Description
Book SynopsisRichard Titmuss was one of the 20th century's foremost social policy theorists. This accessible Reader is the first compendium of his work on public health, health promotion and health inequalities. Most of Titmuss's work has been out of print for many years. This volume, like its predecessor, Welfare and wellbeing (The Policy Press, 2001), is important in bringing the work of this highly influential thinker to the attention of a new generation of social policy students and policy makers. It also enhances current debates about how complex societies can best provide for the health of all their citizens.
Trade Review"... extremely well put together. The contributor commentaries provide a contemporary perspective and the extensive cross-referencing helps the reader to locate specific information. In consequence, the book is both thoughtful and thought provoking." Journal of Social Policy
"With the NHS undergoing the most fundamental change in its 56 year history, this book is a timely reminder of important policy dilemmas that we ignore at our peril. This collection of Titmuss's writings brings together remarkably prescient commentaries on aspects of health, health care, and the NHS." British Medical Journal
"The selection of Titmuss's writings in the book under review demonstrate the range, scope and depth of his work on the organization and delivery of health care, and the humane spirit in which he writes. ... They show his ability to identify issues which still have much resonance and relevance today: notably inequalities in health." Health Economics, Policy and Law "Those who plan more 'modernisation' would do well to read and heed Titmuss's wise counsel. The implications for the medical care of older people are only too clear from the picture he paints. So too would many current academics, practitioners and students profit from reading this splendid book." Ageing & Society
"It is important that students have access to the original writing of the 'greats' in social policy. This book, combining Titmuss's essays with contemporary commentaries by eminent academics, is an excellent example of how best to do this." Martin Powell, Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath
Table of ContentsIntroduction Ann Oakley and Jonathan Barker; Prologue: The experience of being a patient; PART One: Social medicine and social inequality Commentaries by Mike Wadsworth and Jerry Morris; Infant mortality; The social disease of juvenile rheumatism; Health and social change: the example of rheumatic heart disease; War and disease; PART Two: On the National Health Service Commentary by John Ashton; Towards a national hospital service; The policy background; The structure of the NHS in England; The NHS and general practice; The ethics and economics of medical care; PART Three: The sociology of health care Commentary by ????; Medical behaviour, science and the NHS; The hospital and its patients; 'Therapeutic' drugs; Planning for ageing and the health and welfare services; PART Four: Health, values and social policy Commentary by Julian Le Grand; Choice and the welfare state; The gift of blood; Doctors and 'socialised medicine'; Medical ethics and social change in developing societies; Health and the welfare state. Postscript: Richard Titmuss's contribution to the sociology of health and illness Raymond Illsley.
