The Lost Art of Caring: A Challenge to Health Professionals, Families, Communities, and Society

In The Lost Art of Caring, Leighton E. Cluff, M.D., and Robert H. Binstock, Ph.D., bring together experts to address the importance of caring, the reasons why it has eroded, and measures that can strengthen caring as provided by health professionals, families, communities, and society. "This book provides a great service by drawing attention to the vital role of caring in health care and caregiving. As it makes clear, caring--the concern, compassion, and support of health professionals, family members, and communities--is of great importance to those who are coping with illness or disability and are in pain and suffering. I strongly commend The Lost Art of Caring as essential reading. This book highlights the challenges to be met if we are to rekindle caring as an essential part of our culture. After all, at one time or another in our lives, we will all need caring."--From the foreword by Rosalynn Carter "The text is chock full of the thoughts of some of America's leading experts on the caring side of health care. This book should be read by any health care professional with an interest in this dimension of health care and is a must read for the medical community. A marvelous text."--Joseph A. Lieberman, III, M.D., M.P.H., Journal of the American Medical Association "On the whole, this volume deepens our understanding and appreciation of the importance of caring for all who are in need of personal attention and assistance when ill and disabled. The contributors seem to have given much thought to their chapters, weaving together personal stories, clinical experiences, research findings, and proposals for change."--Else M. Kiefer, Health Progress "A remarkable broad and well-integrated package of philosophy and fact, a valuable and compact resource for health care professionals, as well as legislators and social scientists."--Pharos

Table of Contents:
Contents: I Caring and the Populations in Need of It Our Need for Caring: Vulnerability and Illness Who Needs Caring? Caring and Mental Illness II The Provision of Caring A History of Caring in Medicine Forces Affecting Caring by Physicians Caring and Medical Education Caring in Institutional Settings Home and Community-Based Care: Toward a Caring Paradigm Caring and Community-Based Voluntary Organizations III Assessments of Caring Appraising the Success of Caring The Politics of Caring

About the Author :
Leighton E. Cluff, M.D., is a professor emeritus at the University of Florida College of Medicine and former president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Robert H. Binstock, Ph.D., is a professor of Aging, Health, and Society at Case Western Reserve University. They are co-editors, with Otto von Mering, of The Future of Long-Term Care, also available from Johns Hopkins.

Review :
The text is chock full of the thoughts of some of America's leading experts on the caring side of health care. This book should be read by any health care professional with an interest in this dimension of health care and is a must read for the medical community. A marvelous text. -- Joseph A. LiebermanIII, M.D.M.P.H. Journal of the American Medical Association On the whole, this volume deepens our understanding and appreciation of the importance of caring for all who are in need of personal attention and assistance when ill and disabled. The contributors seem to have given much thought to their chapters, weaving together personal stories, clinical experiences, research findings, and proposals for change. -- Else M. Kiefer Health Progress A remarkable broad and well-integrated package of philosophy and fact, a valuable and compact resource for health care professionals, as well as legislators and social scientists. -- John A. Benson, Jr., M.D. Pharos