Social Support: Theory, Research and Applications

Social Support: Theory, Research and Applications PDF

Author: I.G. Sarason

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-11-11

Total Pages: 518

ISBN-13: 9400951159

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"No one is rich enough to do without a neighbor." Traditional Danish Proverb This bit of Danish folk wisdom expresses an idea underlying much of the current thinking about social support. While the clinical literature has for a long time recognized the deleterious effects of unwholesome social relationships, only more recently has the focus broadened to include the positive side of social interaction, those interpersonal ties that are desired, rewarding, and protective. This book contains theoretical and research contributions by a group of scholars who are charting this side of the social spectrum. Evidence is increasing that maladaptive ways of thinking and behaving occur disproportionately among people with few social supports. Rather than sapping self-reliance, strong ties with others particularly family members seem to encourage it. Reliance on others and self-reliance are not only compatible but complementary to one another. While the mechanism by which an intimate relationship is protective has yet to be worked out, the following factors seem to be involved: intimacy, social integration through shared concerns, reassurance of worth, the opportunity to be nurtured by others, a sense of reliable alliance, and guidance. The major advance that is taking place in the literature on social support is that reliance is being -placed less on anecdotal and clinical evidence and more on empirical inquiry. The chapters of this book reflect this important development and identify the frontiers that are currently being explored.

Burnout in Families

Burnout in Families PDF

Author: Charles R. Figley

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 1997-12-29

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 9781574440478

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Sleeplessness, depression, anxiety... these are common symptoms of the burnout that often accompanies living with a loved one who has experienced some kind of traumatic stress. It's well known that the loss of a child, a life-threatening injury, sexual assault or combat experience can affect the victim in traumatic ways, but what's often overlooked is how this trauma affects those closest to the victim - the family. Burnout in Families focuses on the emotional vulnerability of families exposed to the chronic or acute stress of one of its members. Editor Charles R. Figley brings together seven psychologists from around the United States to take a closer look at what's now known as secondary traumatic stress disorder - the burnout that occurs when family members care for or just live with other family members who have undergone a traumatic life event. The authors provide a comprehensive review of the available literature and offer solutions for treating and preventing family burnout and the marital and family discord that inevitably follows. Burnout in Families is an ideal text for university-level psychology, family therapy and social work courses.

Caregiving in the Illness Context

Caregiving in the Illness Context PDF

Author: T. Revenson

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-01-26

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 1137558989

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How does caregiving affect health and well-being and what resources help caregivers? This book provides a synthesis of psychological research on caregiver stress and brings attention to the personal, social and structural factors that affect caregivers' well-being and as well as recent behavioral interventions to enhance health.

Cracking Health Costs

Cracking Health Costs PDF

Author: Tom Emerick

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-06-07

Total Pages: 157

ISBN-13: 1118710916

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Cracking Health Costs reveals the best ways for companies and small businesses to fight back, right now, against rising health care costs. This book proposes multiple, practical steps that you can take to control costs and increase the effectiveness of the health benefit. The book is all about rolling back health care costs to save companies and employees money. Working hand-in-hand with their employees, businesses need to ensure that, whenever feasible, employees with the most expensive diagnoses get optimal treatment at hospitals not practicing “volume-driven” medicine for higher profits. Less than 10% of employees incur 80% of costs. About 20% of patients have been completely misdiagnosed, while many others are simply the victims of surgeons who are either practicing bad medicine or overtreating for profit. For example, some companies, such as Walmart and Lowe’s, are turning to the “Centers of Excellence” approach author Tom Emerick helped to pioneer while running benefits for Walmart. By determining which hospitals are adopting the highest standards of care, benefits managers can reduce the number of unnecessary high-cost surgeries and improve employees’ overall health. The solution-based approach offered by the book is unique, because it can be implemented by businesses today.

The Price We Pay

The Price We Pay PDF

Author: Marty Makary

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2019-09-10

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1635574129

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New York Times bestseller Business Book of the Year--Association of Business Journalists From the New York Times bestselling author comes an eye-opening, urgent look at America's broken health care system--and the people who are saving it--now with a new Afterword by the author. "A must-read for every American." --Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief, FORBES One in five Americans now has medical debt in collections and rising health care costs today threaten every small business in America. Dr. Makary, one of the nation's leading health care experts, travels across America and details why health care has become a bubble. Drawing from on-the-ground stories, his research, and his own experience, The Price We Pay paints a vivid picture of the business of medicine and its elusive money games in need of a serious shake-up. Dr. Makary shows how so much of health care spending goes to things that have nothing to do with health and what you can do about it. Dr. Makary challenges the medical establishment to remember medicine's noble heritage of caring for people when they are vulnerable. The Price We Pay offers a road map for everyday Americans and business leaders to get a better deal on their health care, and profiles the disruptors who are innovating medical care. The movement to restore medicine to its mission, Makary argues, is alive and well--a mission that can rebuild the public trust and save our country from the crushing cost of health care.

