Psychosocial problems appear within a medical context worldwide, and are a major burden to health. Psychosomatic Medicine: An International Primer for the Primary Care Setting takes a uniquely global approach in laying the foundations of bio psychosocial basic care (such as recognizing psychosocial and psychosomatic problems, basic counseling and collaboration with mental health specialists) and provides relevant information about the most common mental and psychosomatic problems and disorders. The scope of the book is intercultural-it addresses global cultures, subcultures living in a single country and strengthening the care given by physicians working abroad. This clinically useful book outlines best practices for diagnosing the most common bio psychosocial problems and mastering the most common communication challenges (e.g. doctor-patient conversation, breaking bad news, dealing with difficult patients, family and health systems communication and collaboration). Every chapter integrates basic theoretical background and practical skills and includes trans-culturally sensitive material, important for work with patients from different cultures. Psychosomatic Medicine: An International Primer for the Primary Care Setting serves as an excellent resource for clinicians hoping to gain and develop knowledge and skills in psychosomatic medicine.

This book provides clinicians, consultants, and healthcare administrators with a roadmap to establishing a systemic, patient-centered, family-oriented behavioral health service that is integrated into a healthcare setting. Healthcare that goes beyond biomedical issues to address our whole biopsychosocial selves, produces better outcomes for patients and families. Integrating behavioral health into medical settings requires an understanding of the interplay of multiple systemic layers in American healthcare. The existing literature on integration largely fails to address the "big picture" of integrated services and systems, including operations, clinical processes, and financial sustainability elements. A Systemic Approach to Behavioral Healthcare Integration summarizes the literature on the impact of integrating behavioral health care into medical settings, on the role of families in health maintenance and chronic disease management, and on team science and applying family systems theory/relational science to the teams that are now essential to healthcare.

The first edition helped bring the family approach to health care into the medical mainstream. This new edition, like the first, provides health care professionals with a practical guide to working with and treating both the individual patient and the family. Tackling challenging and emerging issues, such as AIDS and the family, race and gender, child abuse and domestic violence in addition to pregnancy, child behavior and chronic illness, this volume is sure to be an indispensable guide for primary care providers.

In Family Therapy William J. Doherty and Susan H. McDaniel discuss the history, theory, and practice of this systems-oriented therapy. There are many different types of family therapy, but at the heart of each is systems theory, a model that arose from the fields of biology, physics, chemistry, and cybernetics. The main clinical precept of family systems theory is that individual problems must be understood within their larger family and environmental systems, which often provide the key to successful treatment. Family therapy provides a way of thinking in systemic, relational terms, and a set of strategies for intervening with individuals, couples, families, and other systems. Whether the client is a large family or a single person, family therapy focuses on changing relational interactions. In addition to this relationship focus, family therapy considers biological, environmental, and cultural influences on the client. Ultimately, this systemic way of thinking - essentially a model for understanding the complex relations that make up the world - can help therapists of all orientations in their practice.

Individuals, Families, and the New Era of Genetics: Biopsychosocial Perspectives brings together state-of-the-science information on the psychosocial aspects of genetics and genomics from individual and family dynamic perspectives. Genetic screening, testing, and treatment for disease will soon be available on a large scale. This book applies cognitive-behavioral and family systems approaches to conceptualize how individuals and their families cope with genetic information. Its authors, all eminent scholars, cover theoretical, methodological, clinical, legal, and ethical issues involved in areas such as information processing, decision making, quality of life, behavior change, and family communication. The book targets a wide audience, at all stages of professional development, and establishes a unified individual and family focus for responding to the psychosocial challenges of the new era of genetics and genomics.