A down-to-earth and highly practical guide, this is the first book to explain and illustrate the relationship between family systems, illness, and loss. This updated paperback edition includes theoretical information along with specific suggestions for developing the important skills needed to manage psychosocial symptoms in the patient and family, both during illness and after death. The author explains how to understand the dynamics of the family as an interactive, intradepAndent system. He also explains how to help families define and facilitate the tasks they must take to adjust to illness and loss.

ad;bnpaio nbqw;oreb n Is it possible to have a good death, free from unnecessary pain and trauma? What if our final days were designed to bring about reconciliation and release? In this wise and large-hearted book, Dr. Jim deMaine offers advice pointing the way toward a grace-filled transition out of life. Facing Death is both a memoir-in-vignettes and a handbook full of practical advice from Dr. deMaine's forty years in busy hospitals and ICUs. Using stories from his own life and practice, the veteran physician walks readers through ethical questions around "heroic" interventions: Do we fully understand what we're asking when we tell doctors to "do everything" to prolong life, even in cases when a patient has no chance of regaining consciousness? If we write advance directives outlining the kinds of care we would, or would not want, how can we ensure that they will be followed? As a pulmonary and critical care specialist, Dr. deMaine developed deep experience navigating such quandaries with patients and their families. In Facing Death he also treads into territory many physicians avoid, such as the role of spirituality; conflicts between doctors and families; cultural traditions that can aid or impede the goal of a peaceful transition, and ways to leave a moral legacy for our descendants.

"To those of us who have been aware of the innovative service to families facing death and bereavement that has been developed by David W. Kissane and Sidney Bloch this book has been eagerly awaited. Their work is a logical development in the field of Palliative Care in which it has long been recognized that, when life is threatened, it is the family (which includes the patient) which is, or ought to be, the unit of care. The work also has great relevance for the wider field of bereavement care...all who work to help families at times of death and bereavement will find much to learn from this book which represents a useful addition to our understanding of the losses which, sooner or later, we all have to face." - Colin Murray Parkes Family members are often intimately involved in the care of dying people and themselves require support through both their experience of palliative care and bereavement. This innovative book describes a comprehensive model of family care and how to go about it - Family Focused Grief Therapy is an approach which is new, preventive, cost effective and with proven benefits to bereaved people. It describes a highly original and creative approach to bereavement care, one likely to revolutionize psychosocial care in oncology, hospice or palliative care and grief work. The book has been designed rather like a therapy manual, providing a step-by-step approach to assessment and intervention. Its rich illustration through many clinical examples brings the process of therapy alive for the reader, anticipating the common challenges that arise and describing how the therapist might respond. Families are recognised throughout as the central social unit, pivotal to the success of palliative care. Family Focused Grief Therapy will be of use to doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, pastoral care workers, psychiatrists and other allied health professionals who work in caring for the dying and for their bereaved relatives. Based soundly on a decade of internationally regarded research, this book will alter the direction of future medical practice and is destined to become a classic in its field.