Helping Families Cope With Mental Illness

In this age of spiraling health care costs, it is imperative that the family's role in treating patients with chronic mental illness not be overlooked - by policy makers and clinicians alike. The families themselves insist that the government and care-providing agencies learn new ways to relate to them and patients. Helping Families Cope with Mental Illness is a comprehensive guide to the family's experience of chronic and serious mental illness for clinicians and educators in a wide range of mental health disciplines. It details all major areas of the clinician-family relationship - consumer perspectives, cultural diversity, social policy, ethical issues, practical coping strategies, research and training issues, major service issues, managed care, and cost-saving measures.

Harriet P Lefley, Mona Wasow

1. Families and Mental Illness: Where Have We Come From? Where Are We Now? 2. Current Controversies 3. Service-Related Issues 4. Training and Research 5. Future Directions: Family, Consumer and Provider Relations