Understanding Health, Health Care, and Health Policy in Canada is a brief introduction to the sociology of health and health care. This accessible text emphasizes health (promotion, maintenance, and prevention) as well as illness (treatment, cure, and care), offering a broad and balanced treatment of the sociological debates within the field. The first half of the text introduces three important themes in the study of the sociology of health: (1) the importance of approaching health issues from a lifespan perspective; (2) the need to attend to both the public and the private, the micro and the macro, and the individual and the structural; and (3) issues of inequality as they intersect with health, health care, and health policy. The second half of the text focuses on Self, Formal, and Informal Care, along with Canada's health care policy. Discussion on topical issues such as obesity, smoking, homelessness, AIDS, stress, and mental illness can be found throughout the book, ensuring that the subject matter is relevant to students' experiences of health and health care in Canada.

Neena L. Chappell's profile page

Margaret J. Penning's profile page

Neena L. Chappell, PhD, FRSC, Canada Research Chair in Social Gerontology, Professor of Sociology and Centre on Aging, University of Victoria. She was founding Director of the Centre on Aging at the University of Manitoba (1982-1992) and first Director of the Centre on Aging at the University of Victoria (1992-2002), developing both into world-class research facilities while ensuring accessibility to the community. For over 25 years, she has been a leader in gerontological research, focusing on three areas: quality of life for seniors, caregiving, and the health care system and related policy. Her research can be characterized as partnerships with other researchers in the social sciences and with non-researchers in government and community agencies. Margaret Penning is an Associate Professor at the University of Victoria. Her research focuses on the social determinants of health and health care with a particular focus on factors that influence chronic illness, disability and long-term community-based care. I am also interested in the impact of health care reforms and restructuring processes on older adults and other vulnerable populations.