Environments for Health

About this book

The vast proportion of cash spent on health care by governments and individuals in the world is spent on systems of health care that are based on a more or less Westernised acute care model. The imbalance of these systems, with their overemphasis on cure, as opposed to care and prevention or maintenance of health, is well documented. Providing a framework for salutogenic health care takes a holistic view of the individual as part of a social and environmental continuum rather than as an isolated packet of symptoms; and seeks to reassess the very meaning of health.
There are some indications that we, as a global culture, are moving towards this new salutogenic model, but the speed of the movement has to be accelerated. This book sets out to chart the main steps of this movement and to indicate some of the ways of thinking and action which can help form new ways of approaching health care.

Contents

Introduction; Still in the Business of Fixing Up; Stepping Away from the Medical Model: The Importance of Context; The Social Determinants of Health; Learning from Other Cultures: Health as the Fit Between the Person and Their Environment; Reconceptualizing Health; An Example - The Health of Men: A Salutogenic Approach; Conclusion; Bibliography, Index.

Customer Reviews

Biography

Professor John J Macdonald holds the Foundation Chair in Primary Health Care at the University of Western Sydney and is Visiting Professor of Community and Public Health in Palestine. He is the author of the best selling title Primary Health Care.