Main description:

A ground-breaking new volume and the first of its kind to concisely outline and explicate the emerging field of whole person care process, Whole Person Care: A New Paradigm for the 21st Century organizes the disparate strains of literature on the topic. It does so by clarifying the concept of 'whole person' and also by outlining the challenges and opportunities that death anxiety poses to the practice of whole person care. Whole person care seeks to study, understand and promote the role of health care in relieving suffering and promoting healing in acute and chronic illness as a complement to the disease focus of biomedicine. The focus is on the whole person -- physical, emotional, social, and spiritual. Using concise, easy-to-read language, the early chapters offer practitioners a thorough understanding of the concepts, skills and tools necessary for the practice of whole person care from a clinician-patient interaction standpoint, while the last two chapters review the myriad implications of whole person care for medical practice. An invaluable resource for all areas of medical practice and for practitioners at all stages of development, from medical students to physicians and allied health providers with many years of experience, Whole Person Care: A New Paradigm for the 21st Century will have a profound impact on western medical practice in North America and elsewhere.

Contents:

Acknowledgments
Tom A. Hutchinson

Preface
Tom A. Hutchinson

Foreword
Balfour M. Mount

1. Whole person care
Tom A. Hutchinson

2. Suffering, whole person care, and the goals of medicine
Eric J. Cassell

3. The healing journey
Tom A. Hutchinson, Balfour M. Mount, Michael Kearney

4. The challenge of medical dichotomies and the congruent physician / patient relationship in medicine
Tom A. Hutchinson, James R. Brawer

5. Separation-attachment theory in illness and the role of the healthcare practitioner
Gregory Fricchione

6. Empathy, compassion and the goals of medicine
Stephen Liben

7. Mindfulness and whole person care
Patricia L. Dobkin

8. Healing, wounding, and the language of medicine
Abraham Fuks

9. Death anxiety: the challenge and the promise of whole person care
Sheldon Solomon, Krista Lawlor

10. Whole person self-care: self-care from the inside out
Michael Kearney, Radhule Weininger

11. Prevention and whole person care
Tom A. Hutchinson

12. Whole person care and complementary and alternative therapies
Mary Grossman

13. Spiritual dimensions of whole person care
Abdu'l-Missagh Ghadirian

14. Whole person care and the revolution in genetics
David S. Rosenblatt, Jennifer Fitzpatrick

15. Whole person care on a busy medical ward
Gordon L. Crelinsten

16. Teaching whole person care in medical school
Helen Mc Namara, J. Donald Boudreau

17. Whole person care, professionalism, and the medical mandate
Richard L. Cruess, Sylvia R. Cruess

18. Whole person care: Conclusions
Tom A. Hutchinson

Appendix; The nature of persons and clinical medicine
Eric J. Cassell