Health Medical Information

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
Rating: 5 / 5

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.

Rating: 3 / 5

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.
Rating: 5 / 5