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Handbook of the Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healing pp 465–479Cite as

The Complexities of Help-Seeking: Exploring Challenges Through a Social Network Perspective

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Abstract

Over the past 40 years, scholars have developed a series of models designed to explain and predict the use of healthcare services. The models of the 1960s and 1970s generated copious research in the health departments of numerous universities, partly because of the fact that their standard, variable-centred methodology made it easy for researchers to create questionnaires patterned on the theoretical models. In later years, however, recognition of the growing complexity of modern society caused theorists to propose new models that took a greater number of social phenomena, especially help-seeking behaviour, into account and called for the application of not one but several methodologies. While these new complex models differ from each other on many points, they all attempt to address the following four dimensions: social structure, multilevel effects, culture, and temporality. In this chapter, we discuss these dimensions from the vantage point of social networks. Our approach analyzes the dimension of social structure through network terminology (network structure) and explores multilevel effects through the linkage processes between formal and informal networks (organizational networks). We interpret the notion of culture through the lens of social representations (network content) and we use sequential narrative analysis (network dynamics) to understand the dimension of temporality.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Le Fonds de Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ, reference no.8308). We would like to extend our gratitude to Jennifer Petrela for her editorial assistance and support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSSS de Bordeaux-Cartierville-Saint-Laurent, 11822, avenue du Bois-de-Boulogne, Montréal, QC, Canada, H3W 2X6

    Normand Carpentier

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  1. Normand Carpentier
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  2. Paul Bernard
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Normand Carpentier .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Social Research, Indiana University, E. Third Street 1022, Bloomington, 47405, Indiana, USA

    Bernice A. Pescosolido

  2. Institute of Social Research, Indiana University, E. Third Street 1022, Bloomington, 47405, Indiana, USA

    Jack K. Martin

  3. Institute of Social Research, Indiana University, E. Third Street 1022, Bloomington, 47405, Indiana, USA

    Jane D. McLeod

  4. , National Primary Care Research and Devel, The University of Manchester, Oxford Street, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom

    Anne Rogers

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Carpentier, N., Bernard, P. (2011). The Complexities of Help-Seeking: Exploring Challenges Through a Social Network Perspective. In: Pescosolido, B., Martin, J., McLeod, J., Rogers, A. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healing. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7261-3_24

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