- Email: [email protected]
Responding to grief: dying, bereavement and social care
ARTICLE IN PRESS 880
Book reviews / Social Science & Medicine 58 (2004) 879–881
measures within the National Health Service, that in his view have perpetuated the reproduction of class-based health inequalities. The book begins with a valuable review of selected theories in sociology and their impact on medical sociology. The opening chapter is followed by a discussion of postmodernity, the use of critical theories to conceptualize social change, health care reform, inequality and health, and lifeworld narratives of illness. The concluding chapter advocates the formulation of a critical sociology to actively examine and monitor health movements in civil society. Overall,
Scambler provides an extensive and thoughtful theoretical account of major issues pertaining to health inequality in the contemporary welfare state.
William C. Cockerham Department of Sociology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 237 Ullman Building, 1212 University Boulevard, Birmingham, AL 35226, USA E-mail address: [email protected]
doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(03)00236-3
Ethnicity, class and health James Y. Nazroo, Policy Studies Institute, London, 2001, 196 pp., price d14.95 paperback This welcome and well-presented book draws on data gathered in the Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities, published in 1997. Substantial data relating to health were assembled and published in two volumes. The specific contribution of this volume lies in its updating the 1997 data and moving from the descriptive approach of the earlier volumes to a focus on explanation. That explanation involves theorising ethnicity as structure and identity and examining the relationship between ‘race’, ethnicity and class. The book contains a sustained critique of the shortcomings in existing knowledge of the health of ethnic minority populations. Samples are often not representative, or have limited coverage of issues relevant to ethnic difference in health. There has been a reliance on immigrant mortality data or one-dimensional indicators of health. Coverage of ethnic minority populations has been limited, as have possible explanatory factors. The significance of the shortcomings in previous understandings is illustrated in relation to key areas of health experience. Perhaps most impressive is Nazroo’s engagement with issues around mental health. For
example, work based on treatment statistics ignore differences in pathways into care for difference ethnic groups. Similar shortcomings in data and in the interpretations brought to it are presented in relation to hypertensive disease, diabetes, respiratory disease, heart disease and neurotic depression. Nazroo argues that it is a mistake to assume that the process of identifying ‘ethnic’ groups is theoretically neutral—what is the underlying construct we are using? He examines issues around socio-economic position pointing to the consistent findings of a strong relationship between it and health across outcomes and for each ethnic group. Further, he highlights how ethnic groups within the same socio-economic bands are disadvantaged in relation to whites. This book sets the standard for the debates on ethnicity, class and health in the UK. His original data, sustained critique of existing work and theoretical challenge mean all subsequent work has to engage with Nazroo’s contribution.
Neil Small School of Health Studies, Bradford University Unity Building, 25 Trinity Road Bradford BD5 OBB, UK E-mail address: [email protected]
doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(03)00237-5
Responding to grief: dying, bereavement and social care Caroline Currer, Palgrave, New York, 2001, 181pp., price $14.50 paperback Caroline Currer, a senior lecturer in social work at Anglia Polytechnic University provides us a book that focuses on the role of social dimensions in the care for
the dying, and those who are bereaved. The author stresses this book examines grief from a generalist view rather than a specialist view. This book includes content reflecting an experiential account of dying and bereaved individuals. Grief as used in this book relates to the grief felt by the person facing death and the grief felt by those whose loved one is dying or facing death. The
ARTICLE IN PRESS Book reviews / Social Science & Medicine 58 (2004) 879–881
unit of care from this view is the dying person and their family. These viewpoints are important to note. Chapter 1 provides the general overview of this book. This author provides a refreshing view of practice in saying that practitioners retain a choice over how they work— or how they care, and that social caring is possible. In Chapter 2, social work and social care are discussed. This includes definitions of death and focus of care for grief and bereavement. Carers structure of services of social care is also discussed. Chapters 3 and 6 focus on the theoretical underpinnings suggesting that practice should be based on theory and experience. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 focus on those who face their own death. Chapter 3, in addition to a theoretical understanding of death and dying, elaborates in detail a definition of these two perspectives. In Chapter 4, the focus is on managing the present, abandoning the future, and estrangement as one faces death. Supporting and enhancing social connections is considered crucial to the dying individual. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 focus on those who mourn the death of someone else. Anticipatory grief is covered. In chapter 6, the author helps us understand the grieving process, and grief work. Chapter 7 allows us to view bereavement from the experience of those who grieve.
