Public health ethics and practice - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847421024 ISBN 13: 9781847421029

Publisher: Policy Press, 2009

Synopsis

Ethical dilemmas are not new in the area of health care and policy making, but in recent years, their frequency and diversity have grown considerably. All health professionals now have to consider the ethical implications of an increasing array of treatments, interventions and health promotion activities on an almost daily basis. This goes hand in hand with increasing medical knowledge, and the growth of new and innovative medical technologies and pharmaceuticals. In addition, the same technology and knowledge is increasing professional and public awareness of new potential public health threats (e.g. pandemic influenza). At the level of public policy, concerns over the rising costs of health care have led to a more explicit focus on 'health promotion', and the surveillance of both 'patients' and the so-called 'worried well'. Health professionals and policy makers also have to consider the implications of managing these risks, for example restricting individual liberty through enforced quarantine (in the wake of SARS and more recently swine flu) and the more general distribution of harms and benefits. Balancing the rights and responsibilities of individuals and wider populations is becoming more complex and problematic. This book will play a key role in opening out a discussion of public health ethics. It examines the principles and values that support an ethical approach to public health practice and provides examples of some of the complex areas which those practising, analysing and planning the health of populations have to navigate. It will therefore be essential reading for current practitioners, those involved in public health research and a valuable aid for anyone interested in examining the tensions within and the development of public health.

About this title

About the Author:

Stephen Peckham, Health Services Research Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Alison Hann, School of Health Science, University of Swansea

Review:

Through bridging the foundational ethical underpinnings with the practice-oriented nature of public health, this important book introduces and articulates the interdisciplinary space that is public health ethics. Ryan Melnychuk, Senior Policy Analyst, Public Health Ethics

Exploring tensions at the very heart of public health - between community needs and individual freedom and from philosophical concepts to everyday dilemmas - this book sheds welcome light on a much neglected aspect of the field. Prof Alan Maryon-Davis, President, UK Faculty of Public Health

It is essential that ethical concepts and frameworks keep pace with developments in public health policy and practice. This book fills a substantial gap in the existing literature. By bringing together a wide range of experts on diverse topics, it furthers our understanding of how ethics can be applied to contemporary public health issues. Prof Rob Baggott, De Montfort University

The papers in this collection illustrate the diversity of ethical issues associated with public health initiatives. The book should stimulate thinking about the development and application of ethical considerations in public health policy and practice. Vikki Entwistle, Professor of Values in Health Care, University of Dundee

About this edition

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1847421024
• ISBN 13: 9781847421029
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240
• Editor: Peckham Stephen, Hann Alison