1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910779550603321

Autore

Rouse Carolyn Moxley <1965->

Titolo

Uncertain suffering [[electronic resource] ] : racial health care disparities and sickle cell disease / / Carolyn Moxley Rouse

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley : , : University of California Press, , [2009]

ISBN

0-520-94504-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource

Disciplina

362.196/15270089

Soggetti

Sickle cell anemia - Patients - United States

Discrimination in medical care - United States

Health services accessibility - United States

Minorities - Medical care - United States

Race discrimination - United States

Social medicine - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

"The George Gund Foundation imprint in African American studies"--P. facing t.p.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part 1. The Questions -- Part 2. Reforming the System -- Notes -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

On average, black Americans are sicker and die earlier than white Americans. Uncertain Suffering provides a richly nuanced examination of what this fact means for health care in the United States through the lens of sickle cell anemia, a disease that primarily affects blacks. In a wide ranging analysis that moves from individual patient cases to the compassionate yet distanced professionalism of health care specialists to the level of national policy, Carolyn Moxley Rouse uncovers the cultural assumptions that shape the quality and delivery of care for sickle cell patients. She reveals a clinical world fraught with uncertainties over how to treat black patients given resource limitations and ambivalence. Her book is a compelling look at the ways in which the politics of racism, attitudes toward pain and suffering, and the reliance on charity for healthcare services for the underclass can create disparities in the U.S. Instead of burdening hospitals and clinics with



the task of ameliorating these disparities, Rouse argues that resources should be redirected to community-based health programs that reduce daily forms of physical and mental suffering.