Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51801 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-25
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Review
"If your loved one has schizophrenia, it challenges your whole family. Mueser and Gingerich cover all the bases to guide you along the road to recovery. Realistic and optimistic at the same time, this book is informative and practical from start to finish."--William T. Carpenter, Jr., MD, University of Maryland School of Medicine and Maryland Psychiatric Research Center

"After our son was diagnosed with schizophrenia, we spent the next four years learning about the illness and trying to help him. We were losing hope until we met Dr. Mueser. With Dr. Mueser's help, and using the principles outlined in this book, our lives and our son's life have greatly improved. So many parents would benefit from reading this book, using the worksheets, and keeping it on hand for continued reference over the years."--Ginger and Frank D., parents

"Too often, people with schizophrenia fall between the cracks of our system of care. This compassionate and comprehensive guide shows how you can strengthen your relationship with your ill family member and help him or her navigate the recovery journey. The authors provide state-of-the-art tools for mastering the extraordinary challenges that schizophrenia poses."--Ken Duckworth, MD, Medical Director, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

"Concerned family members often ask me what they can do to help their loved one who is being treated for schizophrenia. For practical answers to this and many other questions, I will certainly recommend this clearly written, uplifting, and optimistic guide."--David G. Kingdon, MD, University of Southampton School of Medicine, UK

"Informative, authoritative, and comprehensive. This detailed guide to understanding and helping someone with schizophrenia dispels common myths and gives very practical advice for a wide range of common problems that family members encounter. It should be given to every family dealing with the diagnosis of a relative. I wish this wonderful book had been available when my brother first became ill."--Xavier Amador, PhD, author of I am Not Sick, I Don't Need Help!


“A comprehensive and detailed explanation of the causes, symptoms, comorbidities, treatments, and expected outcomes of schizophrenia, along with specific management and coping recommendations for the family members of people with this disorder….This book…is very accessible to family members and consumers in both style and contents. It takes a hands-on approach in providing family caregivers with concrete advice….differs from earlier self-help books on this topic in that its explication of the clinical course of people with schizophrenia embraces of people with schizophrenia embraces contemporary views of recovery and offers guidance in coping with mental illness stigma, thereby empowering caregivers to help empower their relatives. Finally, this book is innovative in that it includes sections on issues and concerns unique to caregivers with different family relationships to the consumer…and for caregivers whose relatives have specific kinds of symptoms or comorbidities….should be on the ‘must read’ list for every mental health professional and family member of a relative with schizophrenia.”--The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease



"A remarkable book. It is authoritative, comprehensive, well written, and very easy to reference and use. It is filled with useful advice and information on topics such as symptoms of schizophrenia, specific family issues related to the illness, relapse prevention, improving communications, co-occurring substance abuse, involvement with the community, and many other issues and problems faced by persons with schizophrenia....One of the real strengths of this book is how it navigates the relationship between consumers and their families in regard to issues such as autonomy and independence....In my future practice, I will recommend this excellent book whenever I encounter family members whose relative has schizophrenia. It can serve as a guidebook that can be initially read to learn about the area and later referred to in regard to specific issues that arise. I would also recommend it for graduate students who are interested in working with persons with serious mental illness."--APA PsycCRITIQUES



"Needed information can be found in this truly remarkable book. It is outstanding not only for the information it provides, but for its organization....I have seen many books about family experiences while living with a relative who has schizophrenia and there are several that tell how to cope, but this book stands alone for thoroughness. The authors have included almost everything a family member needs to know....It is written with clarity and an understanding of the questions a reader might have....I think so highly of this book that I believe that community mental health center or hospital staff should give a copy to every family when a diagnosis of schizophrenia is made."--The Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal



"This is one of the most thorough, well written, and meaningful books ever written for family members and friends of those with schizophrenia....If one is looking for a complete, unbiased, and informative family guide on schizophrenia, look no further. Five stars."--Doody's Review Service



"A straightforward, practical, user-friendly resource that not only provides a thorough overview of the challenging realities--both for the consumer and for family members--of everyday life with schizophrenia, but also details in plain English what can be done to help improve the quality of life for each member of the family." --Schizophrenia Digest

About the Author
Kim T. Mueser, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and professor in psychiatry and community and family medicine at Dartmouth Medical School. His clinical and research interests include the treatment of schizophrenia and posttraumatic stress disorder and the diagnosis and treatment of people with multiple disorders. He has published extensively and lectures often on the topic of psychiatric rehabilitation. He lives in Henniker, New Hampshire.

Susan Gingerich, MSW, is a clinician and consultant with more than 20 years of clinical experience working with people who have severe mental illness and their families. She has an independent practice in Philadelphia.

Dr. Mueser and Ms. Gingerich have coauthored four books.

Customer Reviews

Sprawling and disorganized but with a wealth of information
With 480 pages and 30 chapters this book is both too long and too unfocused for easy use or reading. Inadvertently, this book and its numerous worksheets could encourage trying to do everything to the extent that it would certainly overwhelm both caregivers and the schizophrenic family member. There is an overwhelming wealth of information but the book fails to provide the wisdom and perspective of how to make use of this information. E Fuller Torrey's Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Patients, and Providers is by far a more insightful and better organized work which covers similar ground. Torrey's book is currently in its fifth edition (2006).

Several useful areas stand out in my opinion. These include encouraging regular medication adherence and symptom and side effect monitoring for relapse prevention and side effect management. Another important consideration is developing a relapse prevention plan. In addition the authors describe an active and non-confrontational problem solving approach involving the schizophrenic family member. Barring a crisis in progress these are probably the most important areas to focus on for most families.

There is an overwhelming volume of strategies and information contained here for families actively involved in the care of family members with schizophrenia. The good parts are sometimes obscured by repetition or useless generalities such as those in the section "Common Questions about Antipsychotic Medications". Similarly the short chapter on "Dealing with Stigma" fails to provide anything useful. A reading recommendation is that once you get a grasp of the strategy of having effective problem solving family meetings (Chapter 15) the numerous accounts of such meetings can be skimmed over in most cases.

A final critique is that the importance of supports such as family therapy and general "care for the caregiver" are not emphasized enough considering the potentially overwhelming difficulties of living with and caring for a mentally ill family member; granted some self care recommendations are scattered through the book. My recommendations to caregivers using this book are to be sure to take care of yourselves and to approach problems and this book one (part) at a time as they are most important to you and your family member. So yes buy the book but review or skim it and consult it as needed as problems or opportunities arise.

One excellent source of social support and education for families and the mentally ill themselves is NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness). NAMI is a nonprofit, grassroots, self-help, support and advocacy organization of consumers, families, and friends of the mentally ill. See NAMI org for local support meetings in your area. The National Schizophrenia Foundation offers both online discussion forums that you may find useful and information on "Schizophrenia Support Groups and Related Resources" on their site.

the complete family guide to schizophrenia is really complete
It's a book of reference for families but also for practitioner's. It's not a book to read from page 1 to 470 in one time. The book is very helpful for families to get the information they need. An excellent help for families to manage their own situation.

This is Really Important Work
This book is really important to the world of schizophrenia. It provides hope for families and guidelines to practitioners. It is based in the best science we have, and having been lucky enough to attend workshops led by both authors at various times, I can also say that it is written by two people who genuinely and deeply care about those who have been affected by schizophrenia.