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Health Policy in Canada explores the process, implementation, and outcomes of health policy in the Canadian context. This engaging text provides students with a solid foundation in the key theories and developments in health policy, while also delivering illustrative examples and case studies from across the country. Employing a strong comparative and international perspective, Toba Bryant critically compares the Canadian system to alternative models in countries such as the United States, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. With its focus on the themes of health equity and the social determinants of health, this text takes into account the role of public policy not only in providing health care...
Health and quality of life are vital social reflections. The way a society distributes resources amongst its population tells us a great deal about the society itself. This unique volume unites readings that explore the integral link between quality of life and public policy choices. The first section discusses individual perspectives on health promotion and quality of life and provides a conceptual basis for determining an individual's or community's standard. The next section addresses community and policy perspectives to show how quality of life is related both to the health of the population as a whole, and to collective choices that determine how material resources are distributed in so...
Now in its fourth edition, Dennis Raphael’s Social Determinants of Health offers the definitive Canadian discussion of the primary factors that influence the health of Canada’s population. This unique text on the social determinants of health contains contributions from top academics and high-profile experts from across Canada. Taking a public policy approach, the contributors to this edited collection critically analyze the structural inequalities embedded in our society and the socio-economic factors that affect health—including income, education, employment, housing, food security, gender, and race. This new edition includes recent statistics, new developments in early childhood edu...
Scholars and governments recognize the importance of policy development and implementation for population health, but there is a lack of systematic theoretical and conceptual development in the health field to address the issue. Health Promotion and the Policy Process is the first book to take an in-depth look at the theoretical advances in the political sciences, including discussing the significance of political economy and sociology, which so far have made little progress in health promotion development. The book argues that focusing on how public policies work makes it possible to move beyond the more behavioural 'health education' approach, and make the transition from political stateme...
Addressing a neglected area in academic research, media coverage and public understanding, this book takes a critical political economy approach to understanding food insecurity in Canada and the UK. It examines how current economic and political systems create food insecurity and why food charity does little to address the problem, diverting the attention of policy makers, the media and the public from the sources of food insecurity. This book provides a vision of a future whereby public control over the distribution of resources –including food – will eliminate food insecurity and other conditions that threaten health.
Most Canadians believe that their experiences of health and illness are shaped by genetics, medical care and lifestyle choices. Governments, the media and disease associations reinforce this perception by pointing to medical research and a healthy lifestyle as the keys to health. About Canada: Health and Illness tells a different story. In this new, updated edition, Dennis Raphael shows that living and working conditions, income, employment and quality of education, as well as access to food, housing and social services — the social determinants of health — are what dictate the health of Canadians. And these social determinants are shaped by the public-policy decisions of Canadian govern...
The COVID-19 pandemic represents a critical juncture in the development of the welfare state affirming its importance for its citizens’ economic, health and wellbeing, and safety, especially for its most vulnerable populations. It demonstrated that the crisis preparedness that is crucial for an effective protection of its citizens, the ultimate purpose of the welfare state, unquestionably exceeds the narrow horizon of a corporatised welfare industry with its singular focus on the maximisation of profit for the elites and cost containment for the government. Social workers need to engage with the contradictions and tensions that spring from underfunded welfare services and engage in the pol...
Living a long, healthy life is one obvious goal of pretty much all of us. We are told, over and over, to change our “lifestyles” and accept that if we become ill, we have likely brought it on ourselves. Yet, hundreds of studies, over the past four decades, tell the real story: the living and working conditions we experience every day play a determining role in our health. How income and wealth, housing, education and adequate food are distributed, whether or not we are employed, and the working conditions we experience — not medical treatments nor so-called wellness lifestyles — determine whether we stay healthy or become ill. These living and working conditions reflect the social in...
In order to address major social policy problems, governments need to break down sectoral barriers and create better working relationships between practitioners, policymakers and researchers. Currently, major blockages exist, and stereotypes abound. Academics are seen as out-of-touch and unresponsive, policymakers are perceived to be justifying policy decisions, and the community sector seeks more funding without demonstrating efficacy. These stereotypes are born out of a lack of understanding of the work and practices that exist across these three sectors. Drawing on ground-breaking research and partnerships, with contributions from senior public servants, this book explores the competing d...
In this current environment, it is urgent to understand how oppression and health are closely connected. Oppression: A Social Determinant of Health offers a thorough and accessible overview of the root or structural causes of ill health, such as capitalism, globalization, colonialism, medicalization and neoliberalism. The contributors to this volume insist that the key to tackling these structural forces is understanding and changing oppressive practices that cause ill health, thus reframing growing health inequities within the scope of moral responsibility and social change. This thoroughly updated second edition contains contributions from internationally recognized experts in the field of critical social science analyses in health systems and health sciences studies. New chapters provide timely discussions about oppression, Treaty Rights, Big Pharma, the Anthropocene and the COVID-19 pandemic. This book provides a comprehensive overview of core ideas for investigating how oppression “gets under the skin” to perpetuate health inequities.