Reason and Rationality in Health and Human Services Delivery

Reason and Rationality in Health and Human Services Delivery is the first book to discuss the topic of decisionmaking and services from a multidisciplinary approach. It uses theory and social considerations, not just technology, as a basis for improved services. Health and human service students and professionals will learn how to form rational and reasonable decisions that take their clients'cultural backgrounds into consideration when identifying an illness or appropriating any kind of intervention. With a particular emphasis on theories, models, organizational settings, technologies, and practitioner training methods that lead to culturally sensitive decisions, Reason and Rationality will help you deliver efficient and improved medical and social services to clients from all ethnic backgrounds. Recognizing reason as the centerpiece of most of Western philosophy, this text reveals how our idea of truth, fact, and order are wrongly thought to be universal; yet, Western principles are continually used in the decision-making process for health and social services. Focusing on the policy implications of decisionmaking in medical and social service settings, this text works to incorporate a broad range of factors into the reasoning process, such as cultural traditions and beliefs, that will result in better treatment for patients. Giving you suggestions and strategies for upgrading reasoning and decision-making processes and applying them to every area of service, Reason and Rationality discusses different themes that will help you improve services to patients, such as: - the rationale currently used to justify decision-making strategies concerning medical and human services - using computer technology to make clinical assessments - revising administrative structure, management theories, and organizational strategies so that decision-making processes enhance the overall quality of service delivery - how the practitioner/patient relationship is important in choosing the proper treatment - soliciting community-based input to assess the public's health and human service needs in order to lessen political involvement in decision-making stages In addition, Reason and Rationality provides information and examples that show why you should consider the "life-world"--the values, beliefs, and commitments of a culture's history-- as the key to understanding the powers of reasoning that specify parameters of health and illness.

Jean A Pardeck, John W Murphy, Charles Longino, Jr

Contents Reason and Rationality in Health and Human Services Delivery: An Introduction - Reason, the Life-World, and Health Care Delivery - Rationalizing Decision-Making Through Computer Technology: A Critical Appraisal - Sociomedical Models and the Epistemology of Risk: The Shortcomings of Medical Decision-Making Research - Community-Based Epidemiology: Community Involvement in Defining Social Risk - A World View Model of Health Care Utilization: The Impact of Social and Provider Context on Health Care Decision-Making - Health Care Policy in Theory and Practice: A Review of the Process as a Product of Rational Decision-Making - The Limits of Scientific Medicine: Paradigm Strain and Social Policy - Index