881
Practitioners need to recognize and create space for bereavement and assist with restoration or re-engagement. The theoretical discussion is followed by experiential accounts followed by services and responses of social care practitioners. In the final chapter, the author provides conclusions and recommendations for what social care practitioners can do, and what social carers need. This author provides a list of recommendations of agencies dedicated to bereavement. An extensive bibliography is included. The only downside of this book is that this reviewer searched for more strategies and suggestions for the practitioner to use; more specific guidelines would have been welcome. While this book may be targeted at social workers, the unique view is that of social care considering theory, life experiences, and practice. Grief process requires emphasis on social processes that go beyond ‘‘counseling’’ and is a community matter. This view makes the book an important contribution.
Barbara A. Given College of Nursing, Michigan State University, A230 Life Sciences, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(03)00238-7
Gender, health and healing: the public/private divide G. Bendelow, M. Carpenter, C. Vautier and S. Williams (Eds.), Routledge, London, 2002, 292pp., d16.99 price This is a book rich in ideas that challenge orthodoxies held by too many in health work and research. Contributions critically reflect upon the private–public divide in relation to gender, health and healing. Chapters illustrate and illuminate the myriad ways in which health work and debates draw upon and mobilise unpaid, domestic labour deriving from this assumptions and premises inherent in the organisation and delivery of public services. The idea and contributions to the book arose from a conference to celebrate the work of the sociologist Meg Stacey. Drawing on and critically engaging with key ideas in Meg’s earlier work on the sociology of health and healing, authors tackle a number of topics. The three parts of the book address biology and human reproduction, including genetics and biomedicine; gender and the division of labour in private and public spheres through a consideration of unpaid health and emotion work, and the politics of profesdoi:10.1016/S0277-9536(03)00239-9
sions; and transitions in health care with contributions on gender equity, children and consent, complimentary medicine, medical uncertainty, and growing complexities in the sociology of health and illness. The book ends with concluding comments from Meg Stacey in which she reviews key themes across contributions and links these to earlier theoretical and empirical work. An agenda for future challenges is posed not least of which is the dearth of sociological work on the health consequences of war, and to that we should add terrorism. The book offers much needed and renewed attention to the dichotomy between the worlds of work and formal politics, and family, domestic and daily life. As such it is recommended reading for those in health policy, health economics, health psychology, in addition to the keen following that will be found in the sociology of health and illness. Linda McKie School of Law and Social Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK E-mail address: [email protected]
Book reviews / Social Science & Medicine 58 (2004) 879–881
measures within the National Health Service, that in his view have perpetuated the reproduction of class-based health inequalities. The book begins with a valuable review of selected theories in sociology and their impact on medical sociology. The opening chapter is followed by a discussion of postmodernity, the use of critical theories to conceptualize social change, health care reform, inequality and health, and lifeworld narratives of illness. The concluding chapter advocates the formulation of a critical sociology to actively examine and monitor health movements in civil society. Overall,
Scambler provides an extensive and thoughtful theoretical account of major issues pertaining to health inequality in the contemporary welfare state.
William C. Cockerham Department of Sociology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 237 Ullman Building, 1212 University Boulevard, Birmingham, AL 35226, USA E-mail address: [email protected]
doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(03)00236-3
Ethnicity, class and health James Y. Nazroo, Policy Studies Institute, London, 2001, 196 pp., price d14.95 paperback This welcome and well-presented book draws on data gathered in the Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities, published in 1997. Substantial data relating to health were assembled and published in two volumes. The specific contribution of this volume lies in its updating the 1997 data and moving from the descriptive approach of the earlier volumes to a focus on explanation. That explanation involves theorising ethnicity as structure and identity and examining the relationship between ‘race’, ethnicity and class. The book contains a sustained critique of the shortcomings in existing knowledge of the health of ethnic minority populations. Samples are often not representative, or have limited coverage of issues relevant to ethnic difference in health. There has been a reliance on immigrant mortality data or one-dimensional indicators of health. Coverage of ethnic minority populations has been limited, as have possible explanatory factors. The significance of the shortcomings in previous understandings is illustrated in relation to key areas of health experience. Perhaps most impressive is Nazroo’s engagement with issues around mental health. For
example, work based on treatment statistics ignore differences in pathways into care for difference ethnic groups. Similar shortcomings in data and in the interpretations brought to it are presented in relation to hypertensive disease, diabetes, respiratory disease, heart disease and neurotic depression. Nazroo argues that it is a mistake to assume that the process of identifying ‘ethnic’ groups is theoretically neutral—what is the underlying construct we are using? He examines issues around socio-economic position pointing to the consistent findings of a strong relationship between it and health across outcomes and for each ethnic group. Further, he highlights how ethnic groups within the same socio-economic bands are disadvantaged in relation to whites. This book sets the standard for the debates on ethnicity, class and health in the UK. His original data, sustained critique of existing work and theoretical challenge mean all subsequent work has to engage with Nazroo’s contribution.
