Understanding Health

Understanding Health, Health Care, and Health Policy in Canada is a brief introduction to the sociology of health and health care. This accessible text emphasizes health (promotion, maintenance, and prevention) as well as illness (treatment, cure, and care), offering a broad and balanced treatment of the sociological debates within the field. The first half of the text introduces three important themes in the study of the sociology of health: (1) the importance of approaching health issues from a lifespan perspective; (2) the need to attend to both the public and the private, the micro and the macro, and the individual and the structural; and (3) issues of inequality as they intersect with health, health care, and health policy. The second half of the text focuses on Self, Formal, and Informal Care, along with Canada's health care policy. Discussion on topical issues such as obesity, smoking, homelessness, AIDS, stress, and mental illness can be found throughout the book, ensuring that the subject matter is relevant to students' experiences of health and health care in Canada.