Don Bloch's vision: A commentary

Abstract

Comments on the article "Don Bloch's vision for Collaborative Family Health Care: Progress and next steps" by C. J. Peek (see record 2015-25290-002). Every visionary deserves a skilled integrator and synthesizer such as C. J. Peek. Don would have been impressed with this concise account of the evolution of his own ideas and those of his colleagues in the Collaborative Family Health Care Association, which is Don's greatest legacy-a participatory, visionary, nonguild membership organization. Don Bloch's ecosystemic perspective was all about flattening hierarchies conceptually, clinically, and organizationally. His emphasis on families was also connected to this flattening of hierarchies. Inclusion of families creates more potential for true partnership because the patient needs a team as much as the clinician needs one. The current author wants to hold up the issues of hierarchies, power, and guilds.