Who We Are
Family Lives is an organization of patients, families, nurses, therapists, staff, supervisors, and administrators.
We understand care to be assistance in the achievement of the ordinary life. The ordinary life is the life with access to the good things taken for granted in the ordinary life:
Family. Home. Membership. Friends. Philosophy. Religion. Work. Safety. Security. Education. Respect. Honesty. Fairness. Decision-Making. Access. Health.
The good things of life are neither claimed nor demanded. They are achieved. They are achieved by being someone valued in the society in which he or she lives his or her ordinary life. The caregiver nurtures who the person being taken care of is so that he or she will be someone valued in society.
We understand health to be a limited state of being established for human beings by nature. The health care professional nurtures the patient so that nature can make the person well. The health care professional does not control the patient so that he or she makes the patient well. There are inherent limits on the health care profession’s control of health.