Partnering with Families: Family-Centered Care

Family-centered care is a philosophy and a model of health care delivery that involves a partnership between the care recipient (patient, client), family, and health care professionals. Recently, there has also been a focus on patient-centered care. Most experts in the field now believe that the most accurate label for this model of care is to include both: patient and family-centered care (PFCC). This model of care applies to clients or patients of all ages (according to their developmental level and abilities) and across all health care settings from community-based primary care and prevention to critical care to health care policy development. Patients and families are included as partners in this model both at the individual care recipient and family level as well as in ...