Family Systems Medicine has been described as a new paradigm in the practice of medicine that will end the schism between the medical and the mental health field. Medical family therapy in particular, has created a new role for family therapists in medical settings that requires close collaboration with medical providers. The purpose of this study was to understand how those who endorse a collaborative approach to health care perceive the state of the art of this new practice. / Additionally, it has been argued that bidirectional research or the use of a multi-method approach is beneficial in bridging the gaps among theory, research and practice. In this study, a qualitative research design was used to gather information on Family Systems Medicine and the practice of medical family therapy. That information was later used to develop a survey that sampled the American subscribers of the journal of Family Systems Medicine (n = 699). Respondents were asked for their perceptions in five areas: (1) Collaboration, (2) Practice of Family Systems Medicine, (3) Referral, (4) Training, and (5) Roles of Professionals Involved. The binomial test and factorial analysis were used to test mean differences. Results indicated that the findings of the qualitative study were generalized to the random sample of those practitioners who endorse a collaborative approach to health care in four of the areas mentioned except in "Roles of Professionals Involved." / Additionally, significant differences were found between psychosocial and medical providers in the way they perceive the process of referral in Family Systems Medicine. Results also indicated that there were significant differences between medical and psychosocial providers who work in private versus not-for-profit settings in the way they perceive training in Family Systems Medicine and with whom they collaborate. Implications for practice, training, research, and theory are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-07, Section: A, page: 2886. / Major Professor: Thomas E. Smith. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77493 |
| Contributors | Pereira, M.Grace Alves., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 239 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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