Author Description

This volume focuses on the necessity of family health counseling in providing effective, efficient health care in our technologically advanced, diverse, and complex society. Clinicians must have a broad understanding of all factors that affect individuals and families at all levels to provide culturally competent, collaborative care. Theoretical framework/paradigms are presented that guide clinical practice. A postmodern perspective provides skills for dialogical conversations and collaborative relationships with families. The book widens the health-care perspective by providing a foundational view incorporating both the family within its cultural/ethnic context and the multiple systems with which they interact as resources for health. The goal is to provide a foundation in the concepts and skills of health-related counseling with families from diverse cultures, to learn how these concepts are used in clinical practice, to learn how to work with families and communities during and after disasters, and to see how these concepts affect political decisions at the local, state, and federal level, as well as how these concepts drive family social policy or predict the future of family health care. The book also provides information on common psychiatric medications, the types, ranges, uses, side effects, interactions with other drugs, effects on counseling, and the collaboration needed among health professionals. This will be a valuable resource for those in the fields of counseling, clinical and family psychology, family therapy, psychiatry, family and primary-care medicine, social work and nursing.