Social science & medicine
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Social science & medicine · Jan 1985
Mobilizing indigenous resource for primary health care in Nigeria: a note on the place of traditional medicine.
Noting the challenges posed by the goal of health For All by the Year 2000, this paper re-echoes the need to mobilize traditional medicine for Primary Health Care in Nigeria. The paper points to the inadequacy of modern health facilities and the obstacles that stand in the way of providing enough modern health facilities to meet the demand of Nigeria's population by the year 2000. It is observed that traditional medicine offers an alternative model not only because it is relatively inexpensive both to the practitioners and patients who often settle their bills in kind or cash but also because of its acceptability among Nigerians. Finally, it is suggested that government and traditional medical practitioners should cooperate for it is in this way that the practice of traditional medicine can be improved and the practitioners encouraged to add Primary Health Care activities to the repertoire.
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Social science & medicine · Jan 1985
Managerial procedures and hospital practices: a case study of the development of a new medical discipline.
In anesthésie-réanimation, a discipline that brings together anaesthesiology and emergency as well as intensive care, the managerial methods of evaluation and control of needs in personnel, were not adequate for describing medical practices. Around four managerial standards that were used by the Paris public hospital administration, new situations have crystalized. The historical analysis of how these standards have been put into use, used and put in question throws light upon the way organizations function. The present day situation in this speciality seems to be mainly determined by the strategies of specialists for obtaining professional recognition of their discipline and for advancing their careers.
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Social science & medicine · Jan 1985
Historical ArticleMissionary doctors vs Chinese patients: credibility of missionary health care in early twentieth century China.
This paper deals with the encounter between the Chinese and Western medical missionaries in early twentieth century China. Based on data of two Canadian Protestant missions in China before 1937, this study reveals that medical missionaries were generally ignorant of Chinese medicine, and they regarded Chinese medicine as part of an inferior, heathen culture. ⋯ The functional complementarity of Western medicine to the pluralistic Chinese medical structure enabled missionary medicine to gain increasing credibility from the Chinese, although few Chinese actually understood the basic principles of Western medicine. Implications of this missionary doctor-Chinese patient relationship in China are discussed.
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Deinstitutionalization, originally hailed as a major advance in public policy towards mental illness, has recently become increasingly controversial. This paper reviews the implementation of this policy in the United States, providing a critical examination of some of the central issues and problems that are the focus of current debates. It concludes with a pessimistic assessment of the likelihood of substantial improvements occurring in the lot of the chronic mental patient in the contemporary United States.
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Social science & medicine · Jan 1984
The spouse's adjustment to chronic pain: cognitive and emotional factors.
Recent research has demonstrated that the pain behaviors displayed by patients who have chronic pain complaints can be rewarded and maintained by the solicitous and attentive responses of spouses. The present study examines cognitive and emotional factors which may underly such solicitous responding by the spouses. In this study spouses completed a questionnaire (The Spouses' Perception of Disease--SPOD) which was designed to determine their perceptions of the patients' chronic pain syndromes. ⋯ The results of this study show that spouse's cognitive interpretation of the patient's chronic pain syndrome is closely associated with the spouse's emotional adjustment and marital satisfaction. Optimism, perception that the patient has a positive attitude along with few psychological problems and the perception that the patient is severely disabled all are associated with more positive emotional status in spouses. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the rehabilitation of chronic pain patients.