Understanding Health & Social Care

This introductory text provides a wide-ranging collection of key readings in the field of health and social care. The book features classic readings alongside articles reflecting the most recent theoretical and empirical work. Cutting across the conventional divide between health care and social care, the Reader sets out to link policy to practice in a tangible way, juxtaposing the voices of a range of carers and service users with insights from academic debate and research.

The Reader is divided into five sections focusing on: the experience of caring or being cared for; the environment in which care takes place; the ways in which care has been conceptualized; issues of abuse in care settings; and the political context of care. Understanding Health and Social Care is the course reader for The Open University's level one undergraduate course in health and social care (K100).