title: Helping patients by involving their families.
abstract: Patients and their family members may become highly interdependent as patients near the end of life. To best help these patients, healthcare providers can try to become a member of the patient/family team. By becoming a member, careproviders can improve patients' and family members' access to medical information, more effectively offer advice, and assure patients and family members that they can still choose to do what they think is best.
authors.affiliation: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Edmund G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Howe
mesh_terms: D016265:Conflict of Interest; D003657:Decision Making / Q000941:ethics*; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005195:Family Relations; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D011368:Professional-Family Relations / Q000941:ethics*; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics*; D014342:Truth Disclosure / Q000941:ethics*