Working With Serious Mental Illness

This title is directed primarily towards health care professionals outside of the United States. In today's mental health services, there is a pressing need for practitioners to place greater emphasis on working with users of services and to use skills that have a sound theoretical basis. This book focuses on evidence-based practice but reflects that, in mental health, the best evidence is the personal experience of the user. Many publications explore theoretical aspects of service delivery or provide an in-depth analysis of specific clinical interventions. However, how practitioners comprehensively amalgamate theory with their practice is often missing. This book fills that gap and seeks to guide, plan and suggest down-to-earth treatment ideas for individuals on a day-to-day basis. Mental health practice focused Full of practical advice, user-friendly, clearly accessible and well-designed Reflects user-input, including a chapter written by a user of mental health services describing their experiences of mental illness Leading contributors from practice Early intervention Supervision Implementation and practice development issues Meaningful activity and recovery Engaging and working with carers Relapse prevention

Practical and evidence-based, this unique book is the first comprehensive text focused on person-centered approaches to people with serious mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It reflects a range of views and findings regarding assessment, treatment, rehabilitation, self-help, policy-making, education and research. It is highly recommended for all healthcare professionals, students, researchers and educators involved in general practice, psychiatry, nursing, social work, clinical psychology and therapy. Healthcare service providers, and policy makers and shapers, will find the book's wide-ranging, multi-professional approach enlightening. 'Serious Mental Illness reflects a continued distancing from the outmoded and unsubstantiated belief that people with severe mental illnesses could not recover, and that they would respond positively only to goals and treatment plans chosen, designed and implemented by providers in order to prevent their further deterioration. Anyone with an interest in the concept of person-centered approaches will discover new ideas in this book. Indeed, anyone with an interest in person-centered approaches has to read this book. Not only is it the first such book on person-centered approaches, but it will serve as the gold standard in this topic area for years to come.' William A Anthony, in the Foreword

In today's mental health services, there is a pressing need for practitioners to place greater emphasis on working with users of services and to use skills which have a sound theoretical basis. This book focuses on evidence-based practices but reflects that in mental health, the best evidence is the personal experience of the user. This book seeks to guide, plan and suggest down-to-earth treatment ideas for individuals on a day to day basis.

"Presents a model of empowerment and then applies it to seven areas that the have potential to empower people with severe mental illness, including treatment planning, housing, employment, and others. Provides practitioners, administrators, and policymake

"The book, Women with Serious Mental Illness: Gender-Sensitive and Recovery-Oriented Care, calls attention to a topic and population that has been overlooked in research and psychotherapy - women with serious mental illnesses (i.e., schizophrenia, severe depression, bipolar disorder, and complex posttraumatic stress disorder). Women with Serious Mental Illness focuses on the history of mistreatment, marginalization, and oppression they have encountered in the general public and within the mental health system. This book provides an overview of recovery-oriented care for women with serious mental illness - a process of seeking hope, empowerment, and self-determination beyond the effects of mental illness. Chapters provide a historical overview of the treatment of women with mental illness, their resilience and recovery experiences, as well as issues pertaining to relationships, work, class, culture, trauma, and sexuality. This book also offers the new model of Gender-Sensitive and Recovery Oriented Care (G-ROC) for working with this group from a gender-sensitive framework. The book is a useful tool for mental health educators and providers, with each chapter containing case studies, clinical strategies lists, discussion questions, experiential activities, diagrams, and worksheets that can be completed with clients, students, and peers"--

This book presents "Action Over Inertia," a recovery-orientated, strengths-based approach to address the profound disruptions in daily activities and community participation often experienced by those living with serious mental illnesses. With a focus on supported "doing", the Action Over Inertia approach engages individuals in small activity and participation efforts as an opening to making longer term and sustained changes that offer meaning and well-being. The book helps service providers develop their own knowledge of activities and the health and well-being benefits an individual might receive from activities. It also asks them to consider the biases, assumptions, and constraints that might impact their ability to implement interventions related to activity and participation. A range of worksheets, resources, vignettes, and other tools are provided to support this practice. The manual was developed from the knowledge and practice of occupational science and therapy, but it will be of interest to any mental health professional, peer-provider, administrator, or policy maker interested in promoting recovery for people with serious mental illness

For decades, the idea that serious mental illnesses (SMIs) are almost exclusively biologically-based and must be treated pharmacologically has been commonplace in psychology literature. As a result, many mental health professionals have stopped listening to their clients, categorizing their symptoms as manifestations of neurologically-based disturbed thinking. Trauma and Serious Mental Illness is the groundbreaking series of works that challenge this standard view and provides a comprehensive introduction to the emerging perspective of SMIs as trauma-based. This unique collection illustrates how different psychotherapy approaches can lead to reduced symptomatology, decreased psychological distress, and improved functioning in individuals living with SMIs.

"People with serious mental illness get sick and die 10-20 years younger, compared to others in their same age cohort. The reasons, and possible interventions, are many, but further research is necessary for the continued development and evaluation of strategies to combat the health challenges faced by these patients. In thoroughly describing community-based participatory research (CBPR)-an approach that includes people in a community as partners in all facets of research, rather than just the subjects of that research-Health and Wellness in People Living With Serious Mental Illness provides a template for continued study. It is through this lens that this volume examines the health and concerns of people with mental illness, as well as possible solutions to these health problems. Through multiple case vignettes, the book delves into the challenges of health and wellness for people with mental illness, summarizing the research on mortality and morbidity in this group, as well as information about the status quo on wellness, and offers a grounded, real-world illustration of CBPR in practice"--