ABSTRACT
The household is fast becoming the central site for health and health care. Indeed, contemporary health care relies more often on what happens in the home environment for achieving the goals of the U.S. government’s “Healthy People 2010” (Department of Health and Human Services (2000) than on anything that occurs in hospitals, clinics, or long-term care facilities. From main taining basic nutrition and exercise routines to managing complex disease processes, laypeople use the home and its resources to carry out the practices, activities, and tasks needed to promote health and recover from disease. Additionally, clinicians and health professionals rely on a self motivated, well-resourced patient to do what is needed to insure maximum benefits from modern medicine.
