Adapting to Illness through Family Groups

Abstract

Counseling for medical patients and their families which focuses on the emotional adjustment to long-term hospitalization, illness and disability is relatively new to the medical setting. Only in recent years have hospitals begun to recognize their responsibility in responding to the emotional and social components of illness through structured programs geared specifically to this process of adaptation to illness.

Based on the assumption that families as well as patients experience emotional stress upon hospitalization of a family member, medical counseling groups were developed at St. Mary's Hospital and Extended Care Center in an effort to more effectively and efficiently support the patient and others in his family network.

This paper describes some practical measures for assuring family involvement in physical rehabilitation and discusses some possible methods of establishing such groups in a hospital setting. Case examples in the areas of stroke, cancer, diabetes, and coronary care illustrate the encouraging results of these groups.