Genetics is in all senses a family affair. The diagnosis of a genetic condition affects not only the patient and biological family members who may themselves be at risk, but also "family" more generally as support may be sought from those considered kin and who may or may not be at risk themselves. It is considered best practice in genetic consultations to explore who will be informed within the family when a genetic condition or risk is diagnosed, particularly when the health of other family members is at risk. There is little guidance or consensus on how to achieve the implicit goal of informed family members while respecting patient confidentiality, however. There is a need for practitioners to be aware of the dynamics of family communication and to have guidance about how they may sensitively facilitate communication about genetics within families. This handbook facilitates the development of clinical practices relating to family communication about genetics. Relevant theories of family communication are summarized and related to a clinical genetics milieu and, from this, frameworks for practitioners are presented. A book of this nature is particularly timely as the completion of the Human Genome Project will result in an unprecedented amount of information about genetic constitution and health risks becoming available to individuals and their families. The presence of a potentially genetic condition in a family is not a new phenomenon. However, the growth in testing for genetic conditions, common complex conditions and variants that may influence health as well as drug metabolism means that a greater number of individuals will face decisions about communicating this information to their relatives. Many health professionals in all levels of health care will be confronted with issues of responsibility and practice in family communication about genetic information as they become providers of this testing.

Now in its eleventh edition, Family Communication: Cohesion and Change continues to provide students with a foundational, accessible, and inclusive overview of the family communication field. The eleventh edition represents the plurality of today’s families, helping students see themselves and think through how the up-to-date research and theory apply to their lives. It features a more concise narrative with streamlined key concepts that are more straightforward and engaging for students. Now presented in three sections, Communication and Family Lenses, Communication and Family Cohesion, and Communication and Family Adaptability, this edition’s new features include learning objectives for each chapter, Family Portrait interviews with top scholars, a glossary of key definitions, and expanded Family Reflections discussion questions interspersed in the text. This book is ideal for undergraduate courses in family communication, allied subjects in communication studies, family studies, nursing, and social work programs. The accompanying Instructor and Student Resources provide free digital materials designed to test students’ knowledge and save instructor time when preparing lessons. Please visit www.routledgelearning.com/familycommunication for interactive activities, practice quizzes, and more.

The role of genetics is becoming increasingly important in all aspects of healthcare and particularly in the field of cancer care. Genetics for Health Professionals in Cancer Care: From Principles to Practice equips health professionals with the knowledge and skills required for all aspects of managing cancer family history. This includes taking an accurate cancer family history and drawing a family tree; understanding cancer biology, basic cancer genetics and the genes involved in hereditary breast, ovarian, prostate, colorectal, gastric and related gynaecological cancers and rare cancer predisposing syndromes; assessing cancer risk and communicating risk information; early detection and risk reducing measures available for those at increased risk and managing individuals with hereditary cancer. Drawing on experiences of health professionals, Genetics for Health Professionals in Cancer Care discusses the challenges raised and provides practical advice and insight into what happens when a patient is referred for genetic counselling and genetic testing, including the psychological, social and ethical issues faced by individuals and families with and at risk of hereditary cancer. The book also provides practical guidance on setting up a cancer family history clinic in primary and secondary care. Genetics for Health Professionals in Cancer Care is essential reading for healthcare professionals working with cancer patients and their families, and is an ideal reference text for non-specialists working in cancer genetics.

Communication is a core skill for medical professionals when treating patients, and cancer and palliative care present some of the most challenging clinical situations. This book provides a comprehensive curriculum to help oncology specialists optimize their communication skills.

The Communication Yearbook annuals originally published between 1977 and 2009 publish diverse, state-of-the-discipline literature reviews that advance knowledge and understanding of communication systems, processes, and impacts across the discipline. Topics dealt with include Communication as Process, Research Methodology in Communication, Communication Effects, Taxonomy of Communication and European Communication Theory, Information Systems Division, Mass Communication Research, Mapping the Domain of Intercultural Communication, Public Relations, Feminist Scholarship, Communication Law and Policy, Visual Communication, Communication and Cross-Sex Friendships Across the Life Cycle, Television Programming and Sex Stereotyping, InterCultural Communication Training, Leadership and Relationships, Media Performance Assessment, Cognitive Approaches to Communication.

