Advancing family involvement in collaborative health care: Next steps

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). C. J. Peek has provided us with a masterful integration of Don Bloch's vision of collaborative family health care and the evolution over the past 20 years of the field. The current author was very fortunate to be part of the initial meeting at Wingspread in 1994. As a family systems-oriented community and public health-trained psychiatrist, my primary focus over 30 years has been on families facing chronic illness and disability and collaborative care efforts in specialty, primary, rehabilitation, and palliative care medicine. In my view, the ability of the health care consumer (patient and his or her family members) and professional worlds to collaborate in a more egalitarian and less hierarchical and wary manner remains a significant constraint to progress.