Medical Family Therapy and Integrated Care

The field of medical family therapy has grown by leaps and bounds since the authors bestselling Medical Family Therapy: A Biopsychosocial Approach to Families with Health Problems was published in 1992. In that book, the authors sought to bridge the gap between mental and physical health by introducing a systems-based approach that unites unites physicians, psychologists, family therapists, social workers, nurses, counselors, and therapists of all theoretical orientations in working with families across a wide range of professional settings. In this thorough revision and update of their classic text, the authors describe the impact of recent economic and structural changes in health care on the role of the medical family therapist. They describe how medical and mental health providers can learn to speak the same language, whether they collaborate in outpatient therapy, co-location settings, community health centers, or fully-integrated health systems. They also take into account exciting new advances in fertility treatments and genomic medicine, and assess the medical family therapist s role in navigating the unique conflicts that can arise in families dealing with these and similar issues. "This new edition of Medical Family Therapy is a different book from its predecessor, given the many developments in the field in the 20 years since we wrote the first edition. Foundational chapters were redrafted from scratch, with older material retained only if it was equally relevant to the current clinical environment. These include the overview of the field (Chapter 1); clinical strategies (Chapter 2); collaboration (Chapter 3); health behaviors (Chapter 7); pregnancy loss, infertility, and reproductive technologies (Chapter 9); children (Chapter 10); somatizing patients (chapter 11); and caregiving and end of life (Chapter 13). New chapters include the shared experiences of illness when therapists have personal or family experience with the illness of their patient (Chapter 4), community engagement (Chapter 6), medical family therapy with couples (Chapter 8), genetics and genomics (Chapter 12), and the future of medical family therapy (Chapter 14). A new appendix profiles the practices of a number of medical family therapists"--Foreword. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved) The field of medical family therapy has grown by leaps and bounds since the authors' 1st edition was published in 1992. In that book, the authors sought to bridge the gap between mental and physical health by introducing a systems-based approach that unites physicians, psychologists, family therapists, social workers, nurses, counselors, and therapists of all theoretical orientations in working with families across a wide range of professional settings. In this thorough revision and update of their classic text, the authors describe the impact of recent economic and structural changes in health care on the role of the medical family therapist. They describe how medical and mental health providers can learn to speak the same language, whether they collaborate in outpatient therapy, co-location settings, community health centers, or fully-integrated health systems. They also take into account exciting new advances in fertility treatments and genomic medicine, and assess the medical family therapist's role in navigating the unique conflicts that can arise in families dealing with these and similar issues Contents Foreword Preface to the First Edition Preface to the Second Edition Acknowledgments Part I Foundations of Medical Family Therapy Chapter 1 An Overview of Medical Family Therapy Chapter 2 Clinical Strategies for Medical Family Therapy Chapter 3 Collaboration With Other Health Professionals Chapter 4 The Shared Emotional Themes of Illness Chapter 5 The Self of the Medical Family Therapist Chapter 6 Community Engagement Part II Medical Family Therapy Across the Life Cycle Chapter 7 Health Behaviors That Harm Chapter 8 Couples and Illness Chapter 9 Pregnancy Loss, Infertility, and Reproductive Technology Chapter 10 Medical Family Therapy With Children Chapter 11 Somatizing Patients and Their Families Chapter 12 The Experience of Genomic Medicine: A New Frontier Chapter 13 Caregiving, End of Life Care, and Loss Part III Conclusion Chapter 14 How Medical Family Therapists Can Contribute to the Transformation of Health Care Appendix: Profiles of Medical Family Therapists in Practice References Index About the Authors