Integrating Perspectives On Health - Softcover

COOPER

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0335193560 ISBN 13: 9780335193561

Publisher: Open University Press, 1996

Synopsis

This textbook is designed for health studies students and those undertaking training in the health professions, particularly those who are taught about health and disease in terms of biological, psychological and social factors. These three ways of understanding health are often regarded as offering an holistic approach, but they differ greatly in the way they explain health related issues. This book examines the difficulties of applying the three perspectives together in practice.

Drawing on first-hand accounts of professionals from a diverse range of health fields, the tensions within the biopsychosocial model are explored. Part one includes chapters on health visiting, nursing, mental health teams and child protection. Part two examines the challenge to professional models from lay views of child abuse, health promotion, complementary therapies and bereavement. The final section reviews attempts to develop an holistic approach to health through the integration of perspectives, both in research and in practice.

About this title

Review

"For a long time both practitioners and scholars have beenlooking for a really good text which writes about recent theory, explains it well and then goes on to examine its impact upon practice. With this book they might have found it! the contributors have not been timid - they have 'taken on' the complexities of social constructionisttheorising and have tackled a range of topical areas which are difficult and demanding - from cancer care to child abuse. But this is done in an accessible and readable manner and the various parts are thoughtfully and systematically put together . This book will be invaluable for students, for health practitioners and for their teachers - indeed,anyone concerned to gain a better understanding of the way health care - in its widest sense - is going." - Wendy Stainton Rogers (Open University) "The editors and contributors shouldbe congratulated, as they have addressed an issue - the biopsychosocial model of health - that has great contemporary significance for health studies students." - Nursing Times

About the Author

Neil Cooper read anthropology and psychology at Goldsmith's, London, after nursing in child development. He has worked as a research assistant on a doctoral programme investigating the dynamics of child protection case conferences, and currently lectures in nursing psychology at the University of East Anglia, with research interests in child protection\professional-client interaction.

Chris Stevenson lectured in health studies at the University of Sunderland, after a career working in the field of community psychiatry. Subsequently, she took her current lectureship in psychiatric nursing practice at the University of Newcastle, where she also practices in and researches systemic family therapy, which was the topic of her PhD thesis.

Glynis Hale studies psychology and religion at the University of Sunderland, where she currently teaches new paradigm social psychology within a range of undergraduate courses, following a career in the health service. Her scholarly and research interests are in the social construction of death and dying, which was the subject of her doctoral work.

Edition details

• Publisher: Open University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0335193560
• ISBN 13: 9780335193561
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 192