Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the Nation's Health was released in September 2019, before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March 2020. Improving social conditions remains critical to improving health outcomes, and integrating social care into health care delivery is more relevant than ever in the context of the pandemic and increased strains placed on the U.S. health care system. The report and its related products ultimately aim to help improve health and health equity, during COVID-19 and beyond. The consistent and compelling evidence on how social determinants shape health has led to a growing recognition throughout the health care sector that improving health and health equity is likely to depend â€" at least in part â€" on mitigating adverse social determinants. This recognition has been bolstered by a shift in the health care sector towards value-based payment, which incentivizes improved health outcomes for persons and populations rather than service delivery alone. The combined result of these changes has been a growing emphasis on health care systems addressing patients' social risk factors and social needs with the aim of improving health outcomes. This may involve health care systems linking individual patients with government and community social services, but important questions need to be answered about when and how health care systems should integrate social care into their practices and what kinds of infrastructure are required to facilitate such activities. Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the Nation's Health examines the potential for integrating services addressing social needs and the social determinants of health into the delivery of health care to achieve better health outcomes. This report assesses approaches to social care integration currently being taken by health care providers and systems, and new or emerging approaches and opportunities; current roles in such integration by different disciplines and organizations, and new or emerging roles and types of providers; and current and emerging efforts to design health care systems to improve the nation's health and reduce health inequities.

Palliative care is an essential element of our health care system and is becoming increasingly significant amidst an aging society and organizations struggling to provide both compassionate and cost-effective care. Palliative care is also characterized by a strong interdisciplinary approach, and nurses are at the center of the palliative care team across settings and populations. The sixth volume in the HPNA Palliative Nursing Manuals series, Social Aspects of Care provides an overview of the financial and mental stress illness places, not just on the patient, but on the family as well. This volume contains information on how to support families in palliative care, cultural considerations important in end-of-life care, sexuality and the impact of illness, planning for the actual death, and bereavement. The content of the concise, clinically focused volumes in the HPNA Palliative Nursing Manuals series is one resource for nurses preparing for specialty certification exams and provides a quick-reference in daily practice.

The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, "peer" countries. In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings. U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage.

This thoroughly revised second edition of Social and Behavioral Aspects of Pharmaceutical Care offers a comprehensive overview of the social-economic aspects of pharmaceutical care. This new edition provides both the pharmacy student and practitioner with established principles from the social and behavioral sciences, along with current findings and examples of cases and reports of applications of these principles. Theoretical models and practical examples are included to elaborate the pharmacist's role in identifying patients' non-compliant behavior and managing drug-related problems. This valuable text includes clinical, economic, and humanistic considerations that are essential to pharmacy students and practicing pharmacists. This essential text also features a special focus on public health and the involvement of caregivers in facilitating behavioral change. Social and Behavioral Aspects of Pharmaceutical Care, Second Edition will help readers consider how organizations and social systems impact patient experiences with medications, contributing to an improved system of pharmaceutical practice and care.

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/

'Social Aspects of Care' provides an overview of financial and mental stress illness places, not just on the patient, but on the family as well. This volume contains information on how to support families in palliative care, cultural considerations important in end-of-life care, sexuality and the impactof illness, planning for the actual death, and bereavement.

Family caregiving affects millions of Americans every day, in all walks of life. At least 17.7 million individuals in the United States are caregivers of an older adult with a health or functional limitation. The nation's family caregivers provide the lion's share of long-term care for our older adult population. They are also central to older adults' access to and receipt of health care and community-based social services. Yet the need to recognize and support caregivers is among the least appreciated challenges facing the aging U.S. population. Families Caring for an Aging America examines the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults and the available evidence on the effectiveness of programs, supports, and other interventions designed to support family caregivers. This report also assesses and recommends policies to address the needs of family caregivers and to minimize the barriers that they encounter in trying to meet the needs of older adults.

