"High praise to Hodgson, Lamson, Mendenhall, and Crane and in creating a seminal work for systemic researchers, educators, supervisors, policy makers and financial experts in health care. The comprehensiveness and innovation explored by every author reflects an in depth understanding that reveals true pioneers of integrated health care. Medical Family Therapy: Advanced Applications will lead the way for Medical Family Therapists in areas just now being acknowledged and explored."

• Tracy Todd, PhD, LMFT, Executive Director of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy

Integrated, interdisciplinary health care is growing in stature and gaining in numbers. Systems and payers are facilitating it. Patients and providers are benefiting from it. Research is supporting it, and policymakers are demanding it.

The emerging field of Medical Family Therapy (MedFT) is contributing greatly to these developments and Medical Family Therapy: Advanced Applications examines its implementation in depth. Leading experts describe MedFT as it is practiced today, the continuum of services provided, the necessary competencies for practitioners, and the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects of health that the specialty works to integrate. Data-rich chapters model core concepts such as the practitioner as scientist, the importance of context in health care settings, collaboration with families and communities, and the centrality of the relational perspective in treatment. The book's wide-spectrum coverage takes in research, training, financial, and policy issues, among them:

• Preparing MedFTs for the multiple worlds of health care
• Extending platforms on how to build relationships in integrated care
• Offering a primer in program evaluation for MedFTs
• Ensuring health equity in MedFT research
• Identifying where policy and practice collidewith ethics and integrated care

• Recognizing the cost-effectiveness of family therapy in health care With its sophisticated insights into the current state - and the future - of healthcare reform, Medical Family Therapy: Advanced Applications is essential reading for researchers and practitioners in the fields of clinical psychology, counseling, family therapy, healthcare policy, medical family therapy, psychiatric nursing, psychiatry, public health, and social work.

  Autorentext
  The editors of this text are all nationally recognized scholars and educators in the areas of Medical Family Therapy and marriage and family therapy. Drs. Hodgson and Lamson have co- authored the first doctoral program in Medical Family Therapy in the United States with graduates in leadership, academic and clinical positions all across the country. Dr. Mendenhall, Hodgson and Lamson have designed training and clinical integrated care programs in primary, secondary and tertiary care settings. Dr. Crane has risen to the level of national recognition for his cost effectiveness research. All combined, these editors have over 300 publications, 600 presentations, 3 edited books and over 60 years of experience providing leadership, conducting research and training therapists to work in healthcare settings.

  Inhalt
  Foreword.- Preface.- A Review of Medical Family Therapy: 30 Years of History, Growth and Research.- Medical Family Therapy: Charting a Course in Competencies.- Preparing to be a Medical Family Therapist: Bridging the Multiple Worlds of Health Care.- Medical Family Therapy in Integrated Primary Care: An Interactional Framework.- Building Relationships in Integrated Care.- Working with Providers and Healthcare Systems Experiencing Compassion Fatigue and Burnout.- MedFT Supervision in Context.- Preparing for Leadership Roles in Healthcare Settings.- The Medical Family Therapist as Transdisciplinary Trainer.- Honoring the Spirituality in Biopsychosocial-Spiritual Health Care: Medical Family Therapists on the Frontlines of Graduate Education, Clinical Practice and Research.- Medical Family Therapy Scientist-Practitioners.- Advancing Medical Family Therapy Through Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed-Method Research.- Engaging Communities as Partners in Research: Advancing Integrated Care through Purposeful Partnerships.- A Primer in Program Evaluation for MedFTs Dissemination and Implementation Science: Research for the Real World Medical Family Therapist.- Advancing Health Equity in Medical Family Therapy Research.- Policy and Practice: A Primer on the Past, Present and Future of Healthcare Reform in the United States.- Family Therapists in Primary Care Settings: Opportunities for Integration through Advocacy.- The Ethics of Integration: Where Policy and Practice Collide.- How to Prepare a Medical Family Therapy Policy Brief.- A Summary Report of Cost-Effectiveness: Recognizing the Value of Family Therapy in Healthcare.- Getting Reimbursed for MedFT: Financial Models Toward Sustainability.- Epilogue.