"A guide to understanding the practical alternatives to hospital care-from home birth to home care of the disabled or dying, whether elderly or young-and how to make these beneficial ideas work for you." Dr. Robert W. Buckingham

Today more and more people are realizing that institutionalization is not the only way to take care of our sick, disabled, and elderly populations. In fact, it may not even be a very good way to care for them as human beings. People are now looking for alter-natives to these sterile, impersonal institu-tions, and they are finding that home care is a beneficial answer. Dr. Robert Buckingham, an expert in family and community medi-cine, tells why this is so, and also shows how home care can-and, in fact, often does-work better for a rapidly growing number of patients and their families.

Home care of the patient, either by a special nurse, friend, or family caregiver, provides many medical and psychological benefits to the patient. This is especially true of the very old, the very young, and the dying. At home, the patient can be treated as a "total" person and not as just an illness.

More time can be spent with the individual to get to know his or her real needs. The patient is in familiar surroundings, more comfortable, less stressed, and thus can ac-tually heal more quickly.

Home care also has many benefits for the patient's family. Taking care of a sick, dis-abled, or elderly person can be very difficult and stressful for the family, but it can also be psychologically and spiritually rewarding as well as economically advantageous. With appropriate support, home care is not only less costly than institutional care but often a profoundly rewarding experience for every-one involved-patient, family, and health care professionals.

This important and comprehensive guide gives the reader, whether lay or profess-ional, all of the necessary information to make these new alternatives work for them in their particular situation now.