ABSTRACT
Health and illness are ‘part of our everyday lives’, to such an extent that we often take them for granted (Marsh et al. 2009: 513). Yet health and illness have become increasingly a central part of social work’s sphere of interest in recent years. This reflects the reality that, thanks to better prevention and treatment of a whole range of physical and mental conditions (including simply growing older), more people are living with, and living longer with, complex illnesses and disabilities, requiring engagement, at some level, with social work and social care. The repositioning of adult care services within Departments of Health in the UK demonstrates this development, as does the preoccupation of successive governments with health promotion (healthy eating, sensible drinking, stopping smoking, etc.).
