Health systems & services

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 examines policies on unpaid care in the UK since the 1990 NHS and Community Care Act, questioning why, after decades of policies and strategies, unpaid care remains in a marginal position in the social care system and in society more broadly, as demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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

The devolution of social care policy has led to key differences emerging between the UK’s four care systems. This book presents research on the perspectives of social care policy makers within the UK’s four care systems, concluding that when given equal capacity to reform, the systems in each nation may take radically different shapes.

Academic experts review the impact of neoliberal politics and ideology on the status of care work in Nordic countries. They explore different understandings of the care crisis, the consequences for gender equality and the long-term sustainability of the Nordic welfare states.

This timely analysis sets out the full impacts of policy reform, austerity and marketisation on our country’s mental health services. Rooted in the experiences of service users and providers, it provides valuable perspectives on our evolving practical and organisational responses to mental distress.

Police officers deal with mental illness-related incidents on an almost daily basis. Ian Cummins explores the policy failures that have led to this situation, and considers how the individuals in police officers’ care should be supported by community mental health agencies.

This edited volume examines the responses of long-term care homes for older people in Western Europe to the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, it highlights the institutional, organisational and management challenges facing care homes, both in continuing to provide services to an increasingly ageing population and in future public health crises.

By elevating trans voices and experiences, this book offers a new perspective on transness, medicalization and research methodologies to help trans people, practitioners and policy makers better understand the barriers faced by trans people when seeking healthcare.

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.

Designed to support training and CPD in compulsory mental health work, this book looks at assessment, detention, compulsion and coercion in a variety of settings. With emphasis on theory into practice, the book is essential reading for those looking to develop their reflexive and critical analytical skills.

This book introduces reablement, a radical new integrated care approach which seeks to empower older people to regain and maintain functioning and independence.