Distributed for University College Dublin Press
Health Policy and Practice in Ireland
"Health Policy and Practice in Ireland" traces the development of Irish health care services and practices, and the role that different conceptions of disease and different institutional actors have on them. In particular it explains how there has been a shift of attention away from an exclusively biomedical approach to the problems of health and illness to a more inclusive social model. The major themes of the book are the evolution and structure of the Irish health system; inequalities in health and health care; power imbalances in the organisation and delivery of health services; professional-patient interaction; the education and training of health care professionals; and the health beliefs and health practices of lay people. The contributors include administrators and practitioners in the health services as well as academics. This book is intended to meet the needs of students in the health sciences who are required to study a sociological approach to health care as part of their professional training.
Table of Contents
Introduction Part 1 - Health and health care in Ireland - a macro perspective 1 Overview of the health services, John Curry 2 Mental illness in Ireland and its management, Dermot Walsh 3 The evolution of Irish health policy, Peter Murray 4 Making competition fair for health insurance in Ireland, Donald W. Light 5 Inequalities in health and health care Desmond McCluskey Part 2 - The nursing role 6 Development of the role of the nurse in Ireland, Gerard M. Fealy 7 Learning only to labour, Anne Stakelum 8 The child health care service - the role of the public health nurse, Margaret O’Keeffe Part 3 - The doctor-patient relationship 9 The changing face of general practice - the role of the family doctor, William Shannon 10 Patient roles, present and future, Tony O’Sullivan Part 4 - Disability issues 11 The contours of learning/intellectual disability Mairide Woods 12 People with physical disability - health policy and practice, Anne Colgan Part 5 - Lay health beliefs and practices 13 Breastfeeding - issues in the implementation of policy, Aoife Rickard 14 Health, illness and lifestyles, Desmond McCluskey References Index.