Publisher's Synopsis
The balance of health and social care for disabled people has shifted from institutions to care in the community. This is largely based on the assumption that disabled people can and do enjoy a higher quality of life in their own homes. Formulating community care policy requires a complete picture of chronic illness and its effects on the entire community.;This book shows how knowledge of the epidemiology of disablement can help planners, service providers, patients and voluntary organizations choose strategies for community care. A large multi-disciplinary team of social and medical scientists at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School conducted the Lambeth studies of disablement over the last decade. Their cumulative experience in the development of social and health policy for disablement is reported, using original data from a series of different studies designed to diagnose problems and to generate a social response on the part of all members of society.
