title: Family relationships during serious illness.
abstract: Serious illness can have a profound effect on patients and their families, whose attempts to protect each other often mean they have to deal with their fears and anxieties on their own when they are most in need of mutual support. And this can affect the way in which they relate to the nursing staff they depend on. Talking to patients about their families can help them to maintain their identities, both as patients and as family members.
authors.affiliation: Tavistock Clinic, London.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Altschuler
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D002648:Child; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000523:psychology*; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009732:Nursing Care; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012380:Role