Treatments
The Assistance Families Can Provide
Introduction
There a number of ways in which families can provide assistance to their loved ones who suffer from schizophrenia. While offering financial support is an obvious example, it ranks much lower that some other efforts.
Several other measures can be taken to ensure that family members with this disease receive the best care and stand the greatest chance of achieving optimal improvement. They include, in the order of difficulty:
Visit
If they live with you, this should be easy; don’t overlook the fact that hiding in their room is still social isolation. Knock on the door now and then, just to let them know you exist and are interested is seeing more of them and in spending time with them.
If they have their own place, live with someone else, or reside in a residential treatment facility; stop by. Respect their privacy by calling first. Encourage regular liaisons, but don’t force the issue. If their place of residence is remote from where you live, arrange visits that might include shopping or other outings, such as movies, depending upon their interests.
Include
Create opportunities for them to socialize with you, other family members, or former friends. Invite them to gatherings, even if they usually decline. Accept their wishes, but continue to offer.
Introduce them to new people in a non-threatening environment and in a relaxed fashion.
Solicit their opinions about various aspects of your life and follow their advise if it seems sound. Their illness does not preclude an ability to offer advise. This will do wonders for their self esteem and assist them in devising strategies for solving their own problems.
Reinforce
Give them positive feedback whenever they demonstrate good decision making skills or make progress in any way. Remind them of past successes, especially those that they seem to have forgotten, they may very well have.
Remind them that you love them, care about them, and that you are firmly committed to helping them develop their own interests and realizing their goals. Encourage them, particularly at those times when they are struggling or have expressed frustration.
Gently remind them of past goals and interests that were abandoned. Your family member may have improved to the point that they are now more realistic.
Become Involved
Show an interest in all dimensions of the diagnostic process, treatments, and in the supportive measure that are part of their care. This later category may include case management, financial concerns, or legal issues.
Get to know the professionals who are involved with their care, but respect boundaries.
Participate whenever and wherever you can if this is acceptable.
You might consider developing hobbies or other recreational activities that interest them. They may not be willing to engage in these activities with you, but in this case, you can compare notes. This will likely bring you closer.
Know the Disease
Conduct you own research related to schizophrenia, particularly with respect to the subtype that they suffer from. Try to stay current on medications and their side effects. Think seriously about the regular use of the internet. If you are reading this article, you already know as much as you need to for the effective use of this valuable resource.
Examine and develop your role as their partner in coping with this serious and debilitating illness, but remain aware of your limitations. Give some attention to taking care of yourself so that you can offer quality consistent support. As you gain knowledge about schizophrenia, it will become clear that it affects you as well. Explore all potential resources for them and for yourself.
Assist
Learn when to safely intervene. Some interventions may represent nothing more than common courtesy, such as occasionally providing transportation to appointments or to the pharmacy.
Others may be more serious and complex intrusions. They may even be critical. A willingness to support a petition for involuntary treatment or commitment would be an example of this type of intervention. In this case, be certain that you have exhausted all other less intrusive options and have explored the availability of other people who can function in this capacity.
Offer assistance sparingly to avoid rescuing them from problems that they may have created for themselves and should have avoided; but remain available to avert catastrophic events.
Enlist
Recruit other interested parties who are willing to be part of the team. They may include other family members who consent to being extensively involved, or those who are only willing to stand in for you occasionally in the event that you have other obligations. Think outside the box. You may be surprised to discover who is a good candidate for these positions. Other people, especially those outside the family, may be in a better position to accomplish certain tasks than are members of the immediate family.
Monitor
I warned you that these options would become increasingly difficult! Don’t become a spy.
It is likely that you can provide unique essential information to other members of the treatment team. While healthcare professionals are bound by strict rules regarding confidentiality that severely limit what their can share about their clients, they can receive unlimited unsolicited information.
This might include information involving compliance with any treatment modalities, including medications, or simply a “heads up” that your family member’s symptoms are worsening or they seem to be experiencing side effects.
If your family member is willing to sign a “release of information”, there are no limitations to the information that can be shared. Obtain these releases if this is not a sensitive issue, but don’t undermine trust.
Ask Questions
You will need these releases to accomplish this, one for each source. They must be updated regularly. Include everyone who might be helpful to you and those you believe may benefit from your input. Your family member may resist this level of involvement.
If they don’t, this type of participation may enhance your ability to assist them immeasurably. While your family member may have a number of people involved in their care, networking between these individuals may be limited or non-existent. Regardless, no one else has the investment that you do.
Chances are that you do not also suffer from schizophrenia. It’s also unlikely that you are taking antipsychotic medications or those used to diminish or eliminate medication side effects; drugs that may add to the cognitive impairment that schizophrenia can produce. Therefore, your brain is probably functioning better than theirs. If so, you may be their best advocate and may be able to reliably collect and retain valuable information.
Give Them Some Room
This is by far the most difficult task. You must accomplish all of these other things without being intrusive, overbearing, or enabling. You won’t compromise trust or intensify paranoia. You won’t offend, threaten, or otherwise alienate other treatment team members.
As you achieve unrivaled success in all of these endeavors, you will preserve your family member’s dignity, privacy, independence; and respect all of their concerns. You will persist despite the fact that there may be little or no direct reward or recognition. You will do this because you are selfless and altruistic; and most importantly, because you want the best for them. I didn’t imply that any of this would be easy!
(Sources: The author’s knowledge base, unless otherwise noted.)
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