Working With Serious Mental Illness

Book excerpt: This title is directed primarily towards health care professionals outside of the United States. In today's mental health services, there is a pressing need for practitioners to place greater emphasis on working with users of services and to use skills that have a sound theoretical basis. This book focuses on evidence-based practice but reflects that, in mental health, the best evidence is the personal experience of the user. Many publications explore theoretical aspects of service delivery or provide an in-depth analysis of specific clinical interventions. However, how practitioners comprehensively amalgamate theory with their practice is often missing. This book fills that gap and seeks to guide, plan and suggest down-to-earth treatment ideas for individuals on a day-to-day basis. Mental health practice focused Full of practical advice, user-friendly, clearly accessible and well-designed Reflects user-input, including a chapter written by a user of mental health services describing their experiences of mental illness Leading contributors from practice Early intervention Supervision Implementation and practice development issues Meaningful activity and recovery Engaging and working with carers Relapse prevention