What is unique about the process in the discussion of healthcare and interventions to use when working with families? What assessment tools provide guidance for healthcare providers as they determine interventions for families in their care? What are the changing dimensions of contemporary family life, and what impact do those dimensions have on health promotion for families? How is family healthcare changing in terms of practices, delivery systems, costs and insurance coverage? Students are able to explore these questions and more in the Encyclopedia of Family Health. Approximately 350 signed articles written by experts from such varied fields as health and nursing, social and behavioral sciences, and policy provide authoritative, cross-disciplinary coverage. Entries examine theory, research and policy as they relate to family practice in a manner that is accessible and jargon-free. From ′Adolescent Suicide′ and ′Alternative Therapies′ to ′Visitation during Hospitalization′ and ′Weight Problems and Genetics′, this work provides coverage of a variety of issues within a family context. The Encyclopedia of Family Health provides a comprehensive summary of theory, research, practice, and policy on family health and wellness promotion for students and researchers.

In this volume, the psychiatrist Robert Klitzman explores how individuals confront the complex issues associated with genetic testing in their daily lives.

Family Communication: Cohesion and Change encourages students to observe family interaction patterns analytically and relate communication theories to family interactions. Using a framework of family functions, first-person narratives, and current research, Family Communication: Cohesion and Change emphasizes the diversity of today's families in terms of structure, ethnic patterns, and developmental experiences.

The discipline of communication has grown in popularity from the time professors of journalism and speech decided, in the mid-1960s, that the term "communication" was an excellent general descriptor for the theory and research that each group aspired to create. Over time, the two groups grew closer and recognized significant overlap in their theoretical and research interests, but there were also differences in their traditions that kept them apart. While both groups agreed that communication is a practical discipline, journalism professors focused a great deal of their attention on the education of media professionals. Speech professors, on the other hand, often were more oriented to the liberal arts and valued the fact that communication could be approached from a variety of traditions, including the arts, humanities, social sciences, and even the sciences. A key term in 21st Century communication, however, is convergence. Not only are media and technology converging with each other to produce new means of communicating, but individuals are increasingly using both new and existing communication tools to create new forms of communication. This convergence forces the various "camps" within the communication discipline to draw upon each other′s theories and research methods to keep up with explaining the rapidly changing communication environment. This convergence of ideas and theories provides a space to challenge conventional ways of thinking about the communication discipline, and that′s the goal of the SAGE 21st Century Reference Series volumes on Communication. General Editor William F. Eadie has sought to honor the diversity of the study of communication but also integrate that diversity into a coherent form, dividing communication study into four basic properties: 1) processes, 2) forms and types of communication, 3) characteristics to consider in creating messages, and 4) relationships between communicators. Via 100 chapters, this 2-volume set (available in both print and electronic formats) highlights the most important topics, issues, questions, and debates any student obtaining a degree in the field of communication ought to have mastered for effectiveness in the 21st Century. The purpose is to provide undergraduate majors with an authoritative reference source that will serve their research needs going forward in this exciting field with more detailed information than encyclopedia entries but not as much jargon, detail or density as a journal article or a research handbook chapter. Comprehensive coverage captures all the major themes and subfields within communication. For instance, Volume 1 themes include the discipline of communication, approaches to the study of communication, key processes of communication, forms and types of communication, key characteristics of messages, key communication relationships, factors affecting communication, and challenges and opportunities for communication. Themes in Volume 2 are media as communication, communication as a profession, journalism, public relations, advertising, and media management. Authoritative content is provided by a stellar casts of authors who bring diverse approaches, diverse styles, and different points of view. Curricular-driven emphasis provides students with initial footholds on topics of interest in researching for term papers, in preparing for GREs, in consulting to determine directions to take in pursuing a senior thesis, graduate degree, career, etc. Uniform chapter structures make it easy for students to locate key information, with a more-or-less common chapter format of Introduction, Theory, Methods, Applications, Comparisons, Future Directions, Summary, Bibliography & Suggestions for Further Reading, and Cross References. Availability in print and electronic formats provides students with convenient, easy access.

This volume presents the ethical implications of risk information as related to genetics and other health data for policy decisions at clinical, research and societal levels. Ethical, Social and Psychological Impacts of Genomic Risk Communication examines the introduction of new types of health risk information based on faster, cheaper and larger sets of genetic or genomic analysis. Synthesizing the results of a five-year interdisciplinary project, it explores the unsolved ethical and social questions around the sharing of this data, such as: What is best practice in risk communication? What are the normative presumptions and ethical consequences of an increased individual responsibility for ones’ health? And how does one deal with the gap between the knowledge of risk and the lack of therapeutic options which often exist for complex diseases, such as dementia or some types of cancer? Drawing on contributions from over 20 experts in the field, this collection examines these questions from a liberal bioethics’ perspective, advocating for contextual and cultural-sensitive ethical discussions. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of theoretical and clinical medical ethics, medical sociology, risk communication and ethics of risk, as well as professionals in clinical genetics.