Steven D. Thurber

This book addresses the principle that successful treatment incorporates a remarkably broad range of clinical variables. Clinicians must identify the extent to which each factor contributes to the success of the treatment process, and how to utilize this information strategically so that their combination enhances outcome. Complex clinical situations involve numerous macroscopic and microscopic components and their interactions. This book describes clinical practices and variables, that should be weighted according to their relevance for achieving treatment precision and improved results. The book is divided into sections, each containing topically organized chapters. Sections build from identifying discrete components of the clinical field to combined variables as they impact treatment progression. The clinical narratives that make up the latter part of the book elaborate on the course of care and the challenges involved in managing complex clinical situations. Cases range from primary care patients with systemic medical and psychiatric co-morbidity to more complex cases requiring the involvement of medical specialists, allied health professionals, and multiple health care systems. Scholarly, practical, and comprehensive, Complexity in Health Care enables clinicians to incorporate previously underappreciated health-related factors into their thinking and practice.

Those who are afflicted as well as those who are adversely affected by mental illness often live lives of "quiet desperation" without recourse to appropriate assistance. Most caregivers confronted with these illnesses in the work of ministry have had no training or accurate information about mental illnesses, so frequently they do nothing, resulting in further harm and damage. Others may operate out of a theological system that does not adequately account for the nature, severity, or treatment of these illnesses. In Ministry with Persons with Mental Illness and Their Families, Second Edition, psychiatrists and pastoral theologians come together in an interdisciplinary, collaborative effort to ensure accuracy of information concerning the medical dimensions of mental illness, interpret these illnesses from a faith perspective, and make suggestions relative to effective ministry. Readers will learn how science and a faith tradition can not only co-exist but work in tandem to alleviate the pain of the afflicted and affected.

In Ministry with Persons with Mental Illness and Their Families, psychiatrists and pastoral theologians come together in an interdisciplinary, collaborative effort to ensure accuracy of information concerning the medical dimensions of mental illness, interpret these illnesses from a faith perspective, and make suggestions relative to effective ministry. Readers will learn how science and a faith tradition can not only co-exist but work in tandem to alleviate the pain of the afflicted and affected.