Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care


Book Description

Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the Nation's Health was released in September 2019, before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March 2020. Improving social conditions remains critical to improving health outcomes, and integrating social care into health care delivery is more relevant than ever in the context of the pandemic and increased strains placed on the U.S. health care system. The report and its related products ultimately aim to help improve health and health equity, during COVID-19 and beyond. The consistent and compelling evidence on how social determinants shape health has led to a growing recognition throughout the health care sector that improving health and health equity is likely to depend â€" at least in part â€" on mitigating adverse social determinants. This recognition has been bolstered by a shift in the health care sector towards value-based payment, which incentivizes improved health outcomes for persons and populations rather than service delivery alone. The combined result of these changes has been a growing emphasis on health care systems addressing patients' social risk factors and social needs with the aim of improving health outcomes. This may involve health care systems linking individual patients with government and community social services, but important questions need to be answered about when and how health care systems should integrate social care into their practices and what kinds of infrastructure are required to facilitate such activities. Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the Nation's Health examines the potential for integrating services addressing social needs and the social determinants of health into the delivery of health care to achieve better health outcomes. This report assesses approaches to social care integration currently being taken by health care providers and systems, and new or emerging approaches and opportunities; current roles in such integration by different disciplines and organizations, and new or emerging roles and types of providers; and current and emerging efforts to design health care systems to improve the nation's health and reduce health inequities.




The Routledge Handbook of Social Care Work Around the World


Book Description

The Routledge Handbook of Social Care Work Around the World provides both a comprehensive and authoritative state-of-the-art review of the current research in this subject. It is the first handbook to cover social care work research from around the world, including both low- and middle-income countries as well as high income countries. Each of the 22 chapters are written by experts on long-term care services, particularly for older people and cover key issues and debates, based on research evidence, on social care work in a specific country. They look at perspectives of social care work from the macro level: the structural conditions for long-term care, including demographic challenges and the long-term care policy, the meso level: the level of provider organizations and intermediaries, and the micro level: views of care workers, care users, and unpaid informal carers. Furthermore, they discuss a number of topics central to discussions of care work including marketization, personalization policies, policy implementation under austerity, the provision of social care work whether through public services, or private arrangements, or mixed types, funding, the feminization of social care and the new role that technology, and robots can play in care work. By drawing together leading scholars from around the world, this book provides an up to the minute snapshot of current scholarship as well as signposting several fruitful avenues for future research. This book is both an invaluable resource for scholars and an indispensable teaching tool for use in the classroom and will be of interest to students, academics, social workers, social policy-makers and human service professionals.




What Is the Future of Social Work?


Book Description

Social work is under unprecedented pressure as a result of funding cuts, political interventions, marketisation and welfare transformations which, combined, are dramatically reshaping the relationship between individuals and the welfare state. A wide range of distinguished academics provide a comprehensive analysis of the evolving challenges facing contemporary social work, reflecting on both the existential and ideological threats to the profession. As well as the chief practice areas of child protection, adult care and mental health, contributors also examine practice issues surrounding older people, neoliberalism, neo-eugenics and the refugee crisis. This book offers concrete policy proposals for the future of the profession alongside valuable solutions which students and practitioners can action on the ground.




Vulnerable Groups in Health and Social Care


Book Description

Carefully researched and highly readable, this textbook looks at the experiences and health and social needs of key ‘vulnerable groups’. It presents an engaging social science perspective relevant to everyone exploring how we, and society, care for the vulnerable. Each chapter defines and explores a vulnerable social group, bringing together theoretical, policy, and practice perspectives. The lively and engaging style enables the reader to engage with the client group and to reflect upon their own learning and practice in a more meaningful way.




Social care


Book Description

The Health Committee calls for fundamental reform of the social care system in England and says political point-scoring must stop. Instead of indulging in pre-election politicking, all the parties should come together to map out sustainable reform. Consensus on the details of reforms must be achieved early in the new Parliament and a failure to do so will betray current and future generations. The report says the current social care system is chronically underfunded, severely rationed, locally variable, too often of poor quality and discriminates against older people. The Committee is highly critical of the Government's Free Personal Care at Home Bill which it says smacks of policy-making on the hoof and risks creating perverse incentives and being substantially underfunded. Free care funded from taxation has many supporters but has been ruled out as an option by the Government. The Committee urges debate on this issue. It also acknowledges the widespread concern about the proposed reform of disability benefits for older people, noting the lack of clear information from the Government on who the winners and losers will be. To mitigate significantly the worst aspects of the existing funding system, as an interim measure, the Committee recommends raising the capital thresholds in the means test. The Committee strongly supports giving people more choice and control over their care and support, but emphasises that vulnerable people must be properly protected.




The Future of Nursing 2020-2030


Book Description

The decade ahead will test the nation's nearly 4 million nurses in new and complex ways. Nurses live and work at the intersection of health, education, and communities. Nurses work in a wide array of settings and practice at a range of professional levels. They are often the first and most frequent line of contact with people of all backgrounds and experiences seeking care and they represent the largest of the health care professions. A nation cannot fully thrive until everyone - no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they make - can live their healthiest possible life, and helping people live their healthiest life is and has always been the essential role of nurses. Nurses have a critical role to play in achieving the goal of health equity, but they need robust education, supportive work environments, and autonomy. Accordingly, at the request of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, on behalf of the National Academy of Medicine, an ad hoc committee under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conducted a study aimed at envisioning and charting a path forward for the nursing profession to help reduce inequities in people's ability to achieve their full health potential. The ultimate goal is the achievement of health equity in the United States built on strengthened nursing capacity and expertise. By leveraging these attributes, nursing will help to create and contribute comprehensively to equitable public health and health care systems that are designed to work for everyone. The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity explores how nurses can work to reduce health disparities and promote equity, while keeping costs at bay, utilizing technology, and maintaining patient and family-focused care into 2030. This work builds on the foundation set out by The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health (2011) report.




Social Work in Health Care


Book Description

This book is a comprehensive look at the US healthcare industry from its historical development to its current status. It pays particular attention to four domains of health care and the role that social workers play in these roles in the present day and in the future.




Clients, Consumers or Citizens?


Book Description

Adult social care was the first major social policy domain in England to be transferred from the state to the market. There is now a forty-year period to look back at to consider the thinking behind the strategy, the impacts on commissioners and providers of care, on the care workforce and on those who use care and support services. In this book, Bob Hudson meticulously charts these shifts. He challenges the dominant market paradigm, explores alternative models for a post-Covid-19 future and locates the debate within the wider literature on political thinking and policy change.




The Future of Social Work


Book Description

This book is an up-to-date analysis of the issues facing the future of the social work profession in the face of rising political authoritarianism, economic inequality and insecurity, class and racial conflicts, fiscal pressure and the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides an account of how these factors interact, and what their consequences are for policy and practice. Reflecting the author's experiences in Europe and Commonwealth countries, the book is international in its scope and analysis. It is suitable for professionals and students alike, and will also be relevant for social policy academics and researchers.




Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work


Book Description

The report analyses the ways in which unpaid care work is recognised and organised, the extent and quality of care jobs and their impact on the well-being of individuals and society. A key focus of this report is the persistent gender inequalities in households and the labour market, which are inextricably linked with care work. These gender inequalities must be overcome to make care work decent and to ensure a future of decent work for both women and men. The report contains a wealth of original data drawn from over 90 countries and details transformative policy measures in five main areas: care, macroeconomics, labour, social protection and migration. It also presents projections on the potential for decent care job creation offered by remedying current care work deficits and meeting the related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.