Download The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia: Helping Your Loved One Get the Most Out of Life PDF

Rating: (21 reviews) Author: Kim T. Mueser PhD ISBN : 9781593852733 New from $36.00 Format: PDF

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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!

"An extensive reference for families....The information provided is clearly written, realistic, optimistic in tone, and useful for families at many stages of dealing with the challenges of schizophrenia....As a clinician in a large public academic setting, I would highly recommend the Mueser and Gingerich guide to any patient or family seeking a greater understanding of the complex challenges facing them with schizophrenia and realistic, hopeful ways of meeting those challenges."--Cognitive Therapy

(Cognitive Therapy 2006-05-28)

"Information presented in a highly readable form and is current. Coverage is comprehensive and includes samples and descriptions of typical symptoms. The reader is helped to make the symptoms of schizophrenia understandable and to recognize the impact on others....[A] comprehensive collection of information and links to resources that should prove to be of great value to anyone dealing with a family member diagnosed with schizophrenia."--Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Book Reviews

(Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Book Reviews 2006-05-28)

"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

(The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 2006-05-28)

"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."--PsycCRITIQUES

(PsycCRITIQUES 2006-05-28)

"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

(The Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal 2006-05-28)

"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

(Schizophrenia Digest 2006-05-28)

"This is one of the most valuable books that any concerned family member or friend of a person with schizophrenia will read. If one is looking for a complete, unbiased, and informative family guide on schizophrenia, look no further. Five stars."--Doody's Review Service

(Doody's Review Service 2006-05-28)

About the Author

Kim T. Mueser, PhD, Depts of Psychiatry and Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, Concord, NH Susan Gingerich, MSW, New Hampshire-Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center, Concord, NH

Direct download links available for PRETITLE The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia: Helping Your Loved One Get the Most Out of Life Hardcover POSTTITLE

• Product Details
• Table of Contents
• Reviews

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: The Guilford Press; 1 edition (May 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593852738
• ISBN-13: 978-1593852733
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Download The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia: Helping Your Loved One Get the Most Out of Life PDF

This is book is just what our family was looking for when we learned that our son had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. The biggest question my wife and I had was whether there was any hope for him. We were terrified by the diagnosis, and everything we'd heard about schizophrenia, and didn't know where to turn for help and accurate information. Fortunately, somebody at our local National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) chapter recommended this book, and it has made a huge difference to our family.

The Complete Family Guide delivers a consistent message that there is hope for people with schizophrenia, and introduces the concept of recovery from the illness as a way of helping people rebuild meaning and purpose in their lives. This was a new and refreshing angle for us, considering all of the negative attention that is given to schizophrenia in the media. The emphasis on recovery had an important effect on our attitude towards our son, and how our family has coped with his illness. We've learned how to work together, including our son, and not against each other, and this has made our family stronger and closer.

A great deal of information is provided in this book, but it is written in a practical, hands-on, easily used style. The first two sections of the book describe basic facts about schizophrenia, and how the illness affects family members. The section on how schizophrenia affects different family members was very helpful, since there are different chapters for parents, siblings, spouses, and children. This allowed my wife and I to read about the experiences of other parents, and for our son's sisters and brother to learn about how other siblings have been affected.

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.