1st Edition
The Students’ Handbook for Studying Health and Social Care Essential Context, Knowledge and Practice Skills for Doing a Successful Degree
This book provides students with the essential context, knowledge and practice skills required to succeed in your health and social care degree.
Students doing a health and social care degree make a real difference to people’s lives every day in incredible and inspiring ways. Choosing to study health and social care gives you the opportunity to acquire a wide range of essential context, knowledge and practice skills that positively transform both your life and the lives of many others. This book uniquely presents these essential context, knowledge and practice skills in one essential place, to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the requirements of doing a health and social care degree.
Topics covered in the book include health and social care legislation, demographic change, children’s rights, disability, mental health, anatomy and physiology, health and social care regulation, communication skills, teamwork and leadership and reflective practice. It is an indispensable learning resource for health and social care students wishing to succeed in their degree and beyond in a wide range of both health and social care settings, as well as a wide variety of other settings, such as schools, community settings and welfare organisations.
Chapter One – Welcome to your health and social care degree!
Clive Sealey
Part One – The essential context of health and social care
Chapter Two – The transition into university for health and social care students
Rebecca Weston
Chapter Three – Health and social care in the context of social, demographic and technological change – who cares?
Clive Sealey
Chapter Four – Understanding health for health and social care practice
Lisa Mauro-Bracken
Chapter Five – Understanding mental health for health and social care
Clive Sealey
Chapter Six – Legislation/laws guiding health and social care practice
Clive Sealey and Lisa Porter
Chapter Seven – Regulation in health and social care: Improving the quality of care?
Clive Sealey
Part Two – Essential knowledge for studying health and social care
Chapter Eight – Key sociological theories for health and social care
Dawn Goodall
Chapter Nine – Core models of health
Lisa Porter and Emily Byrne
Chapter Ten – The importance of anatomy and physiology for health and social care
Clive Sealey and Janet Osbaldiston
Chapter Eleven – Safeguarding in health and social care: Progressive, proactive and preventative actions for practice
Clive Sealey
Chapter Twelve – Children and young people’s mental health
Denisse Levermore
Chapter Thirteen – The rights of children and young people within health and social care settings
Kirsty Fraser
Chapter Fourteen – Disability: Perspectives, experiences and implications for health and social care practice
Daniel Howarth
Chapter Fifteen – Anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive ACTion for health and social care
Clive Sealey
Chapter Sixteen – ‘Healthy ageing’: The future of health and social care?
Clair Rees
Part Three – Essential practice skills for health and social care
Chapter Seventeen – Being a reflective practitioner within health and social care settings
Naomi Blaikie
Chapter Eighteen – Communication skills for practice
Rebecca Weston
Chapter Nineteen – Placement skills for health and social care students
Daniel Howarth and Naomi Blaikie
Chapter Twenty – Leadership and teamworking – the foundations of organisational culture in health and social care practice
Lisa Porter and Clair Rees
Chapter Twenty-One – 10 essential requirements for doing a successful health and social care degree
Clive Sealey
Biography
Clive Sealey is a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Theory in the School of Health and Wellbeing, University of Worcester, UK. His interests are in social policy-related issues linked to poverty, policy and theory. He obtained his PhD in social policy from the University of Birmingham in 2009. His previous book publications are Social Policy Simplified (2015), Social Policy, Service Users and Carers (2022), Applying Social Policy to Criminal Justice Practice (2023) and An Introduction to Child and Adolescent Mental Health (2025).
