Reinforce chapter themes with free access to two journal articles for each chapter and further online readings. Select chapters will also include suggested weblinks.

Journal Article 6.1: Barnes, E. (2007) ‘Between remission and cure: Patients, practitioners and the transformation of leukemia in the late twentieth century’, Chronic Illness 3: 253–64.

Discussion Points: What are the challenges of identifying documents for research? To what extent should documentary analysis be supported by the use of other research methods such as interviews?

Journal Article 6.2: Sargeant, S. and Gross, H. (2011) ‘Young people learning to live with inflammatory bowel disease: Working with an “unclosed” diary’, Qualitative Health Research 21: 1360–70.

Discussion Points: What are the challenges of using audio diaries as a research method? What benefits does this type of research tool bring to the research subjects?

Journal Article 6.3: Callaghan, J. E. M., Fellin, L. C., Warner-Gale, F. (2016) ‘A critical analysis of child and adolescent mental health services policy in England’, Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry 22(1): 109–27.

Description: Policy on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in England has undergone radical changes in the last 15 years, with far reaching implications for funding models, access to services and service delivery. Using corpus analysis and critical discourse analysis, we explore how childhood, mental health and CAMHS are constituted in 15 policy documents, 9 pre-2010 and 6 post-2010. We trace how these constructions have changed over time and consider the practice implications of these changes. We identify how children’s distress is individualised, through medicalising discourses and shifting understandings of the relationship between socio-economic context and mental health. This is evidenced in a shift from seeing children’s mental health challenges as produced by social and economic inequities to a view that children’s mental health must be addressed early to prevent future socio-economic burden. We consider the implications of CAMHS policies for the relationship between children, families, mental health services and the state. The article concludes by exploring how concepts of ‘parity of esteem’ and ‘stigma reduction’ may inadvertently exacerbate the individualisation of children’s mental health.

Journal Article 6.4: Duncan, P., Bertolozzi, M. R., Cowley, S., Egry, E. Y., Chiesa, A. M. and De Siqueira Franca, F. O. (2015) ‘Health for All in England and Brazil’, International Journal of Health Services 45(3): 545–63.

Description: This article discusses the achievements and challenges that England and Brazil face in relation to their capacity to address inequalities in health through health promotion and public health policies. Using secondary data (policy texts and related documents), this article contextualizes, explains, and critically appraises health promotion and public health efforts for the reduction of inequalities in health in the 2 countries. A historic documentary analysis was undertaken, with hermeneutics as the methodological framework. The global economic crisis has prompted the so-called developed economies of Europe to reconsider their economic and social priorities. England represents a state facing this kind of challenge. Equally, Brazil is assuming new positions not only on the world stage but also in terms of the relationship it has with its citizens and the priorities it has for state welfare. The United Kingdom continues to finance a health care system allowing universal access in the form of the National Health Service, and state concern about the public health task of reducing inequalities has recently been underlined in policy. For Brazil, although there have been recent achievements related to population access to healthcare, challenges continue, especially with regard to the quality of care.

Journal Article 6.5: Povlsen, L., Karlsson, L. E., Regber, S., Sandstig, G. and Fosse, E. (2014) ‘Are equity aspects communicated in Nordic public health documents?’, Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 42(3): 235–41.

Description: To explore if the term equity was applied and how measures for addressing social inequalities in health and reducing inequity were communicated in selected Nordic documents concerning public health. Documents from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden were collected and analysed by Nordic authors. Data included material from websites of ministries and authorities responsible for public health issues, with primary focus on steering documents, action programmes, and reports from 2001 until spring 2013. Most strategies applied in Danish, Finnish, and Swedish documents focused on the population in general but paid special attention to vulnerable groups. The latest Danish and Finnish documents communicate a clearer commitment to address social inequalities in health. They emphasise the social gradient and the need to address the social determinants in order to improve the position of disadvantaged groups. Norwegian authorities have paid increasing attention to inequity/social inequalities in health and initiated a new law in 2012 which aims to address the social gradient in a more clear way than seen elsewhere in the Nordic countries. In the Nordic countries, redistribution by means of universal welfare policies is historically viewed as a vital mechanism to improve the situation of vulnerable groups and level the social gradient. To establish the concept of equity as a strong concern and a core value within health promotion, it is important to be aware how policies can contribute to enable reduction of social health differences.