Around the globe, families are often faced with a variety of health issues, often as a result of social, political, religious, and economic forces. Health issues affect both individual family members and the family unit as a whole, as well as impacting family relationships and structures. Illnesses, injuries, and health problems can strike at any time, and can have long-lasting consequences for individuals and their families. This multidisciplinary volume addresses the impact health issues have on individual family members and how this affects their family relationships. The chapters cover a wide range of health related topics including illness in adults and children, long term illness, mental health, and international perspectives. Through the use of a wide variety of methodological and theoretical perspectives, the family scholars in this volume provide considerable insight into the ways in which families and their members are affected by health, as well as how they adapt to and cope with health-related dilemmas.

Around the globe, families are often faced with a variety of health issues, often as a result of social, political, religious, and economic forces. Health issues affect not only individual family members, but also impact family relationships and structures. Illnesses, injuries, and health problems can strike at any time, and can have long-lasting consequences for families. When a family member's health is in jeopardy, it can bring about a wide variety of dilemmas. This multidisciplinary volume addresses the impact these issues have on the family as a unit; how they impact family relationships as well as how the family as a whole responds. The chapters cover a wide range of health related topics including illness in adults and children, sexual relationships, mental health, and disability. Through the use of a wide variety of methodological and theoretical perspectives, the family scholars in this volume provide considerable insight into the ways in which families are affected by health, as well as how they adapt to and cope with health-related dilemmas.