New Book on the Cuban Health Care System
We wanted to bring a new book - Community Health Care in Cuba, edited by Susan E. Mason, David L. Strug, and Joan Beder – to the attention of readers of the Social Medicine Portal.
Interest in the Cuban health care model has grown over the years and despite ongoing changes in Cuban society, the pride and satisfaction Cuban citizens take in their health care system suggest that it will likely prevail in post-Castro Cuba. Susan E. Mason, David L. Strug, and Joan Beder have edited this collection of essays by contributors who are respected professionals in Cuba and the United States. Community Health Care in Cuba examines the closely integrated Cuban system in which community representatives, nurses, doctors, social workers, and other health care specialists work together to meet the health care needs of all Cuba’s citizens. The collection features a first-hand look into the country’s highly successful, integrated, and prevention-oriented health care model and includes interviews with the director of Cuba’s National Medical Sciences Information Center (INFOMED) and the president of the Cuban Society of Social Workers in Health Care. Placing Cuba at the forefront as a model of international health care, this book illustrates how Cuba, despite its economic constraints, is able to deliver high-quality care to its citizens from a local to national level.
This is one of the few English-language books to provide a comprehensive view of Cuba’s community-oriented health care program. Based on observations and interviews by Cuban contributors or those who have made recent trips to Cuba, it addresses a wide variety of health care topics in social work, nursing, medicine, and public health
About the Editors:
Susan E. Mason (PhD, Columbia University; MSSW, Columbia University) is professor of social work at Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work, professor of sociology, and chair of the college departments of sociology and political science. She has written many articles and book chapters on mental health, social service utilization and workforce efficacy. She is co-editor of Diagnosis Schizophrenia: A Comprehensive Resource for Patients, Families, and Professionals.
David L. Strug (PhD, Columbia University; MSW, Hunter College; MPH, University of California at Berkeley) is professor of social work at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work at Yeshiva University in New York City and is also a clinical social worker in private practice. He has traveled frequently to Cuba to do research on older persons, the development of social work, and community-oriented health care. He wrote with Jeanne Lemkau Love, Loss and Longing: The Impact of U.S. Travel Restrictions on Cuban-American Families.
Joan Beder (PhD, Yeshiva University; MSW, Adelphi University) is professor of social work at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work at Yeshiva University in New York City and maintains a clinical practice in Long Island. She is the author of Faces of Bereavement: A Casebook for Grief Counselors and Medical Social Work: The Interface of Medicine and Caring.
posted by Matt Anderson (co-author of the chapter on Medical Education in Cuba)
Ms. Greene,
For starters, it would be a good idea to actually read the book before commenting. You would have noted that it was NOT written as a comparison to the US healthcare system.
Hey, you might of actually enjoyed reading it, politics aside…
“..The collection features a first-hand look into the country’s highly successful, integrated, and prevention-oriented health care model…”
Dear God. That is what you want for America? And you call yourselves intellectuals? You don’t know America, do you? You haven’t the slightest idea who we are out here, do you?
You’re beginning to find out. Your anointed one is failing to convince the masses that socialist government-run health care is the way to go. Your Utopian progressive dream is about to be dashed, once again.
Quit comparing America to communist countries.