Health and social care

This book offers a new approach to scrutinising the co-existence of both care and abuse in relationships. Discourse analysis is introduced as a method of investigating relationships, policy and literature in informal care and analytic tools are considered alongside case-studies to illustrate how both parties construct their relationship.

This highly original book examines, for the first time, how the patient movement, which works to improve the quality of healthcare, can actually be considered an emancipation movement when led by its radical elements.

This wide-ranging book is one of the first texts to deal with adult social care as a distinct entity and is an up to date source on contemporary government policies, debates and research.

An international comparison of labour markets, migrant professionals and immigration policies, and their interaction in relation to social work.

This book explores issues central to contemporary theoretical debates around the nature of trust, linking abstract concerns to empirical analysis with interviews with service-users, practitioners and managers.

Understanding street-level bureaucracy gathers internationally acclaimed scholars to provide a state of the art account of theory and research on modern street-level bureaucracy, filling an important gap in the literature on public policy delivery.

Users of social and health care services play an increasingly significant part within systems of local governance. This report examines the strategies user groups adopt to seek their objectives, and explores issues relating to notions of consumerism and citizenship. It should be read by anyone involved in health and social care policy and practice.

The NHS and Community Care Act (1990) specifically emphasises the health and social care needs of disabled people from minority ethnic communities, urging local authorities to be culturally sensitive to individual needs. This report examines what a culturally sensitive service looks like from the users' perspective.

Based on ethnographic research conducted over a year, this book tells the story of twelve people, each living with illness. Focusing on everyday life, it explores ideas of care, vulnerability and choice. Juxtaposing text with illustrations, the book highlights the intimacies of visual sociology and demonstrates the value of sensuous scholarship.

There is a growing recognition of the importance of networking for the vitality and cohesion of community life. Now in its third edition, and substantially updated, this textbook combines practical experience and theory for people working with and for communities.

Bringing 25 years of research and teaching in the sociology of death and dying to this important book, Tony Walter engages critically with key questions around this universal fact.

This book offers a unique analysis of the challenges facing contemporary social work that considers the multi-faceted threats to the profession. It provides in-depth reflections on the future of social care practice and solutions for students and practitioners.