Publisher's Synopsis
Health care policy traditionally views lay people as health care consumers. This groundbreaking book offers evidence of a new perspective: lay people are the primary providers of health care. The family, organized religion, voluntary associations, neighborhoods, and ethnic and racial groups act as a buffer between the individual and the large institutions of modern society. These small social groups or "mediating structures" comprise the hidden non-professional health care system which is Cost Effective, Integral, and Enduring.
