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THE CHRONICALLY ILL AGED, FAMILY CONFLICT, AND FAMILY MEDICINE
Author(s) -
Miller Michael B.
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1969.tb02332.x
Subject(s) - medicine , sister , diversity (politics) , unit (ring theory) , disease , family medicine , psychiatry , psychology , pathology , sociology , mathematics education , anthropology
A bstract The study of the chronically ill aged provides special opportunities to observe patient‐family interactions on exposure to the stress occasioned by the long‐term illness of a parent. The author and his associates have observed 9 patient‐family reactive patterns, 4 of which are inappropriate or paradoxical, and 5 of which are appropriate. The inappropriate patterns predominate among the more severely handicapped patients. Such observations contribute to the study of comprehensive care. The medical focus should be expanded to include the family in the treatment unit. An adequate nomenclature for “family diagnosis” is yet to be developed. The medical profession's traditional strong orientation towards the patient and his disease, almost to the exclusion of understanding the impact of the patient's illness on the immediate and remote social environment (and vice versa) impedes the development of comprehensive care. The diversity of socio‐cultural, religious, economic and other factors affecting patient‐family interactions and the practice of medicine is of such magnitude that the medical profession must learn to work in symbiotic association with its sister social sciences—sociology, psychology, anthropology, psychiatry and theology. Treatment of the patient as a whole person includes the study and management of the family as an entity and as part of the treatment unit that involves community health engrafted on the prevailing society or culture.