When family members experience a diagnosis of a chronic disease (e.g., cancer) or a health crisis (e.g., postpartum depression), not only the diagnosed individuals but entire families experience immediate and long-term stress as a consequence. Families with members dealing with serious health conditions may be confronted with significant challenges posed by treatment regimes, impacts on day-to-day activities, disruption of family roles, the threat of possible death, and a host of psychosocial challenges. This book is about families facing these challenges, uncertain about what to do, how to help, or how the condition will affect their daily life. Providing a coherent discussion of original research that examines communication patterns and processes involved in the day-to-day management of health conditions, this book lays bare the raw emotional experiences of families communicating with one another amid uncertainty and, for some, in the face of death.

Michelle Miller-Day received her Ph.D. from Arizona State University. She is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Pennsylvania State University and a faculty affiliate with the Center for Diverse Families and Communities and the Center for Health Care and Policy Research. She directs The Pennsylvania State University’s Qualitative Research Group, and is currently the Principal Qualitative Investigator of a National Institute on Drug Abuse [NIDA/NIH] funded project, and has served as the primary qualitative methodologist for this line of research funded by NIDA for the past twenty years. This work has developed one of the most successful evidence-based substance use prevention programs in the United States. Dr. Miller-Day has published three books, more than forty refereed articles in scholarly journals and chapters in books, and served on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals such as the Journal of Family Communication and Health Communication.

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