This book provides an applied, interdisciplinary approach to an understanding of the key social determinants of health, essential at a time of increasing inequalities and reductions in existing NHS services and local authority budgets. A person's health and wellbeing is influenced by a spectrum of socioeconomic, cultural, living and working conditions, social and community networks and lifestyle choices. Based on the 'rainbow model' of the social determinants of health, chapters from experts in a wide range of disciplines examine the key factors which can lead to poor quality of life, homelessness and reduced mortality. Featuring practitioner, academic and commentator experiences, and clear case studies, this book will enable researchers, front-line workers, managers, service commissioners and politicians to identify and employ the most appropriate health, social and economic interventions to support those at the edge of the community, and the promotion of their inclusion in society.

Table of Contents:
Section 1. Life chances The Individual: Growing into society - Professor Adrian Bonner; Addressing inequalities in education: parallels with health - Dr Kirstin Kerr, University of Manchester; Wholistic health and happiness: Social and economic perspectives - Dr Andrew Parnham, Livability; Nutrition in marginalised groups - Professor Julie Lovegrove, Dr Rosalind Fallaize, University of Reading; Section 2. Life style challenges; Alcohol related harm and health inequalities - Dr Katherine Smith, University of Edinburgh, Jon Foster, Katherine Brown, Institute of Alcohol Studies; Substance use, cognition and equity - Dr Jenny Svanberg, NHS Forth Valley Alcohol and Drug Partnership; Health and exercise in the community - Dr Naomi Brooks, University of Stirling; Health and Wellbeing in digital society - Nathan Critchlow, University of Stirling; Section 3. Social and Community networks; Building an Inclusive Community: The role that volunteers can play in reaching those on the edges of society - Dr Claire Bonham, The Salvation Army; Support for people with Learning Disabilities: Promoting an inclusive community - Barbara McIntosh; Community Wellbeing programmes: What works? - Dr Anne-Marie Bagnall, Leeds Beckett University and UK Cochrane Centre Learn and Teach Faculty; Identifying actual needs using a Realist Evaluation approach - Dr Jean Hannah, University of Stirling; Section 4. Education, employment and Housing; Social Enterprise and the Wellbeing of young people not in education, employment or training (NEETS) - Steve Coles, Spitalfields Trust; Health and Housing - Dr Katy Hetherington, Neil Hamlet, Public Health Medicine NHS; Local Authority perspectives on Community Planning and Localism - Joyce Melican, Local Authority Counsellor, and Deputy Mayor of the London Borough of Sutton; Section 5. Supporting people at the edge of the community Towards an integrative theory of homelessness and rough sleeping - Dr Nick Maguire, University of Southampton; Mental Health, Severe and Multiple deprivation - Dr Claire Luscombe, The Salvation Army, University of Kent; Brain injury and social exclusion - Professor Michael Oddy, Sara da Silva Ramos, Clinical Services for the Disabilities Trust; What works to improve the health of the multiply excluded? - Dr Nigel Hewett OBE, GP, University College Hospital; Section 6. The socio political environment Geo-political aspects of health and wellbeing - Professor Clare Bambra, Dr Kayleigh Garthwaite, and Amy Greer Murphy, University of Durham; Health and wellbeing of refugees and migrants within a politically-contested environment - Dr Gayle Munro, The Salvation Army; The Care Act, 2014 - Professor Paul Burstow, Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, City University; Health and Social Care in an Age of Austerity - Dr Charles West, former GP, NHS Information Authority.