A Family Systems Approach to Disability and Chronic Illness
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Professionals focus on the person identified as the patient, but disability and chronic illness (CID) affect the whole family. The family comes with its own ideas about illness, health and wellness. This training focuses on how to incorporate the family response to a CID in one or more of their members. Included is the language we use about CID, how to phrase questions, and how to use language to reflect the family’s model(s) of disability. Also included are management of cognitive issues within the family, and inclusion of family members (parents, partners, children, adults) in treatment planning and implementation. Included are four reasons assistive technology (AT) sent home with patients is never used and ways of introducing AT to families.
Rhoda Olkin, PhD, is a distinguished professor at the California School of Professional Psychology. She is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has been teaching and researching about disability for over 30 years and had a clinical practice working with clients with chronic conditions or disabilities. She is the author of the well-received What Psychotherapists Should Know About Disability; Disability-Affirmative Therapy: A Case Formulation Template for Your Clients with Disabilities; and Teaching Disability: Practical Activities for In-class and Homework.
Dr. Olkin is a polio survivor and mother of two.
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