"This book provides students of public health with tools and perspectives for understanding the relationship between culture and health. Effective promotion programs cannot be realized without attention to the cultural context. As part of the Essentials Public Health series, this critical text introduces the concept of culture as a framework for understanding human behavior and health."--Back cover.

With diversity, including cultural diversity, increasingly become the norm, it has become even more essential for students and those planning to work in public health to have more than a cursory understanding of the important cultural dimension of the human societies and groups with whom they'll be partners. Essentials of Health, Culture, and Diversity: Understanding People, Reducing Disparities examines what is meant by culture and the ways which culture intersects with health issues, and explores how public health efforts can benefit by understanding and working with cultural processes. Using a range of conceptual tools and research methods, this text provides an overview of specific domains where culture and health intersect, including: varying definitions of health/well-being; understandings of health risk; illness causation and treatment theories (ethnomedical systems); healing/curing traditions; the relationship between health risk (vulnerability) and more.

"This book will examine what is meant by culture, the ways in which culture intersects with health issues, how public health efforts can benefit by understanding and working with cultural processes, and a brief selection of conceptual tools and research methods that are useful in identifying relationships between culture and health. The book will also include practical guidelines for incorporating cultural understanding in public health settings, and examples of programs where that has occurred"--

Major changes are occurring in the United States population and the nation's health care institutions and delivery systems. Significant disparities in health status exist across population groups. But the health care enterprise, with all its integrated and disparate parts, has been slow to respond. Written by three nationally known scholars and experts, Diversity and Cultural Competence in Health Care: A Systems Approach is designed to provide health care students and professionals with a clear understanding of foundations, philosophies, and processes that strengthen diversity management, inclusion, and culturally competent care delivery. Focusing on current practice and health care policy, including the recently passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA), this textbook integrates strategic diversity management, self-reflective leadership, and the personal change process with culturally and linguistically appropriate care into a cohesive systems-oriented approach for health care professionals. The essentials of cultural competence and diversity management covered in this text will be helpful to a wide variety of students because they encompass principles and practices that can be realistically incorporated into the ongoing work of any health care field or organization. Each chapter contains learning objectives, summary, key terms, and review questions and activities designed to allow students to understand and explore concepts and practices identified throughout the text.

The eighth edition of this well-respected book continues to promote an awareness of the dimensions and complexities involved in caring for people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Completely revised and updated, CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN HEALTH AND ILLNESS examines the differences existing within North America by probing the health care system and consumers, and examples of traditional health/ HEALTH beliefs and practices among selected populations. An emphasis on the influences of recent social, political, and demographic changes helps to explore the issues and perceptions of health and illness today, while new introductory and capstone chapters help place material within perspective. An essential for any health-care professional, this book sets the standard for cultural perspectives and more importantly HEALTH-the balance of the person, both within one's being-physical, mental, and spiritual-and in the outside world-natural, communal, and metaphysical. (Terms, such as HEALTH, are written this way to emphasize holistic meaning.)

Essentials of Health Economics, Second Edition examines the public health care system through the lens of economic theory. Through the use of numerous examples and profiles related to the field, students will learn the importance health economics and its relevance to more general analysis of health policy issues. This text is ideal for courses in programs of public health, health administration, and allied health professions as it conveys the essence of the economic issues at hand while avoiding complicated methodological issues that would interest only students of economics. Written with the non-specialist in mind, the book focuses on how to do descriptive, explanatory and evaluative economics in a systematic way. The Second Edition features: - Highly accessible content - Ideal for students with a modest quantitative background - Real world examples throughout, giving the student hands-on experience in actual policy-related issues as economic concepts are introduced. - Comprehensive coverage of the specifics of the health care markets, the evaluation of health care services delivered, and health care reform - Updated statistics and references throughout - New chapters on Noncompetitive Market Models and Market Failures; International Health System Issues and Reform; and National and State Health Care Reforms Instructor Resources: Instructor's Manual, PowerPoint Lecture Slides, Test Bank

Essentials of Health Policy and Law helps readers understand the broad context of health policy and law, the essential policy and legal issues impacting and flowing out of the health care and public health systems, and the way health policies and laws are formulated. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book is missing some of the images or content found in the physical edition.