Cultural Context of Health, Illness, and Medicine

A &quote;one size fits all&quote; approach to health care doesn't work well, especially for America's extremely diverse population. This book provides a lively and accessible discussion of how and why a more flexible and culturally sensitive system of health care can-and must be-achieved.Notable anthropologist George Foster defined the first edition as &quote;a very readable introductory text dealing with the sociocultural aspects of health,&quote; adding: &quote;[T]he authors do a commendable job... . I have profited from reading The Cultural Context of Health, Illness, and Medicine&quote;. With engaging examples, minimal jargon, and updated scholarship, the second edition of The Cultural Context of Health, Illness, and Medicine offers a comprehensive guide to the practice of culturally sensitive health care. Readers will see America's biomedically dominated health care system in a new light as the book reveals the changes wrought by increasing cultural diversity, technological innovation, and developments in care delivery.Written by a sociologist and an anthropologist with direct, hands-on experience in the health services, the volume tracks culture's influence on and relationship to health, illness, and health-care delivery via an examination of social structure, medical systems, and the need for-and challenges to-culturally sensitive care. Cultural differences are situated against social-class differences and related health inequities, as well as different needs and challenges throughout the life course. In prescribing caring that is more holistic, culturally sensitive, and cost-effective, the work promotes awareness of pressing issues for health care professionals-and the people they serve.