Illegal psychoactive substances and illicit prescription drugs are currently used on a daily basis all over the world. Affecting public health and social welfare, illicit drug use is linked to disease, disability, and social problems. Faced with an increase in usage, national and global policymakers are turning to addiction science for guidance on how to create evidence-based drug policy. Drug Policy and the Public Good is an objective analytical basis on which to build global dru...

Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity is a collaborative effort by an international group of addiction scientists to improve the linkages between addiction science and alcohol policy. It presents, in a comprehensive, practical, and readily accessible form, the accumulated scientific knowledge on alcohol research that has a direct relevance to the development of alcohol policy on local, national, and international levels. It provides an objective basis on which to build relevant policies ...

Commercial gambling is a recent historical phenomenon. It has developed into a profitable industry that supplies a range of recreational activities to its customers, and is a significant way of collecting money from players to distribute to companies, state budgets, and other beneficiaries. Many of these are civil society organizations, using the money for producing services in sports, culture, social work, and health care. However, gambling can also develop into pathological behaviour. Us...

Homelessness & Health in Canada explores, for the first time, the social, structural, and environmental factors that shape the health of homeless persons in Canada. Covering a wide range of topics from youth homelessness to end-of-life care, the authors strive to outline policy and practice recommendations to respond to the ongoing public health crisis.This book is divided into three distinct but complimentary sections. In the first section, contributors explore how homele...

Public health social work is an interdisciplinary, epidemiologically oriented approach to improving human health and well-being. About one quarter of all social workers in the United States currently work in medical or public health settings, a number that is expected to increase significantly in coming years. This handbook, written and edited by respected leaders of the Social Work Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA), describes the rapidly expanding roles of public he...

Pharmacists are on the frontlines of public health. Their public-facing roles uniquely position them to identify and address emerging disease challenges, discrepancies in health literacy, and barriers to treatment in the communities they serve. In today's interconnected world, the clients consulting a neighborhood pharmacist are just as likely to hail from across an ocean as they are from around the corner. Fittingly, Introduction to Public Health in Pharmacy, Second Edition takes...

This edited volume provides an answer to a rising public health concern: what drives the over prescription of psychiatric medication epidemic? Over 15% of the UK public takes a psychiatric medication on any given day, and the numbers are only set to increase. Placing this figure alongside the emerging clinical and scientific data revealing their poor outcomes and the harms these medications often cause, their commercial success cannot be explained by their therapeutic efficacy.Chap...

"[A] welcome addition to the rural health care practitioner's tool kit. It will energize those interested in vulnerable rural residents and their unique characteristics through a public health perspective... Highly recommended."--CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries"This call to action for healthcare providers is a comprehensive review of issues in rural healthcare, including both obstacles and ways to begin to overcome them. It is easy to read... This en...

Focuses on today’s major public health concerns to teach students the principles of population health behavior and behavior change.The single greatest way to improve health and quality of life is not by developing new medical approaches, but by addressing harmful personal behaviors. These behaviors—which include tobacco, alcohol, and drug use, diet, and physical activity—play a significant role in the risk for and development, treatment, and management of the most ...

Public health approaches to palliative care have been growing in policy importance and practice acceptance. This innovative volume explores the major concepts, practice examples, and practice guidelines for this new approach.The goal of ‘comprehensive care’ – seamless support for patients as they transition between home based care and inpatient services – relies on the principles of health promotion and community development both to ensure services are available and importantly app...

Health Promotion is a relatively new discipline and there is little in the way of practical help for students and practitioners in choosing and implementing appropriate evaluation methods. As the demands for rigorous evaluation and evidence-based decision-making increase, health promotion cannot ignore the need for accurate, reliable and valid methods to carry out evaluation. This book provides clear descriptions (with plentiful practical examples) of such methods, and the problems that ca...

A concise guide to establishing, developing and evaluating modern mental health services, providing the relevant evidence to support necessary choices between alternative models of care. It includes a step-by-step guide to what to do and how to do it, taking into account the needs of people with mental illnesses in the general population, the available resources, and the main policy requirements. It also gives readers practical resources to assist them in their role in establishing and dev...