ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on patient, and family narratives in a range of domains: medical practice and public healthcare; rehabilitation; research; the not-for-profit sector; and in reflexive practice. Professionals are increasingly sympathetic to the patient narrative. People's narratives can provide important understanding and insights for professionals, practitioners and other healthcare staff, in particular around how people understand their illness experience, how they make sense of it and how they cope over prolonged periods of time. Narratives are used as a vehicle to support health professionals in better understanding their clients and seeing beyond their disease. People's narratives can also be used to support the dissemination of evidence-based research and healthcare campaigns to the public, helping recipients identify with the people included in the stories, resulting in greater credibility, clarity and believability in the eyes of the public. The voluntary sector is often responsible for promoting and publishing narratives of people affected by a variety of health conditions.
