LeRoy Spaniol

The process of recovery from schizophrenia

To facilitate future research on recovery from schizophrenia a qualitative, longitudinal analysis was conducted with individuals participating in rehabilitation to identify themes associated with improvement in functioning and subjective experience. Twelve individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were randomly selected from a just concluded two-year study of psychiatric rehabilitation. Each individual was followed for an additional four years. Every four to eight months each person participated in a semistructured,audiotaped interview about his or her current life experiences. Tapes were evaluated independently by three assessors for themes and phases that emerged from these life experiences. The qualitative analysis characterized the process of recovery as having phases, dimensions, indicators, and barriers to recovery. This empirically derived description of the process of recovery, from the perspective of people who are experiencing it, can be used to generate research hypotheses for future studies to further our understanding and to promote recovery from schizophrenia.

Client confidentiality and the family's need to know : strategies for resolving the conflict

Vital supports for individuals disabled by mental illness are often provided by their families. The ability of these families to help is dependent on their knowledge of their relatives illness and treatment regime. However, practitioners wishing to provide such information feel a conflict between the familys interest in the information and their clients right to confidentiality. This article presents strategies to enhance information sharing with families while still protecting the clients confidentiality.

The Pain and the Possibility: The Family Recovery Process

The onset of a mental illness is a traumatic experience for all the members of a family. While the mental illness in their family member may be life long, family members can experience their own recovery from the trauma, just as their family member with a mental illness can experience recovery. This article will describe the family recovery process.

The Recovery Framework in Rehabilitation and Mental Health

We have raised and responded to four basic questions about recovery. Because we are still uncovering this important process we need to acknowledge with sincere humility that there is still a long way to go and much to learn. But what we have learned is that people grow emotionally, physically, and intellectually as part of this process we call recovery. They grow emotionally through enhanced self-esteem, self-efficacy, self-respect, meaningful connections to others, meaningful work, a sense of hope, and personal empowerment. They grow physically through increased fitness, improved nutrition, and better health care. They grow intellectually through a better understanding of their disability, effective coping mechanisms, and the development and implementation of personal goals. It is through our connections with people who are experiencing mental illnesses that we will continue to learn and to grow in our knowledge about recovery.