Here is an outstanding reference book of major readings in the field of social work in health care. Practitioners, educators, researchers, and students can use this landmark two-part volume to review dominant themes and critical issues in today’s practice environment and to understand the evolution of current trends and emerging policies and programs. In this one desktop source book, hundreds of references relevant to the health care social work field are immediately accessible. Education, policy, practice, and research issues integral to social work’s expanding role in health care are the main focus, with each chapter highlighting a theme of enduring importance to the field. Other outstanding articles related to the chapter’s theme are cited in the appendix to each chapter which also includes a selected bibliography of suggested topical readings. Comprehensive new book filled with information vital to social workers in the health care field! Over 900 pages of scholarly articles by the foremost social work leaders in health care! 9 categories embrace the range of social work activity in the health care field! Exciting new ideas and practical suggestions for everyday dilemmas! Hundreds of references immediately accessible in one desktop source! Selected bibliography of topical headings provides sources for even more relevant articles! A MUST HAVE volume for instructors and students! Deepen your understanding of all aspects of social work practice in health care with this superb volume! Here is an outstanding reference book of major readings in the field of social work in health care. Practitioners, educators, researchers, and students can use this landmark two-part volume to review dominant themes and critical issues in today’s practice environment and to understand the evolution of current trends and emerging policies and programs. Social Work in Health Care makes hundreds of references relevant to the health care social work field immediately accessible in this one desktop source book. Education, policy, practice, and research issues integral to social work’s expanding role in health care are the main focus, with each chapter highlighting a theme of enduring importance to the field. Other outstanding articles related to the chapter’s theme are cited in the appendix to each chapter which also includes a selected bibliography of suggested topical readings. Find answers and ideas for everyday dilemmas in this all-inclusive, information-packed volume!Social workers practicing in the rapidly expanding health care field call upon a repertoire of skills to fulfill a variety of functions including direct patient care and contact with patients’families, education, and influencing organizational policies on their clients’behalf. The in-depth scholarship and the diversity of multiple approaches to health care social work, as presented in Social Work in Health Care, will have a strong impact on the field. Through the intertwining network of education, policy, practice, and research issues in the book, and professsional discussion of those topics, a beginning point exists from which social workers can develop principles to guide their social work activities in the medical and health fields.

Accessible and instructive, Palliative Care guides and inspires health social workers to integrate palliative care principles into their current clinical practice. Through the lenses of environmental theory and intersectionality, rich case narratives and diverse practice settings highlightopportunities for social workers to enhance their work, thereby advancing whole-person care in the face of serious illness. The volume also models engagement, assessment, and intervention through key palliative care skills and language. Chapters include questions to concretize ideas and demonstratereal-world application, while case narratives cover a range of settings, diagnoses, and populations. This book is a useful tool for any social worker working with individuals and families navigating complex health care systems.

This open access textbook represents a vital contribution to global health education, offering insights into health promotion as part of patient care for bachelor’s and master’s students in health care (nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiotherapists, social care workers etc.) as well as health care professionals, and providing an overview of the field of health science and health promotion for PhD students and researchers. Written by leading experts from seven countries in Europe, America, Africa and Asia, it first discusses the theory of health promotion and vital concepts. It then presents updated evidence-based health promotion approaches in different populations (people with chronic diseases, cancer, heart failure, dementia, mental disorders, long-term ICU patients, elderly individuals, families with newborn babies, palliative care patients) and examines different health promotion approaches integrated into primary care services. This edited scientific anthology provides much-needed knowledge, translating research into guidelines for practice. Today’s medical approaches are highly developed; however, patients are human beings with a wholeness of body-mind-spirit. As such, providing high-quality and effective health care requires a holistic physical-psychological-social-spiritual model of health care is required. A great number of patients, both in hospitals and in primary health care, suffer from the lack of a holistic oriented health approach: Their condition is treated, but they feel scared, helpless and lonely. Health promotion focuses on improving people’s health in spite of illnesses. Accordingly, health care that supports/promotes patients’ health by identifying their health resources will result in better patient outcomes: shorter hospital stays, less re-hospitalization, being better able to cope at home and improved well-being, which in turn lead to lower health-care costs. This scientific anthology is the first of its kind, in that it connects health promotion with the salutogenic theory of health throughout the chapters. the authors here expand the understanding of health promotion beyond health protection and disease prevention. The book focuses on describing and explaining salutogenesis as an umbrella concept, not only as the key concept of sense of coherence.