The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia: Helping Your Loved One Get the Most Out of Life [Paperback]

Kim T. Mueser PhD (Author), Susan Gingerich MSW (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 26, 2006

Will the person you love ever get better? Chances are you've grappled with the question. With care and support from their families, people with schizophrenia can and do make vast improvements. Noted therapists Kim Mueser and Susan Gingerich deepen your understanding of the illness and cover a wide range of effective treatments. Based on decades of research and experience, they offer pragmatic suggestions for dealing with depression, psychosis, and other symptoms. They show you how to prioritize needs, resolve everyday problems, and encourage your loved one to set life goals. Plus, individual sections highlight special issues for parents, children, siblings, and partners. Whether you’re facing schizophrenia for the first time or you’ve dealt with its impact for years, you’ll discover innovative ways to handle challenges that arise over the course of treatment, from reducing the chances of relapse to making friends and finding work. Recovery isn't an endpoint--it's a lifelong journey. With love, hope, and realistic optimism, striving for it can lead to a richer, more rewarding life for your entire family.

Editorial Reviews

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!

About the Author

Kim T. Mueser, PhD, a clinical psychologist, is Executive Director of the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University. 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.

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: The Guilford Press; 1 edition (May 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593851804
• ISBN-13: 978-1593851804
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #253,503 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #61 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Schizophrenia

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hope for schizophrenia, June 26, 2008

By 

John Smith - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia: Helping Your Loved One Get the Most Out of Life (Paperback)

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.

The remainder of the book, which is most of the book, describes how families can help a relative with schizophrenia. This includes summarizing the principles of treatment and how to get professionals to work with your family. We found the advice about dealing with common problems such as medication non-compliance, reducing stress in the family, and coping with the symptoms of hallucinations, lack of motivation, and substance abuse especially helpful with our son. We found the guidance in the final part of the book on helping a relative improve different areas of living to be very useful, including relationships, school, and work.

After searching for answers for so long, we finally hit a goldmine in this book. Instead of helplessly sitting by and watching our son's life spiral out of control, we began to learn how to work together, with him, and with his treatment team. It has been a lot of work, but we now know there is hope, a future for all of us, and that it's up to us what we want to make of it.

Grateful father

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sprawling and disorganized but with a wealth of information, March 10, 2008

By 

David Ross "Cook, Chemist, Nurse" (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia: Helping Your Loved One Get the Most Out of Life (Paperback)

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.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very complete guide to schizophrenia, June 17, 2007

By 

zhenya - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia: Helping Your Loved One Get the Most Out of Life (Hardcover)

I found this book very helpful, and very practically useful. There is a good introduction to schizophrenia, explaining how the illness is diagnosed, symptoms, and related problems. Also in the introduction is a very interesting and hopeful chapter on recovery from schizophrenia, and another chapter on determining the treatment needs of a relative with this disorder.

What I liked most about the book is the practical information for family members about helping a relative cope with schizophrenia. The chapter on medications is outstanding, with detailed information about different types of medications, strategies for addressing side effects and adherence, evaluating the quality of someone's pharmacological treatment. I also liked the worksheets and easy-to-follow advice in chapters on coping with common problems like psychotic symptoms, cognitive problems, depression, and substance abuse. Last, the final section of the book is great--it addresses improving quality of life in areas like work, social relationships, and independent living skills.

I recommend this book to any family member with a relative with schizophrenia. In fact, it should be required reading for professionals as well!