Why can it be so difficult to be around someone with a serious illness? Something lurks deep within us, urging us to avoid someone seriously ill. A Sick Prejudice explores our innermost fears, primal emotions, and biases when we get into illness situations. It reveals the flawed reasoning and escape tactics that naturally arise in us. Joseph McNolty weaves together research with heartfelt stories that span over 15 years of his wife’s cancer and his own. He uncovers why there is a “sick prejudice,” how it affects us, and how it can make an illness worse. McNolty offers us easy ways to overcome the distressed and exaggerated feelings we can have. We then can create a healing environment for the sick one and an enriching experience for ourselves. More than just a look at the stereo-types and aversions people can have to illness, A Sick Prejudice explores the essential role of sickness in our lives and the personal growth that can come from the experience.

An informed argument for reworking the broken market†‘based U.S. healthcare system by making cost and quality more transparent The United States has the most expensive healthcare system in the world. While policy makers have argued over who is at fault for this, the system has been quietly moving toward high†‘deductible insurance plans that require patients to pay large amounts out of pocket before insurance kicks in. The idea behind this shift is that patients will become better consumers of healthcare when forced to pay for their medical expenses. Laying bare the perils of the current situation, Peter A. Ubel—a physician and behavioral scientist—notes that even when patients have time to shop around, healthcare costs remain largely opaque, difficult to access, and hard to compare. Arguing for a middle path between a market†‘based and a completely free system, Ubel envisions more transparent, smarter healthcare plans that tie the prices of treatments to the value they provide so that people can afford to receive the care they deserve.

Dr Adrian Massey has worked at the intersection of medicine and society for decades. He argues compellingly that our hyper-medicalized society has falsely equated sickness with illness, and sickness with unfitness to work--whereas sickness is primarily a social problem requiring social, not medical, solutions. Sick-Note Britain lays bare Britain's gross error: when doctors cannot 'fix' anxiety or chronic pain, workplace attendance is still treated as a matter for arbitration by our strained primary care service. What is needed is a tailored, employer-employee contractual solution, but obstacles block this approach: excessively complex employment law constraining both sides; an outdated benefits system that overburdens doctors and traumatizes the vulnerable; and a workplace culture that is too inflexible to keep sick employees in work. This is a blistering condemnation of a sham system that works for nobody, and an urgent call to rethink how we manage sickness--for the sake of our economy, our wellbeing, and our health service.

Consequently, people who suffer from chronic fatigue, chronic pain, and many other miseries often endure not only the ailment but dismissive and negative reactions from others. Since its first publication, Sick and Tired of Feeling Sick and Tired has offered hope and coping strategies to thousands of people who suffer from ICI. Paul Donoghue and Mary Siegel teach their readers how to rethink how they themselves view their illness and how to communicate with loved ones and doctors in a way that meets their needs. The authors' understanding makes readers feel they have been heard for the first time. For this edition, the authors include a new introduction drawing on the experiences of the many people who have responded to the book and to their lectures and television appearances. They expand the definition of ICI to include other ailments such as depression, addiction, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. They bring the resource material, including Web sites, up to the present, and they offer fresh insights on four topics that often emerge: guilt, how ICI affects the family, meaningfulness, and defining acceptance.

This book combines new research data with findings from present-day health surveys to examine the history of ill health and its outcomes, whether recovery or death, in Europe and North America from the 17th century to the present. Some forecasts about future sickness rates and trends are included.

Notes from the Sick Room is an investigation into the connections between physical illness and creativity. Although there are a number of books investigating mental illness and creativity, there are very few that concentrate on physical illness - cancer, HIV, tuberculosis and disabilities caused by accidents. Incapacity provides time for contemplation and creativity yet pain and discomfort detract from inspiration. Serious illness confronts the individual with the reality of death, the complacency of being is jolted by the shock of non-being. Does one record these incidences or ignore "art" in order to survive?

Sickness and disability is a key economic policy concern for many OECD countries. Medical conditions, or problems labelled as such by societies and policy systems, are proving an increasing obstacle to raising labour force participation and keeping ...