The Costs of Caring

The Costs of Caring PDF

Author: Sally Baldwin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-12-22

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 1317361008

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First published in 1985, this book considers the financial consequences of parents and other relatives caring for severely disabled children at home. At the time of publication little reliable information was available on the costs incurred by ‘informal carers’, which this book set to rectify. The volume interweaves hard statistical material about money with the detailed personal responses of parents. It examines the claim that disablement in a child reduces parents’ earnings while simultaneously creating an extra expense. The author compares the incomes and expenditure patterns of more than 500 families with disabled children and 700 control families of the time showing that the financial effects of disablement in a child can be far-reaching and pervasive. This book discusses contemporary policy implications of these findings in a chapter dealing with the rational for compensating families with disabled children, and in the final chapter. Although the book was original published in 1985, it references issues that are still important today and, whilst its main concern is families with disabled children, it will also be useful to anyone caring for other kinds of dependent people, such as the elderly.

Best Care at Lower Cost

Best Care at Lower Cost PDF

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2013-05-10

Total Pages: 437

ISBN-13: 0309282810

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America's health care system has become too complex and costly to continue business as usual. Best Care at Lower Cost explains that inefficiencies, an overwhelming amount of data, and other economic and quality barriers hinder progress in improving health and threaten the nation's economic stability and global competitiveness. According to this report, the knowledge and tools exist to put the health system on the right course to achieve continuous improvement and better quality care at a lower cost. The costs of the system's current inefficiency underscore the urgent need for a systemwide transformation. About 30 percent of health spending in 2009-roughly $750 billion-was wasted on unnecessary services, excessive administrative costs, fraud, and other problems. Moreover, inefficiencies cause needless suffering. By one estimate, roughly 75,000 deaths might have been averted in 2005 if every state had delivered care at the quality level of the best performing state. This report states that the way health care providers currently train, practice, and learn new information cannot keep pace with the flood of research discoveries and technological advances. About 75 million Americans have more than one chronic condition, requiring coordination among multiple specialists and therapies, which can increase the potential for miscommunication, misdiagnosis, potentially conflicting interventions, and dangerous drug interactions. Best Care at Lower Cost emphasizes that a better use of data is a critical element of a continuously improving health system, such as mobile technologies and electronic health records that offer significant potential to capture and share health data better. In order for this to occur, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, IT developers, and standard-setting organizations should ensure that these systems are robust and interoperable. Clinicians and care organizations should fully adopt these technologies, and patients should be encouraged to use tools, such as personal health information portals, to actively engage in their care. This book is a call to action that will guide health care providers; administrators; caregivers; policy makers; health professionals; federal, state, and local government agencies; private and public health organizations; and educational institutions.

Containing Health Care Costs in Japan

Containing Health Care Costs in Japan PDF

Author: Naoki Ikegami

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 1996-11-08

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 9780472105380

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DIVA comprehensive picture of costs in Japan's effective and efficient health care system. /div

The Costs of Poor Health Habits

The Costs of Poor Health Habits PDF

Author: Willard Manning

Publisher:

Published: 2013-10-01

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9780674422254

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Poor health habits (drinking, smoking, lack of exercise) obviously take their toll on individuals and their families. The costs to society are less obvious but certainly more far-reaching. This investigation is the first to quantify the financial burden these detrimental habits place on American taxpayers. Willard Manning and his colleagues measure the direct costs of poor health habits (fire damage, motor vehicle accidents, legal fees), as well as collectively financed costs (medical care, employee sick leave, group health and life insurance, nursing home care, retirement pensions, liability insurance). Consider two co-workers covered by their employer's health plan: both pay the same premium, yet if one drinks heavily, the other--through their mutual insurance program--involuntarily funds the resulting health problems. After laying out their conceptual framework, methods, and analytical approach, the authors describe precisely how and to what extent drinking, smoking, and lack of exercise are currently subsidized, and make recommendations for reducing or reallocating the expense. They present, for example, a persuasive case for raising excise taxes on alcohol. The authors correlate their data to make costs comparable, to avoid double counting, and to determine the exact costs of each of these poor health habits and some of their findings are quite surprising. This unique study will be indispensable to public health policy specialists and researchers, as well as to health economists.