Health policy and health systems

Based on the ‘rainbow model’ of the social determinants of health, this book examines the key factors which can lead to poor quality of life, homelessness and reduced mortality.

An exploration of the relationship between madness, distress and disability, bringing together leading scholars and activists from Europe, North America, Australia and India.

This multi-disciplinary volume brings together original research from diverse disciplinary backgrounds investigating how we can define and operationalise a bio-psychosocial model of ill-health to improve work participation in middle and later life.

This book critically explores the urban governance of healthy lifestyles and the contemporary problematisations of the obesity, sedentarism and alcohol "epidemics". 

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.

Health and legal experts from England and Canada consider the influence of medical doctors on reforms in this comparative study. With reflections on participation since the inception of publicly-funded healthcare systems, they show how the status of doctors affects change.

Current and future provision of health and social care for older people is explored in this timely study. It draws on examples from Germany, Sweden and the UK to measure the impact of trends including neoliberalisation and marketisation and it considers new solutions to contemporary challenges in a complex care system.

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.

The British Welfare State initially seemed to promise welfare for all, but excluded millions of disabled people. This book examines attempts in the subsequent three decades to reverse this exclusion. It also provides the first major analysis of the Disablement Income Group and the Thalidomide campaign.

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.

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 student-friendly textbook uses theoretical perspectives to bring to life social theories relating to health and illness. including binge drinking, obesity, the prominence of therapy and the search for happiness.