Neil Small School of Health Studies, Bradford University Unity Building, 25 Trinity Road Bradford BD5 OBB, UK E-mail address: [email protected]
doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(03)00237-5
Responding to grief: dying, bereavement and social care Caroline Currer, Palgrave, New York, 2001, 181pp., price $14.50 paperback Caroline Currer, a senior lecturer in social work at Anglia Polytechnic University provides us a book that focuses on the role of social dimensions in the care for
the dying, and those who are bereaved. The author stresses this book examines grief from a generalist view rather than a specialist view. This book includes content reflecting an experiential account of dying and bereaved individuals. Grief as used in this book relates to the grief felt by the person facing death and the grief felt by those whose loved one is dying or facing death. The
ARTICLE IN PRESS Book reviews / Social Science & Medicine 58 (2004) 879–881
unit of care from this view is the dying person and their family. These viewpoints are important to note. Chapter 1 provides the general overview of this book. This author provides a refreshing view of practice in saying that practitioners retain a choice over how they work— or how they care, and that social caring is possible. In Chapter 2, social work and social care are discussed. This includes definitions of death and focus of care for grief and bereavement. Carers structure of services of social care is also discussed. Chapters 3 and 6 focus on the theoretical underpinnings suggesting that practice should be based on theory and experience. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 focus on those who face their own death. Chapter 3, in addition to a theoretical understanding of death and dying, elaborates in detail a definition of these two perspectives. In Chapter 4, the focus is on managing the present, abandoning the future, and estrangement as one faces death. Supporting and enhancing social connections is considered crucial to the dying individual. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 focus on those who mourn the death of someone else. Anticipatory grief is covered. In chapter 6, the author helps us understand the grieving process, and grief work. Chapter 7 allows us to view bereavement from the experience of those who grieve.
881
Practitioners need to recognize and create space for bereavement and assist with restoration or re-engagement. The theoretical discussion is followed by experiential accounts followed by services and responses of social care practitioners. In the final chapter, the author provides conclusions and recommendations for what social care practitioners can do, and what social carers need. This author provides a list of recommendations of agencies dedicated to bereavement. An extensive bibliography is included. The only downside of this book is that this reviewer searched for more strategies and suggestions for the practitioner to use; more specific guidelines would have been welcome. While this book may be targeted at social workers, the unique view is that of social care considering theory, life experiences, and practice. Grief process requires emphasis on social processes that go beyond ‘‘counseling’’ and is a community matter. This view makes the book an important contribution.
Barbara A. Given College of Nursing, Michigan State University, A230 Life Sciences, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(03)00238-7
Gender, health and healing: the public/private divide G. Bendelow, M. Carpenter, C. Vautier and S. Williams (Eds.), Routledge, London, 2002, 292pp., d16.99 price This is a book rich in ideas that challenge orthodoxies held by too many in health work and research. Contributions critically reflect upon the private–public divide in relation to gender, health and healing. Chapters illustrate and illuminate the myriad ways in which health work and debates draw upon and mobilise unpaid, domestic labour deriving from this assumptions and premises inherent in the organisation and delivery of public services. The idea and contributions to the book arose from a conference to celebrate the work of the sociologist Meg Stacey. Drawing on and critically engaging with key ideas in Meg’s earlier work on the sociology of health and healing, authors tackle a number of topics. The three parts of the book address biology and human reproduction, including genetics and biomedicine; gender and the division of labour in private and public spheres through a consideration of unpaid health and emotion work, and the politics of profesdoi:10.1016/S0277-9536(03)00239-9
sions; and transitions in health care with contributions on gender equity, children and consent, complimentary medicine, medical uncertainty, and growing complexities in the sociology of health and illness. The book ends with concluding comments from Meg Stacey in which she reviews key themes across contributions and links these to earlier theoretical and empirical work. An agenda for future challenges is posed not least of which is the dearth of sociological work on the health consequences of war, and to that we should add terrorism. The book offers much needed and renewed attention to the dichotomy between the worlds of work and formal politics, and family, domestic and daily life. As such it is recommended reading for those in health policy, health economics, health psychology, in addition to the keen following that will be found in the sociology of health and illness. Linda McKie School of Law and Social Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK E-mail address: [email protected]