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Key to Recovery: Patient and Family Involvement
Fall 2003
Patients with schizophrenia and their family members are asking mental health care providers to base their treatments on a recovery model. Although there are differences in opinion regarding the definition of recovery, all of the models emphasize that the goal of treatment should be more ambitious than maintaining patients in the community. Instead, the goal should be to assist patients as they attempt to recover functions that have been lost as the result of mental illness. The current issue of our newsletter makes a number of important points about the path to recovery.
Patients and families are finding that they can promote recovery outside of the traditional mental health care system. Families can play a vital role in the recovery process. For example, patients who have family supports tend to have a better outcome than those who do not. In addition, patients who receive psychosocial treatments are likely to respond better to these treatments when they are living with a family member. A number of studies have found that educating families about schizophrenia can improve their involvement and aid recovery. Unfortunately, studies have also found that this very effective form of treatment is often not available to family members. In response, This observation has led the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) had to developed the its own program for educating families. Their "Family to Family" (see box on NAMI programs on page 4) program is a 12 week course that provides high quality instruction about the nature of serious mental illness.which It was developed by family members with consultation by experts and which, more importantly, utilizes family members.
Patients are also assuming a larger role in promoting recovery. A number of consumer organizations have developed their own programs for supporting patients with serious mental illness. These services are usually provided outside of mental health clinics. In addition, clinical programs are exploring the effectiveness of hiring consumer counselors to provide supports for other patients. These counselors have the potential for being role models for recovery. Dr. Matthew Chinman from our MIRECC was recently funded for a study of the effectiveness of consumer counselors.
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This web site, is offered as a public service and is not intended to substitute for professional medical care.
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