John J Macdonald

'John Macdonald once again turns the traditional approach to health care on its head. Instead of merely diagnosing and managing disease, he urges health services ? and indeed society ? to foster health ... and articulates a vision of a health promoting ? a salutogenic ? society'. Dimity Pond, School of Medical Practice and Population Health, University of Newcastle, Australia The vast proportion of cash spent on health care by governments and individuals in the world is spent on systems that are based on a more or less Westernized acute care model. The imbalance of these systems, with their overemphasis on cure, as opposed to care and prevention or maintenance of health, is well documented. Salutogenic health care takes a holistic view of the individual as part of a social and environmental continuum rather than as an isolated packet of symptoms, and seeks to reassess the very meaning of health. There are some indications that we, as a global culture, are moving towards this new salutogenic model, but the speed of the movement has to be accelerated. This book sets out to chart the main steps of this movement and to indicate some of the ways of thinking and action which can help form new ways of approaching health care.

'John Macdonald once again turns the traditional approach to health care on its head. Instead of merely diagnosing and managing disease, he urges health services ? and indeed society ? to foster health ... and articulates a vision of a health promoting ? a salutogenic ? society'. Dimity Pond, School of Medical Practice and Population Health, University of Newcastle, Australia The vast proportion of cash spent on health care by governments and individuals in the world is spent on systems that are based on a more or less Westernized acute care model. The imbalance of these systems, with their overemphasis on cure, as opposed to care and prevention or maintenance of health, is well documented. Salutogenic health care takes a holistic view of the individual as part of a social and environmental continuum rather than as an isolated packet of symptoms, and seeks to reassess the very meaning of health. There are some indications that we, as a global culture, are moving towards this new salutogenic model, but the speed of the movement has to be accelerated. This book sets out to chart the main steps of this movement and to indicate some of the ways of thinking and action which can help form new ways of approaching health care.

Primary health care (PHC) began as a solution to problems in the developing world and is coming to be seen as a profound challenge to medical attitudes the world over. The book points to three issues at the root of PHC - universal availability of essential health care to individuals, families and population groups according to need, the involvement of communities in planning, delivering and evaluating such care and an organized active role for other sectors in health activities. It is pointed out although these principles may seem uncontroversial their introduction in developing countries has been far from smooth. When it comes to the north the principles of equity, participation and intersectoral collaboration have been resisted even more strongly by both planners and the medical establishment. By examining the lessons learnt from the developing countries, the author demonstrates the necessity to de-professionalize health. He writes at a time when resistance to PHC in the Third World is increasingly being based on dubious northern models for health care. This book demonstrates the way in which a strategy for survival in poor regions becomes a model for adequate and sustainable living everywhere.

Primary health care (PHC) began as a solution to problems in the developing world and is coming to be seen as a profound challenge to medical attitudes the world over. The book points to three issues at the root of PHC - universal availability of essential health care to individuals, families and population groups according to need, the involvement of communities in planning, delivering and evaluating such care and an organized active role for other sectors in health activities. It is pointed out although these principles may seem uncontroversial their introduction in developing countries has been far from smooth. When it comes to the north the principles of equity, participation and intersectoral collaboration have been resisted even more strongly by both planners and the medical establishment. By examining the lessons learnt from the developing countries, the author demonstrates the necessity to de-professionalize health. He writes at a time when resistance to PHC in the Third World is increasingly being based on dubious northern models for health care. This book demonstrates the way in which a strategy for survival in poor regions becomes a model for adequate and sustainable living everywhere.