Search

Comments on the article, ""Stimulating Reflective Practice Using Collaborative Reflective Training in Breaking Bad News Simulations," by Kim, Hernandez, Lavery, and Denmark (see record 2016-18380-001). Kim et al. are applauded for engaging and supporting the development of simulation-based education, and for their efforts to create an interprofessional learning environment. However, we hope further work on alternate methods of debriefing leverage the already inherent activation of learners that builds on previous experience, fosters reflection and builds skills. What is needed is the transference of learning theories into our educational research efforts that measure the effectiveness, validation, and reliability of behavior based performance change. The majority of breaking bad news (BBN) curricula limit program evaluations to reports of learner satisfaction, confidence and self-efficacy, rather than determining the successful translation of effective and humanistic interpersonal skills into long-term clinical practice (Rosenbaum et al., 2004). Research is needed to investigate how educational programs affect provider-patient-family interaction, and ultimately patient and family understanding, to better inform our teaching BBN skills. (PsycINFO Database Record [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on an article by C. J. Peek that focuses on Don Bloch's vision of collaborative family health care and the evolution over the past 20 years of the field. He mentions the importance of family in Bloch's and the Wingspread workgroup's ecosystemic collaborative care model. The author thinks that the ability of the health care consumer and professionals to collaborate in a more egalitarian and less hierarchial manner hinders progress.

Background: Don Bloch is the central figure in the origin story for the field of collaborative family health care; the journal Families, Systems, & Health; and for the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association (CFHA). He exerted extraordinary intellectual and practical leadership for all 3. He convened a national working session in 1994 that took stock of the field and set out next steps, one of which was to create the interprofessional organization dedicated to collaborative family health care that is now CFHA. Purpose: As part of honoring Don Bloch's contributions to the field and this journal, this article sets out tenets of his original vision and traces next steps toward this vision generated by national groups between 1994 and 2014, showing what is the same or different over these 20 years, and especially what this means for the field going forward. Method: Precepts of Don Bloch's original vision are drawn from his writings, including the briefing papers he prepared for the national Wingspread group convened in 1994, which also set out next steps for the field. These steps are then compared with next developmental steps for the field generated by CFHA conference attendees in 2004 and again in 2014, after reviewing the history of the organization and the field. Conclusion: Much of Don Bloch's vision has remained relevant to health care transformation, with a number of areas showing significant accomplishment and acceptance, whereas others remain aspirational, and a few others arguably being more difficult to achieve now than when Don articulated them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant regional, population structure, and social changes that have taken place in Finland since World War II have affected well-being and health among the population in many ways. From the 1960s onward, family orientation started to gain ground, first in psychiatry, and about two decades later it began to he applied in the work of family doctors as well. This article describes this development process and presents some innovative new projects promoting family therapy and systemic family medicine. In the opinion of the authors, the problems of individuals and families that health care professionals are faced with are often so complex that an inter professional approach supporting the clients' own resources is beneficial. [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]

The author comments on C. J. Peek's article about the legacy of family therapist Don Bloch. He mentions the gifts bestowed by Bloch on the field of collaborative family health care such as the Collaborative Family Health Care Association. The author also looks at the depth of Bloch's leadership and how Peek's historical method can be used to get one's act most effectively to advance the field.

The author comments on the vision of Don Bloch and his colleagues in the Collaborative Family Health Care Association (CHFCA). He describes Bloch's ecosystemic perspective as well as his emphasis on families. He provides brief background information on CHFCA. The author describes Bloch as a synthetic thinker and a catalytic leader.