Mama Might Be Better Off Dead

Mama Might Be Better Off Dead
Author: Laurie Kaye Abraham
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2019-05-10
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 022662384X

“A provocative examination of our health care delivery for the poor. . . . Such an honest and candid account is essential.” —Alex Kotlowitz, national bestselling author of There Are No Children Here Mama Might Be Better Off Dead immerses readers in the lives of four generations of a poor, African-American family from North Lawndale, Chicago, who are beset with the devastating illnesses that are all too common in America’s inner-cities. Headed by Jackie Banes, who oversees the care of a diabetic grandmother, a husband on kidney dialysis, an ailing father, and three children, the Banes family contends with countless medical crises. From visits to emergency rooms and dialysis units, to trials with home care, to struggles for Medicaid eligibility, Laurie Kaye Abraham chronicles their access—or lack thereof—to medical care. Their story reveals an inadequate health care system that is further undermined by the effects of poverty. Mama Might Be Better Off Dead is an unsettling, profound look at the human face of health care in America. This new edition includes an incisive foreword by David Ansell, a physician who worked at Mt. Sinai Hospital, where much of the Banes family’s narrative unfolds. “Goes to the heart of today’s problem. Powerful . . . deeply searching.” —Washington Post “A powerful indictment of the big business of medicine.” —Los Angeles Times “Abraham . . . illuminates the problems with passion and skill.” —Kirkus Reviews “This personally observed, lucid chronicle and call for reform of our ailing health system covers all levels of responsibility in the medical establishment.” —Publishers Weekly “Clearly identifies in human and policy terms how [healthcare] programs have failed a population desperately in need of help.” —Library Journal

Mama Might Be Better Off Dead

Mama Might Be Better Off Dead
Author: Laurie Kaye Abraham
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2012-03-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 022601939X

Mama Might Be Better Off Dead is an unsettling, profound look at the human face of health care. Both disturbing and illuminating, it immerses readers in the lives of four generations of a poor, African-American family beset with the devastating illnesses that are all too common in America's inner-cities. The story takes place in North Lawndale, a neighborhood that lies in the shadows of Chicago's Loop. Although surrounded by some of the city's finest medical facilities, North Lawndale is one of the sickest, most medically underserved communities in the country. Headed by Jackie Banes, who oversees the care of a diabetic grandmother, a husband on kidney dialysis, an ailing father, and three children, the Banes family contends with countless medical crises. From visits to emergency rooms and dialysis units, to trials with home care, to struggles for Medicaid eligibility, Abraham chronicles their access (or lack of access) to medical care. Told sympathetically but without sentimentality, their story reveals an inadequate health care system that is further undermined by the direct and indirect effects of poverty. When people are poor, they become sick easily. When people are sick, their families quickly become poorer. Embedded in the family narrative is a lucid analysis of the gaps, inconsistencies, and inequalities the poor face when they seek health care. This book reveals what health care policies crafted in Washington, D. C. or state capitals look like when they hit the street. It shows how Medicaid and Medicare work and don't work, the Catch-22s of hospital financing in the inner city, the racial politics of organ transplants, the failure of childhood immunization programs, the vexed issues of individual responsibility and institutional paternalism. One observer puts it this way: "Show me the poor woman who finds a way to get everything she's entitled to in the system, and I'll show you a woman who could run General Motors." Abraham deftly weaves these themes together to make a persuasive case for health care reform while unflinchingly presenting the complexities that will make true reform as difficult as it is necessary. Mama Might Be Better Off Dead is a book with the power to change the way health care is understood in America. For those seeking to learn what our current system of health care promises and what it delivers, it offers a place for the debate to begin.

Mama Might Be Better Off Dead

Mama Might Be Better Off Dead
Author: Laurie Abraham
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 306
Release: 1994-11-15
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780226001395

Details the modern state of health care in urban America, spotlighting challenges that face low-income families in this part of the nation. Explains how the health care system has reached this point and considers how change can be wrought.

Ellen Foster

Ellen Foster
Author: Kaye Gibbons
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1616203021

Having suffered abuse and misfortune for much of her life, a young child searches for a better life and finally gets a break in the home of a loving woman with several foster children.

Dead End in Norvelt

Dead End in Norvelt
Author: Jack Gantos
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2011-09-13
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 142996250X

Dead End in Norvelt is the winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal for the year's best contribution to children's literature and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction! Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is "grounded for life" by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack's way once his mom loans him out to help a fiesty old neighbor with a most unusual chore—typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launced on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels . . . and possibly murder. Endlessly surprising, this sly, sharp-edged narrative is the author at his very best, making readers laugh out loud at the most unexpected things in a dead-funny depiction of growing up in a slightly off-kilter place where the past is present, the present is confusing, and the future is completely up in the air.

