New directions in health care and disability: the need for a shared understanding of human functioning

People who have complex problems affecting multiple areas of their lives need a different approach than people who have singular health conditions. They benefit more from an effectively cooperating support network that explores appropriate ways of providing assistance, rather than a strong focus on outcome-based care.

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Real Men Do…Real Men Don’t: Young Latino and African American Men’s Discourses Regarding Sexual Health Care Utilization

American Journal of Men s Health ◽

10.1177/1557988309331797 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 218-230 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Debra Kalmuss ◽

Karen Austrian

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

African American ◽

Sexual Health ◽

African American Men ◽

The United States ◽

Care Utilization ◽

Care Seeking ◽

Sexual Health Care ◽

New Directions ◽

The Relationship

There is growing recognition that men as well as women need sexual health care (SHC) services. Despite this, male friendly sexual health services are not readily available in the United States, and men are underutilizing the services that are available. This situation needs to be rectified to improve sexual health outcomes for men and women. In this study we conducted 10 focus groups with young adult Latino and African American men to examine their perceptions of the factors influencing SHC utilization among the men they know, with an emphasis on how notions of what it means to be a man affects health care seeking. The findings both amplify and complicate the relationship between masculinity and SHC seeking. They suggest new directions for public health efforts to enhance men’s SHC utilization.

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Achieving shared understanding in chronic care interactions: the role of caregivers

Working with Older People ◽

10.1108/wwop-06-2021-0028 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Sarah Bigi

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Elderly Patients ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Chronic Care ◽

Second Step ◽

Original Research ◽

Clinical Settings ◽

Shared Understanding ◽

Content Type

Purpose Within the context of a research program on the most relevant discourse types in chronic care medical encounters, this contribution reports on a qualitative study on the role caregivers play within the process of shared understanding occurring between health-care professionals and elderly patients. The purpose of the paper is to highlight one dimension of such complexity, by bringing to light the challenges connected to the achievement of shared understanding between health-care professionals and elderly patients when caregivers are involved in the conversation. Design/methodology/approach The paper reports on a two-step analysis of a corpus of transcripts of interactions in diabetes and hypertension settings. In the first step, caregivers’ contributions to deliberative sequences have been analyzed. In the second step, the analysis was extended to caregivers’ contributions to the whole encounter. Findings The results show that professionals’ ability to engage caregivers in deliberations during the encounter and, more generally, to assign a role to caregivers as legitimate participants in the consultation may favor the smooth development of the interaction and an effective process of shared understanding among all participants. Originality/value The paper further develops original research about the functions of the argumentative component in dialogues occurring in clinical settings.

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