social work, health and equality

[...]... to social workers • Social work is implicated in processes which produce and maintain such inequalities • Social work can make its contribution to a more equal experience of physical health We now introduce each of these main themes in turn 2 Social work, health and equality HEALTH INEQUALITIES: A CAUSE FOR CONCERN A major social problem Reducing health inequalities, primarily through addressing social. .. ultimate social exclusion’ (1996: 1027) 18 Social work, health and equality A similar picture of physically embodied social inequalities emerges from diverse sources of evidence linking morbidity to social class Power et al (1998), analysing data collected on over 17,000 children born in 1958, found that at ages 23 and 33, men and women in Social Classes IV and V were twice as likely to report poor health. .. born in the Indian subcontinent and men and women born in Africa, Scotland and Ireland (Independent Inquiry 1998) Substantially raised rates of stillbirths and deaths in the first week of life are found when mothers have been born in the Indian sub-continent 20 Social work, health and equality (Smaje 1995) Adult Punjabi Sikhs, Gujarati Hindus and Muslims from India and Pakistan have death rates from... structural changes and operational imperatives which are designed to transform 10 Social work, health and equality relationships between health and social services authorities Symbolised by the National Priorities Guidance issued jointly to the NHS and social services (DoH 1998b), these include specific measures such as those requiring joint planning in a number of areas of policy, social services representation... health chances’: people’s chances of staying well, getting ill or dying prematurely (Moore and Harrison 1995) The production of health: Social, economic and environmental factors In Britain, the Black Report on Inequalities in Health (Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) 1980) proved to be a landmark study, Inequalities in health: Oppression in bodily form 15 demonstrating that the NHS and. .. sessions on health and social work We have both been generously and robustly sustained at home, in particular by Anna McLeod and Olwen Haslam Although we have reversed the usual alphabetical order of our names as authors, the work and the responsibility belongs equally to both of us Chapter 1 Inequalities in health A social work issue NTRODUCTION Physical health is a site of social inequality Unequal social. .. (Stacey 1988) While the contribution of health and social care professionals is significant, the bulk of the work of maintaining health and managing illness, as we will show throughout, is done by lay health workers – lay people working on a day-to-day basis for their own or other people’s health For example, as Graham’s (1993) work has revealed, 4 Social work, health and equality mothers parenting in poverty... almost half those reporting ill health, with heart and circulatory, respiratory and digestive problems affecting between one in five and one in seven While levels of reported illness show little difference between men and women (see also Independent Inquiry 1998), there is evidence that 22 Social work, health and equality women’s health is more severely affected By age 75 and over, the physical functioning... threaten physical health: low income, unemployment and financial strain (Weich and Lewis 1998) Moreover, particularly amongst older 24 Social work, health and equality people (for example, Boneham et al 1997), but also amongst homeless families (Cumella et al 1998) and across the board (Corney 1983) people in contact with social work services commonly show evidence of poor physical and mental health Yet physical... inequalities in physical health despite the significance of this issue in 6 Social work, health and equality the lives of the vast majority of its own service users, in whose experience the unequal social conditions which have such threatening and damaging effects on health are almost universal Although there is relatively little systematic analysis of contact with social workers by social status (partly . conceptualisation, practice and organisation of social work. Social Work, Health and Equality will be essential reading to trainees and professionals in social work and health care. Eileen McLeod. disaffection with health and welfare professionals underline the need to rethink social work’s contribution to people’s health. In three main ways Social Work, Health and Inequality suggests what social. Feminism and Social Work Edited by Kate Cavanagh and Viviene E. Cree Social Theory, Social Change and Social Work Edited by Nigel Parton Working for Equality in Health Edited by Paul Bywaters and