This innovative approach to the development of community-based health education and patient advocacy programs offer valuable guidance for religious and medical leaders interested in developing partnerships between health systems and religious congregations. Richard G. Bennett and W. Daniel Hale discuss a range of medical topics and provide practical information on establishing partnerships, identifying resources that can be obtained from local and national organizations, and training volunteers to assist others in navigating our complex health system. In showing that these programs can be successful in bringing appropriate care to people who are often overlooked, the authors pay special attention to the challenges and opportunities presented by our aging and increasingly diverse population--from back cover.

This work describes an approach to the development of community-based health education and patient advocacy programmes targeted at disease prevention and management. Partnerships between health systems and religious congregations, the authors show, can be remarkably successful at bringing appropriate care to people who are often difficult to serve. Describing programmes based on a six-year collaboration between health care systems and religious organizations in Florida, the book offers guidance for religious and medical leaders interested in developing similar programmes in their congregations and communities.

How can religious and health care organizations work together to create community-based health care programs? Because health care works best when patients assume greater responsibility for their own health, community outreach and patient education are essential. But where can health care organizations find the resources to educate large numbers of people about chronic diseases? How can they tailor programs to meet the needs of increasingly diverse communities? And how can they reach people who have no ties to the health care system? Building Healthy Communities through Medical-Religious Partnerships presents an innovative approach to community-based health education and patient advocacy programs targeted at the prevention and management of disease. Offering valuable guidance for religious and medical leaders interested in developing programs in their congregations and communities, the book includes practical and accessible information for establishing health education programs, identifies additional resources that can be obtained from local and national organizations, and discusses a range of medical topics. It also outlines how to train volunteers to assist others in navigating our complex health system. This latest edition, which has been thoroughly revised and updated, incorporates • new chapters on medical topics across the lifespan, including lung disease, kidney disease, and child and adolescent health issues; • a thorough assessment of medical-religious partnerships that have emerged over the past twenty-five years; and • a user-friendly website with downloadable resources—including an instructor's guide, PowerPoint slides, and ready-made handouts.

How can religious and health care organizations work together to create community-based health care programs? Because health care works best when patients assume greater responsibility for their own health, community outreach and patient education are essential. But where can health care organizations find the resources to educate large numbers of people about chronic diseases? How can they tailor programs to meet the needs of increasingly diverse communities? And how can they reach people who have no ties to the health care system? Building Healthy Communities through Medical-Religious Partnerships presents an innovative approach to community-based health education and patient advocacy programs targeted at the prevention and management of disease. Offering valuable guidance for religious and medical leaders interested in developing programs in their congregations and communities, the book includes practical and accessible information for establishing health education programs, identifies additional resources that can be obtained from local and national organizations, and discusses a range of medical topics. It also outlines how to train volunteers to assist others in navigating our complex health system. This latest edition, which has been thoroughly revised and updated, incorporates • new chapters on medical topics across the lifespan, including lung disease, kidney disease, and child and adolescent health issues; • a thorough assessment of medical-religious partnerships that have emerged over the past twenty-five years; and • a user-friendly website with downloadable resources—including an instructor's guide, PowerPoint slides, and ready-made handouts.

Though the current political climate might lead one to suspect that religion and medicine make for uncomfortable bedfellows, the two institutions have a long history of alliance. From religious healers and religious hospitals to religiously informed bioethics and research studies on the impact of religious and spiritual beliefs on physical and mental well-being, religion and medicine have encountered one another from antiquity through the present day. In Religion and Medicine, Dr. Jeff Levin outlines this longstanding history and the multifaceted interconnections between these two institutions. The first book to cover the full breadth of this subject, it documents religion-medicine alliances across religious traditions, throughout the world, and over the course of history. Levin summarizes a wide range of material in the most comprehensive introduction to this emerging field of scholarship to date.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

In the devastation that follows a major disaster, there is a need for multiple sectors to unite and devote new resources to support the rebuilding of infrastructure, the provision of health and social services, the restoration of care delivery systems, and other critical recovery needs. In some cases, billions of dollars from public, private and charitable sources are invested to help communities recover. National rhetoric often characterizes these efforts as a "return to normal." But for many American communities, pre-disaster conditions are far from optimal. Large segments of the U.S. population suffer from preventable health problems, experience inequitable access to services, and rely on overburdened health systems. A return to pre-event conditions in such cases may be short-sighted given the high costs - both economic and social - of poor health. Instead, it is important to understand that the disaster recovery process offers a series of unique and valuable opportunities to improve on the status quo. Capitalizing on these opportunities can advance the long-term health, resilience, and sustainability of communities - thereby better preparing them for future challenges. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters identifies and recommends recovery practices and novel programs most likely to impact overall community public health and contribute to resiliency for future incidents. This book makes the case that disaster recovery should be guided by a healthy community vision, where health considerations are integrated into all aspects of recovery planning before and after a disaster, and funding streams are leveraged in a coordinated manner and applied to health improvement priorities in order to meet human recovery needs and create healthy built and natural environments. The conceptual framework presented in Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters lays the groundwork to achieve this goal and provides operational guidance for multiple sectors involved in community planning and disaster recovery. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters calls for actions at multiple levels to facilitate recovery strategies that optimize community health. With a shared healthy community vision, strategic planning that prioritizes health, and coordinated implementation, disaster recovery can result in a communities that are healthier, more livable places for current and future generations to grow and thrive - communities that are better prepared for future adversities.

The book proposes a critical theory of the role and place of religion in public health and argues for a programmatic reorientation of these two fields of practice and inquiry to more effectively align religious health assets - widely present in many contexts - and public health services and facilities.

Drawing on medicine, social science, philosophy, and religion to provide a broad perspective on aging, Aging Together offers a vision of relationships filled with love, joy, and hope in the face of a condition that all too often elicits anxiety, hopelessness, and despair.

Medicine, Religion, and Health: Where Science and Spirituality Meet will be the first title published in the new Templeton Science and Religion Series, in which scientists from a wide range of fields distill their experience and knowledge into brief tours of their respective specialties. In this, the series' maiden volume, Dr. Harold G. Koenig, provides an overview of the relationship between health care and religion that manages to be comprehensive yet concise, factual yet inspirational, and technical yet easily accessible to nonspecialists and general readers. Focusing on the scientific basis for integrating spirituality into medicine, Koenig carefully summarizes major trends, controversies, and the latest research from various disciplines and provides plausible and compelling theoretical explanations for what has thus far emerged in this relatively young field of study. Medicine, Religion, and Health begins by defining the principal terms and then moves on to a brief history of religion's role in medicine before delving into the current state of research. Koenig devotes several chapters to exploring the outcomes of specific studies in fields such as mental health, cardiovascular disease, and mortality. The book concludes with a review of the clinical applications derived from the research. Koenig also supplies several detailed appendices to aid readers of all levels looking for further information. Medicine, Religion, and Health will shed new light on critical contemporary issues. They will whet readers' appetites for more information on this fascinating, complex, and controversial area of research, clinical activity, and widespread discussion. It will find a welcome home on the bookshelves of students, researchers, clinicians, and other health professionals in a variety of disciplines.