co-existence of both care and abuse in relationships. Discourse analysis is introduced as a method of investigating relationships, policy and literature in informal care and analytic tools are considered alongside case-studies to illustrate how both parties construct their relationship.

This insightful book discusses the origins and theoretical underpinnings of family led decision making and brings together the current research on the efficacy and limitations of family group conferences into a single text.

This book examines key philosophical, ethical, legal and professional practice issues in the area of privacy and confidentiality and explores their implications for policy and practice.

With contributions from a range of experts across OECD countries, this book examines changes in long-term care systems throughout those countries, discussing and comparing key changes in national policies and examining the main successes and failures of recent reforms.

This timely book critically examines the capabilities and limitations of new areas of biology, especially epigenetics and neuroscience, that are used as powerful arguments for developing social policy in a particular direction, exploring their implications for policy and practice.

This highly original book examines, for the first time, how the patient movement, which works to improve the quality of healthcare, can actually be considered an emancipation movement when led by its radical elements.

This book offers a unique analysis of the challenges facing contemporary social work that considers the multi-faceted threats to the profession. It provides in-depth reflections on the future of social care practice and solutions for students and practitioners.

Lessons from child protection errors and mistakes in 11 countries in Europe and North America are drawn together in a stimulating study from leading researchers in the field. By comparing and contrasting impacts, responses and responsibilities, it deepens understanding of how child protection systems fail and points to ideas for risk reduction.

This book explores issues central to contemporary theoretical debates around the nature of trust, linking abstract concerns to empirical analysis with interviews with service-users, practitioners and managers.