Handbook of Health Social Work

Handbook of Health Social Work
Author: Sarah Gehlert
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 769
Release: 2006-03-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0471758884

The Handbook of Health Social Work provides a comprehensive and evidence-based overview of contemporary social work practice in health care. Written from a wellness perspective, the chapters cover the spectrum of health social work settings with contributions from a wide range of experts. The resulting resource offers both a foundation for social work practice in health care and a guide for strategy, policy, and program development in proactive and actionable terms. Three sections present the material: The Foundations of Social Work in Health Care provides information that is basic and central to the operations of social workers in health care, including conceptual underpinnings; the development of the profession; the wide array of roles performed by social workers in health care settings; ethical issues and decision - making in a variety of arenas; public health and social work; health policy and social work; and the understanding of community factors in health social work. Health Social Work Practice: A Spectrum of Critical Considerations delves into critical practice issues such as theories of health behavior; assessment; effective communication with both clients and other members of health care teams; intersections between health and mental health; the effects of religion and spirituality on health care; family and health; sexuality in health care; and substance abuse. Health Social Work: Selected Areas of Practice presents a range of examples of social work practice, including settings that involve older adults; nephrology; oncology; chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and HIV/AIDS; genetics; end of life care; pain management and palliative care; and alternative treatments and traditional healers. The first book of its kind to unite the entire body of health social work knowledge, the Handbook of Health Social Work is a must-read for social work educators, administrators, students, and practitioners.

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead
Author: Emily Austin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2021-07-06
Genre: FICTION
ISBN: 1982167351

"Gilda, a twenty-something, atheist, animal-loving lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she's there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace. In between trying to memorize the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and erecting a dirty dish tower in her crumbling apartment, Gilda strikes up an email correspondence with Grace's old friend. She can't bear to ignore the kindly old woman, who has been trying to reach her friend through the church inbox, but she also can't bring herself to break the bad news. Desperate, she begins impersonating Grace via email. But when the police discover suspicious circumstances surrounding Grace's death, Gilda may have to finally reveal the truth of her mortifying existence."--Amazon.

Mama

Mama
Author: Terry McMillan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 283
Release: 1992
Genre: English fiction
ISBN: 9780552994804

The explosive novel that introduced #1 New York Times bestselling author Terry McMillan-now in a new trade edition.

Mama Does Time

Mama Does Time
Author: Deborah Sharp
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2010-09-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0738720232

"Who knew that a who-dun-it would not only keep you guessing—but have you laughing! Deborah Sharp is the new Edna Buchanan."—Hoda Kotb, co-anchor of NBC's Today show Meet Mama: a true Southern woman with impeccable manners, sherbet-colored pantsuits, and four prior husbands, able to serve sweet tea and sidestep alligator attacks with equal aplomb. Mama's antics—especially her penchant for finding trouble — drive her daughters Mace, Maddie, and Marty to distraction. One night, while settling in to look for ex-beaus on COPS, Mace gets a frantic call from her mother. This time, the trouble is real: Mama found a body in the trunk of her turquoise convertible and the police think she's the killer. It doesn't help that the handsome detective assigned to the case seems determined to prove Mama's guilt or that the cowboy who broke Mace's heart shows up at the local Booze & 'n' Breeze in the midst of the investigation. Before their mama lands in prison—just like an embarrassing lyric from a country-western song—Mace and her sisters must find the real culprit. TV APPEARANCES NBC's Today Show from November 4, 2008 Mayor's Book Talk" from January 14, 2009 NBC6 "South Florida Today" from July 17, 2009 NBC's Today Show from August 4, 2009 Praise: "Mama Does Time is a humorous, touching reflection on familial love and politics."—Mystery Scene Magazine "With a strong, funny heroine, colorful characters, and a look at a part of Florida the tourists rarely see, Deborah Sharp has an engaging new series. Make sure Mama Does Time does time on your bookshelf."—Elaine Viets, author of Clubbed to Death: a Dead-End Job Mystery "Not since the late Anne George has there been such laugh-out-loud Southern fried fun. Deborah Sharp's Mama Does Time is a hilarious page turner with crisp and intelligent writing."—Sue Ann Jaffarian, author of the Odelia Grey Mystery series "Deborah Sharp's witty way with words makes Mama Does Time as much fun as a down-home visit with your quirky Florida cousins."—Nancy Martin, author of the Blackbird Sisters Mysteries "Colorful characters and a segment of Florida seldom seen by tourists evoke a Southern Sisters feeling in this very well written Southern fried epic...A winner."—BookBitch.com "The author's surname—Sharp—is an apt adjective to describe her writing. Her characters crackle off the page."—Cozy Library "Deborah Sharp has an eye for character...She's funny, perceptive, and entertaining. What more can a cozy reader ask for?"—Reviewing the Evidence "Newcomer Deborah Sharp will knock your socks off with this clever cozy mystery."—Fresh Fiction

Sociology of Health, Healing, and Illness

Sociology of Health, Healing, and Illness
Author: Gregory L. Weiss
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2015-08-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317344030

A comprehensive presentation of the major topics in medical sociology. The Sociology of Health, Healing, and Illness, 8/e by Gregory L. Weiss and Lynne E. Lonnquist provides an in-depth overview of the field of medical sociology. The authors provide solid coverage of traditional topics while providing significant coverage of current issues related to health, healing, and illness. Readers will emerge with an understanding of the health care system in the United States as well as the changes that are taking place with the implementation of The Affordable Care Act.