At the dawn of the twenty-first century, Americans enjoyed better overall health than at any other time in the nation's history. Rapid advancements in medical technologies, breakthroughs in understanding the genetic underpinnings of health and ill health, improvements in the effectiveness and variety of pharmaceuticals, and other developments in biomedical research have helped develop cures for many illnesses and improve the lives of those with chronic diseases. By itself, however, biomedical research cannot address the most significant challenges to improving public health. Approximately half of all causes of mortality in the United States are linked to social and behavioral factors such as smoking, diet, alcohol use, sedentary lifestyle, and accidents. Yet less than five percent of the money spent annually on U.S. health care is devoted to reducing the risks of these preventable conditions. Behavioral and social interventions offer great promise, but as yet their potential has been relatively poorly tapped. Promoting Health identifies those promising areas of social science and behavioral research that may address public health needs. It includes 12 papersâ€"commissioned from some of the nation's leading expertsâ€"that review these issues in detail, and serves to assess whether the knowledge base of social and behavioral interventions has been useful, or could be useful, in the development of broader public health interventions.

Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the Nation's Health was released in September 2019, before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March 2020. Improving social conditions remains critical to improving health outcomes, and integrating social care into health care delivery is more relevant than ever in the context of the pandemic and increased strains placed on the U.S. health care system. The report and its related products ultimately aim to help improve health and health equity, during COVID-19 and beyond. The consistent and compelling evidence on how social determinants shape health has led to a growing recognition throughout the health care sector that improving health and health equity is likely to depend â€" at least in part â€" on mitigating adverse social determinants. This recognition has been bolstered by a shift in the health care sector towards value-based payment, which incentivizes improved health outcomes for persons and populations rather than service delivery alone. The combined result of these changes has been a growing emphasis on health care systems addressing patients' social risk factors and social needs with the aim of improving health outcomes. This may involve health care systems linking individual patients with government and community social services, but important questions need to be answered about when and how health care systems should integrate social care into their practices and what kinds of infrastructure are required to facilitate such activities. Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the Nation's Health examines the potential for integrating services addressing social needs and the social determinants of health into the delivery of health care to achieve better health outcomes. This report assesses approaches to social care integration currently being taken by health care providers and systems, and new or emerging approaches and opportunities; current roles in such integration by different disciplines and organizations, and new or emerging roles and types of providers; and current and emerging efforts to design health care systems to improve the nation's health and reduce health inequities.

Social and Behavioral Science for Health Professionals examines various social and behavioral factors that affect health and illness, with a particular focus on how these phenomena inform clinical practice. The book introduces interdisciplinary insights from fields like sociology, psychology, and epidemiology to elucidate important and often problematic features of patient care routinely confronting physicians, nurses, and other allied health practitioners. Each chapter provides clear learning objectives and is organized around core concepts to facilitate clinicians' abilities to think in new and expanded ways about health and illness, as well as patient and professional interactions. The content explores the implications of a shifting epidemiological landscape; the critical roles of social factors as fundamental causes of health and disease; health disparities; the medicalization process and resulting changes in diagnostic patterns and expectations of practitioners; understandings of the illness experience of patients; interpersonal and interprofessional collaboration; clinical bioethics and the social psychology of ethical decision-making; and the significance of health system design and health policy. As a result, the book represents an important resource for improving patient care, particularly at a time when health is more intricately linked to social and behavioral conditions than ever before.

This valuable resource prepares graduate-level students in social work and other helping professions to provide integrated behavioral health services in community-based health and mental healthcare settings. Responding to the increasing prevalence of behavioral health issues in the general U.S. population and the resulting additional responsibilities for social workers and health professionals, this textbook describes the latest evidence-based practices and interventions for common behavioral health disorders as well as issues related to suicide, violence, substance use, and trauma. Detailed case studies help illustrate the effects of a range of interventions, inviting readers to consider how best to implement behavioral health assessment and treatment practices that are evidence-based, trauma-informed, and recovery-oriented. In addition to outlining integrated behavioral health service models and assessment tools, chapters address specific topics such as: Public health approaches to addressing interpersonal violence Intersections of social, behavioral, and physical health Achieving recovery and well-being from behavioral health disorders Motivating clients to achieve and maintain recovery from addiction Stage-based treatments for substance use disorders Cognitive behavioral approaches to treating anxiety and depressive disorders Evidence-based approaches to treating the effects of trauma and PTSD Integrated Behavioral Health Practice equips graduate students and health professionals alike to provide sensitive and informed interprofessional care for patients and families while consistently engaging in practices that emphasize recovery and well-being.

Behavioral sciences for the next generation of health care providers – including practical features such as chapter review questions and an annotated practice exam. The fourth edition of The Behavioral Sciences and Health Care is an invaluable resource for those educating the next generation of physicians and other health care providers. This easy-to-use text presents succinct information about a wide variety of neurological, social, and psychological sciences from a unified perspective of the complex evolutionary processes of gene–individual–environmental interaction, breathing new life into the biopsychosocial model so essential to understanding human behavior. The book is organized in sections covering Regulatory Systems, Basic and Higher Order Homeostatic Systems, Development Through the Life Cycle, Social and Cultural Issues, Societal and Behavioral Health Challenges, The Health Care System, Policy, and Economics; The Clinical Relationship; and Psychopathology. In this edition,numerous chapters have been extensively revised to include the most up-to-date information and to integrate the DSM-5 classification. A new chapter deals with pain and a new appendix on psychological testing has been added. Each chapter begins with guidance questions and ends with current recommended readings, resources, and review questions. A complete 335 question-and-answer multiple choice USMLE-type exam section not only allows readers to assess how well they have learned the material, but also highlights important points and adds additional specific information to supplement the text. This text is particularly suited for use in systems-based and casebased curricula that can be used creatively in flipped classrooms and other active learning environments. Accessible and clear, without oversimplification, the book facilitates interdisciplinary education, providing a common core of knowledge applicable in many fields, including medicine, nursing, psychology, and social work.

This book is intended as a core textbook for courses in public health that examines current issues in health from a social and behavioral science perspective. It is a cross-disciplinary course (public health, medical sociology, health psychology, medical anthropology) and thus there are many ways to teach the course based on a particular instructor's perspective. The authors wrote the book because they were dissatisfied with the way other texts apply social science to public health and found that many texts being used were from related fields such as medicine, nursing or general health.The authors are planning to do a major revision based on reviews they have collected and the reviews we have collected. We believe the revised edition will essentially be a new text based on rich feedback. They will include new theory, new cases, new research, and a rich ancillary package. They will also reduce the frameworks presented to make the book more readable to students.