This book is a brilliant blend of health policy and nursing practice. It identifies the forces that have dominated change in the national health systems of industrialised countries - the shift of priorities from hospital to ambulatory care, the vast expansion in modern technology, the rise in expenditures and efforts at cost-containment, the renewed emphasis on disease prevention and health promotion. At the same time, this book brings to life the impact of these forces and the actual practice of nursing, demonstrating how 'technology' and 'caring' can be harmonised. It shows through...

Electronic communications are already revolutionizing the delivery of health care in homes and communities. The medium will have increasing impact on the delivery of health care in response to the pressure to use limited resources cost-effectively. To date much of telematics in health care has focused on hospital-based bio-medicine. In this book a case is made for reorientation of telematic activity towards the use of "low tech" (social) technologies supported by "Health for All" philosophies. This book uses several case studies of pilot schemes to illustrate how the models can be applied in...

This reader documents the growing debate about health and wellbeing. Some 'new voices' speak from neglected lay experiences and values; others are challenging medical perspectives 'from within'. Competing perspectives on health beseige familiar areas of everyday life: our bodies, the home and workplace. Health goals are increasingly debated on wider agendas in social planning: in the marketing of lifestyles, in transport policies, and in the appraisal of alternative futures. But prospects for health are bound up with social equity, international justice, and global sustainability - as well as...