Book Review: Psychotherapy of Abused and Neglected Children (2007). John W. Pearce & Terry D. Pezzot-Pearce, New York: Guilford, 411 pp., US$44.00. Reviewed by Stephanie Moulton Sarkis

Abstract

and a family context, and the health care provider must learn of these contexts. Cultural and social backgrounds provide the framework for family members' beliefs and practices about health care. Attention is paid to how to do an ethnographic interview and assess refugees and the importance of knowing what resources, such as sponsoring agencies, may have available services. Although the book does not attempt to be a comprehensive multicultural resource, health care providers are advised to educate themselves with regard to family functioning, gender roles, culture, blended and intergenerational families, and multiracial and ethnic families.The health care provider must be alert to any signs or symptoms of abuse in the family (child, spousal, elderly) and make appropriate reports and follow-up. This is vital because family stress has been linked to abuse. Health care providers can interview spouses separately to ascertain any possibility of domestic violence or threats of abuse. Protective and legal resources are able to provide support to the health care provider and need to be utilized.Families make meaning of illness and have their own ways of interpreting health care crises, so the health care provider must assess the needs, not based solely on the disease but also on how each family deals with the situation at hand and what adaptive and coping strategies are being implemented. Attention is paid to assessing how the family is doing, that is, how are they adapting, adjusting, and utilizing resources. How are family members dealing with changing roles? How are they working with health care professionals? How are they emotionally responding to illness? In the chapter addressing dementia in a family, there is commonsense advice about when to help and with which resources.Also mentioned in the book is the impact of illness on the caregiver, assessing how family members deal with terminal illness and the recognition that death brings about a rebalancing of the family. Guidance is directed to the intervention of counseling and spiritual support of the health care provider and the family at this time.There is a helpful list of resources at the conclusion of this book for readers who are interested in additional information and in accessing resources in such areas as adoptive families, alcoholism, and family-oriented primary care. This book is intended to make clear to health care providers the importance of observing and attending to family issues when dealing with health and wellness issues of a family member and to alert them to the range of areas that they are able to respond to if sensitive and knowledgeable about basic family functioning.