Taking Charge: Overcoming the Challenges of Long-Term Illness

The originator of Medical Crisis Counseling offers a step-by-step program to assist individuals and their families overcome the eight most common fears regarding long-term illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, and arthritis. 25,000 first printing. Tour.

The authors estimate that there are currently some 53 million Americans afflicted with long-term illness, most commonly arthritis, diabetes and heart disease. Psychiatric social worker Pollin's expressed goal is to enable these people to live constructively by addressing major fears that add to the distress of patients and their loved ones, such as stigma, dependency, abandonment and isolation. Writing with health journalist Golant, Pollin discusses these and other problems in the reassuring and practical voice of a wise friend, emphasizing the importance of both medical and non-medical resources like family and support groups. The authors urge the chronic sufferer to "integrate" the disease into their lives in the way most appropriate to their "coping style," somewhere along a continuum from "confronter" to "avoider." Each chapter ends with a list of homilies and things to do, summarizing the flexible approach of this perceptive, realistic guide. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Nearly everyone will be at one time or another affected by one (or more) chronic illnesses such as arthritis, diabetes, and heart or lung disease. These two books offer ways to cope effectively with the psychological and physical demands long-term conditions place on us. In Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions , the authors present a self-management guide, suggesting practical living skills--such as nutrition, exercise, planning, and communication--that help give the chronically ill a renewed sense of control over their lives. In Taking Charge , a psychiatric social worker Pollin addresses the fears that come with a medical crisis: loss of control or of self-image, dependency, abandonment, stigma, anger, isolation , and death. His book is like an extended counseling session in a book. Separately or as companion volumes, both titles are recommended for popular health collections.
- Anne C. Tomlin, Auburn Memorial Hosp. Lib., N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.