Sickle cell and thalassaemia: why social science is critical to improving care and service support.

For sickle cell and thalassaemia, social science is critical if we wish to understand the social context of - and how people experience - the two conditions. Sickle cell and thalassaemia are more than simply ‘being of’, ‘belonging to’ or ‘being at risk of’ a particular diagnostic category. Sickle cell and thalassaemia are an expression of how people interpret and negotiate their social experience (see, Kleinman, 1988). To be successful, policy and practices, wherever they are enacted, need to engage with this. By way of conclusion to this volume – and to help facilitate this - we indicate five ways, or five meanings, through which we signal this critical nature of social science and its potential value in working alongside more clinical paradigms to improve the care of those at risk of sickle cell and thalassaemia disorders.