Taking Charge: Overcoming the Challenges of Long-Term Illness

The authors estimate that there are currently some 53 million Americans afflicted with long-term illness, most commonly arthritis, diabetes and heart disease. Psychiatric social worker Pollin's expressed goal is to enable these people to live constructively by addressing major fears that add to the distress of patients and their loved ones, such as stigma, dependency, abandonment and isolation. Writing with health journalist Golant, Pollin discusses these and other problems in the reassuring and practical voice of a wise friend, emphasizing the importance of both medical and non-medical resources like family and support groups. The authors urge the chronic sufferer to ``integrate'' the disease into their lives in the way most appropriate to their ``coping style,'' somewhere along a continuum from ``confronter'' to ``avoider.'' Each chapter ends with a list of homilies and things to do, summarizing the flexible approach of this perceptive, realistic guide. Author tour. (Mar.)