SUMMARY: Focuses on Ken, a dialysis patient. Describes his peritoneal dialysis treatment and shows its effect on his life.

"This book identifies the key targets for intervention through a detailed exploration of the pathways and processes that give rise to health inequalities across the lifecourse. It sets this against an examination of both local practice and the national policy context to establish what works in health inequalities policy, how and why. Authoritative yet accessible, the book provides a comprehensive account of theory, policy and practice. What Works in Tackling Health Inequalities? is essential reading for academics and students in medical sociology, social psychology, social policy and public health, and for policy makers and practitioners working in public health and social exclusion."--BOOK JACKET.

Tackling Health Inequalities: Lessons from International Experiences provides a unique perspective on health inequalities in Canada and elsewhere. This exciting new volume brings together experiences from seven wealthy developed nations -- the United States, Australia, Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Finland, Norway, and Sweden -- to analyze their contrasting approaches to reducing avoidable health problems. Some nations are successfully responding to health inequalities, but Canada and the United States are not among them. Why is this, and what can we learn from other nations? Through a political economy lens, Tackling Health Inequalities considers how societal structures and institutions shape the distribution of economic, political, and social resources that affect health disparities amongst the population. The volume then goes on to examine how governing authorities come to either confront or ignore these health inequalities and the conditions that create them. Through these illustrations, it encourages governing authorities that are tackling health inequalities to continue their efforts and directs those that are not -- such as in Canada and elsewhere -- towards what must be done. This groundbreaking text shows the primary lessons from these international experiences: that citizens in Canada and elsewhere need to educate themselves about the importance of tackling health inequalities, and then build the political and social movements that will compel governmental authorities to take action. This volume will serve as a rich resource for professionals and general readers interested in health studies, nursing, social work, public policy, and political economy.

This report examines why the Department of Health had failed to meet its health inequalities target, the role of GPs, and the lessons of this for the new NHS. Inequalities in health outcomes between the most affluent and disadvantaged members of society are longstanding, deep-seated and have proved difficult to change. In 2004 the Government set the Department the target of reducing the gap in life expectancy between 70 'spearhead' local authorities with high deprivation and the population as a whole by 10 per cent by 2010. The Department has not met this target and has been exceptionally slow to tackle health inequalities. It is of great concern that inequality in health has increased and that the Department took nine years to establish tackling inequalities as an NHS priority. GPs are crucial to improving the health of people in the most deprived areas. However, in many of these areas the number of GPs per head of population is well below the number in more affluent areas. The Department missed an opportunity to use the revised GP contract to ensure more doctors work in deprived areas, and has not focused their attention sufficiently on implementing the key interventions that would make a difference. "Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS" (Cm. 7881, ISBN 9780101788120) set out the Government's long-term vision for the NHS, but it is important that tackling health inequalities does not slip down the Department's agenda whilst the proposed changes are introduced.

The Department of Health has made a serious attempt to tackle health inequalities across England. But having set a target in 2000 to reduce health inequalities, it took time to embed the issue in the policy and planning framework of the NHS and to develop an evidence base of the most cost-effective interventions. Although life expectancy overall has increased, the gap in life expectancy between the national average and the Government's dedicated "spearhead" areas has continued to widen. The Department will not meet its target to reduce the health inequalities gap by 10 per cent by 2010, as measured by life expectancy at birth, if current trends continue. The Department's strategy lacked effective mechanisms to achieve the target because the evidence base was still being developed. Three key, cost-effective interventions to reduce the gap in life expectancy were identified by the Health Inequalities Intervention Tool: increase the prescribing, first, of drugs to control blood pressure and, second, of drugs to reduce cholesterol, by 40 per cent; and double the capacity of smoking cessation services. But these interventions have not yet been used on the scale required. Primary care trusts are required to address health inequalities from within their general budgets and it is not possible to identify how much money has been spent. PCTs in spearhead areas had £230 more per head to spend than the PCTs in non-spearheads, but there is evidence that some of the extra money is absorbed by higher hospital costs in deprived areas.

This book focuses on the role of growth and employment/unemployment developments in explaining recent income inequality trends in Brazil, China, India and South Africa, and discusses the roles played by labour market and social policies in both shaping and addressing these inequalities.

The eBook version of this title gives you access to the complete book content electronically*. Evolve eBooks allows you to quickly search the entire book, make notes, add highlights, and study more efficiently. Buying other Evolve eBooks titles makes your learning experience even better: all of the eBooks will work together on your electronic "bookshelf", so that you can search across your entire library of Midwifery eBooks. *Please note that this version is the eBook only and does not include the printed textbook. Alternatively, you can buy the Text and Evolve eBooks Package (which gives you the printed book plus the eBook). Please scroll down to our Related Titles section to find this title. An up-to-date discussion of community and public health care in relation to midwifery practice, using real life scenarios in a range of hot topic areas. Explores the role the midwife can play in providing and improving public health Reflects current policy on public health issues Clear focus on practice and implementation of public health initiatives The first book to integrate public health with midwifery

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. 50 years after the establishment of the Runnymede Trust and the Race Relations Act of 1968 which sought to end discrimination in public life, this accessible book provides commentary by some of the UK’s foremost scholars of race and ethnicity on data relating to a wide range of sectors of society, including employment, health, education, criminal justice, housing and representation in the arts and media. It explores what progress has been made, identifies those areas where inequalities remain stubbornly resistant to change, and asks how our thinking around race and ethnicity has changed in an era of Islamophobia, Brexit and an increasingly diverse population.

New public health governance arrangements under the coalition government have wide reaching implications for the delivery of health inequality interventions. Through the framework of understanding health inequalities as a 'wicked problem' the book develops an applied approach to researching, understanding and addressing these by drawing on complexity theory. Case studies illuminate the text, illustrating and discussing the issues in real life terms and enabling public health, health promotion and health policy students at postgraduate level to fully understand and address the complexities of health inequalities. The book is a valuable resource on current UK public health practice for academics, researchers and public health practitioners.

This major new book provides, for the first time, a detailed evaluation of policies on poverty and social exclusion since 1997, and their effects. Bringing together leading experts in the field, it considers the challenges the government has faced, the policies chosen and the targets set in order to assess results. Drawing on research from the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, and on external evaluations, the book asks how children, older people, poor neighbourhoods, ethnic minorities and other vulnerable groups have fared under New Labour and seeks to assess the government both on its own terms - in meeting its own targets - and according to alternative views of social exclusion.