Program Considerations in Comprehensive

This paper focuses on four areas of program development in meeting comprehensive care needs of children with chronic illness and their families: Case consultation, liaison, research, and training are presented as integral parts of the collaboration process between medicine and psychology. Potential differences in the collaborative process are noted, and corrective strategies are suggested. Emphasis in case consultation and research is placed on understanding the overlooked phenomenon of successful adaptation of chronically ill children and their families. Training requirements are specified as extending beyond traditional clinical child psychology and pediatric psychology. There is need for prototypical psychosocial programs in comprehensive care for this underserved population. Families with chronically ill children share many of the same problems: lack of money, isolation from the community of the healthy, prejudice, misunderstanding in the schools, loneliness, boredom, and depression. Moreover, medical science has increased the likelihood of survival in many life-threatening diseases and prolonged life expectancies in terminal illness. Advances in medical technology have outpaced knowledge and ex-perience necessary to foster psychological adaptation in these children and families. 'This paper was presented at a symposium on Medicine and Psychology: Chronic Illness i