In compelling first-person accounts, Latinas speak freely about dealing with serious health episodes as patients, family caregivers, or friends. They show how the complex interweaving of gender, class, and race impacts the health status of LatinasÑand how family, spirituality, and culture affect the experience of illness. Here are stories of Latinas living with conditions common to many: hypertension, breast cancer, obesity, diabetes, depression, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, dementia, ParkinsonÕs, lupus, and hyper/hypothyroidism. By bringing these narratives out from the shadows of private lives, they demonstrate how such ailments form part of the larger whole of Latina lives that encompasses family, community, the medical profession, and society. They show how personal identity and community intersect to affect the interpretation of illness, compliance with treatment, and the utilization of allopathic medicine, alternative therapies, and traditional healing practices. The book also includes a retrospective analysis of the narratives and a discussion of Latina health issues and policy recommendations. These Latina cultural narratives illustrate important aspects of the social contexts and real-world family relationships crucial to understanding illness. Speaking from the Body is a trailblazing collection of personal testimonies that integrates professional and personal perspectives and shows that our understanding of health remains incomplete if Latina cultural narratives are not included.

Presents an assessment of the Nation's progress toward increasing the quality and years of health life and eliminating health disparities for all Americans. Identifies a set of 10-year health objectives to achieve during the first decade of the 21st century. Founded on data that enable progress and trends to be tracked, Healthy People 2010 provides a set of 10-year evidence-based objectives for improving the health of all Americans. Its two overarching goals are to increase the quality and years of healthy life and to eliminate health disparities. Healthy People 2010 covers 28 focus areas with 467 specific objectives. Midway through the decade, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services conducts a midcourse review to assess the status of the national objectives. Through the Midcourse Review the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Federal agencies, and other experts assess the data trends during the first half of the decade, consider new science and available data, and if appropriate, revise the objectives to ensure that Healthy People 2010 remains current, accurate, and relevant to public health priorities.

The third edition of Changing the U.S. Health Care System is a thoroughly revised and updated compendium of the most current thought on three key components of health care policy—improving access, ensuring quality, and controlling costs. Written by a panel of health care policy experts, this third edition highlights the most recent research relevant to health policy and management issues. New chapters address topics such as the disparities in health and in health care, information systems, and performance in the area of nursing. Revisions to chapters from the previous edition emphasize the most recent developments in the field.

This book speaks to those who influence the delivery of health care services to African Americans, especially policy makers, politicians, and health care providers whose attitudes and beliefs affect the extent to which provided services are effective, reliable, humane, and compassionate. In addition, the purpose is to be of use to a full range of professionals who provide education, health care, and social services for African Americans, irrespective of the program, the service, or the professional discipline. The goal is to facilitate cultural competence in health care delivery.

Objective analysis and comprehensive data on Americans’ attitudes about key health-care issues Over the years, hundreds of polls have been conducted on health and health-care related topics, but until now there has been no reference tool to help students, researchers, and policy makers make sense of the data. American Public Opinion and Health Care brings together findings from more than 200 national opinion surveys conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Harvard University’s School of Public Health, and other institutes and polling and media organizations. After years of intensive data gathering, the authors have compiled an in-depth, non-partisan look at Americans’ attitudes about a range of current and critical health care issues. Twenty-one chapters combine unbiased survey data and analysis. The concluding chapter discusses the implications based on public opinion trends for the future of U.S. health policy in each of the areas discussed in the preceding chapters. Major topics addressed include: General attitudes, trust, and priorities Current critical health-care issues, such as quality, costs, the pharmaceutical industry, and reform efforts Specific health topics, such as HIV/AIDS, abortion, stem-cell research, end-of-life, obesity, infectious diseases, and pandemic flu Views by race and gender, and disparities in health care and coverage The importance of health care in recent elections and implications for the future of health care and policy in the United States Substantial trend data, covering the 1960s to the present, will allow researchers to get a sense of how opinions have changed over time. Chapters also look at how various groups in American society differ in their views and how those views compare with the citizens of other countries. This reference is highly recommended for public libraries and academic libraries, including but not limited to institutions with programs in medicine, public health, and government.

Class, Race, Gender and Crime Social Realities of Justice in America examines how class, race, and gender affect crime and justice in contemporary American society. To this end, the authors provide a detailed and nuanced portrait of the multi-layered social reality of crime, incorporating useful historical and contemporary examples as they analyze the twin problems of crime production and crime control.