Book Review
Health Sociology: An Australian Perspective
David Gray
ISBN: 1-741032-36-9; 2006; 312 pages; Pearson Education, Australia;
Alison Hutton
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Flinders University, Adelaide SA
It is now the norm for the teaching of health sciences to incorporate a sociological focus and David Gray’s text is a well-written and accessible introduction to health sociology for undergraduate students in nursing and other disciplines. Gray’s explanations of sociological concepts are at a level that should give people new to sociology an overview of the historical, social and cultural perspectives influencing healthcare in Australia.
The book is set up in three parts, the first starting with Parson’s sick role and the doctor/patient relationship. In this section, the author places emphasis on health professionals’ positioning of the people in their care from the point of view of a Marxist, structuralist and functionalist approach. This serves as the theoretical under-pinning for the discussion of health and healthcare consumers in the remainder of the text.
The second section of the text includes topics such as the social experience of health, illness and disability; the construction of people as mentally ill, disabled and aging; and the body and death. Each chapter has a complete glossary of terms and concludes with discussion questions to motivate the reader to think further on a variety of topics.
In the third section, Gray explores the social organization of the Australian healthcare system, including the nuances of Medicare and its impact on the structure and delivery of healthcare in Australia, thus providing a logical conclusion for the reader. This broad social analysis is a solid text for understanding health and illness in a predominantly bio-medical Australian healthcare environment.
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