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Family therapists working in medical contexts often struggle to find a common language for communication with medical staff about the importance of family support. HIV positive youth are a group who have particular need for family support to help improve medication adherence, promote more open and positive communication, and decrease substance use and risk behaviors. In this paper, the authors retrospectively examined the levels of family support in a sample of 50 North American urban minority youth coping with HIV in an HIV/AIDs pediatric clinic from 2003 to 2007 at 2 time points (pre- and postdiagnosis) and began developing a clinician-rated family support tool. The authors highlight the use of a common clinician-rated family support tool for medical and mental health staff to discuss patients and their families. Results suggest that the family support youth were receiving fell between mixed and unsupportive levels both at pre- and postdiagnosis. Through the use of a case example the authors elaborate on how this family support tool aided in building a collaborative relationship with a focus on garnering family support for youth coping with the diagnosis of HIV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the field of collaborative and integrated medicine grows, family therapy and other behavioral science training programs are expanding to offer courses in medical family therapy. These courses and certificate training programs offer students experience that allows them to successfully integrate their skills into a medical setting. One significant element of this training focuses on the cultural differences between a medical clinic and a mental health clinic. Professional assumptions, when ignored or beyond awareness, can easily interfere with appropriate and valuable patient care. In this article, the authors describe the formation and implementation of a postgraduate training certificate in medical family therapy at Seattle Pacific University, with particular focus on internship development. The authors weave in the key questions addressed and answered as the program took shape and grew in its first 5 years of implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

C. J. Peek has done us two lasting services with this beautiful summary. He has reminded us of Don Bloch's contributions to the beginning of collaborative family health care, and he has catalogued the elements of Don's vision for the field. Don's vision was for "collaborative family health care." Although we have made a great deal of progress developing collaborative health care that he would endorse, the full vision including the family as a basic unit of care and of understanding in health care is still ahead of us. The requirement of the inclusion of the family in the formulation of the patient-centered medical home may provide the impetus for a full realization of the "unrounded corners" version of Don's vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]