Research shows that many adults with serious mental illness live with or maintain contact with their families. But families are rarely given information about their relative's illness and their own needs for support are ignored. To be optimally beneficial, family members and other caregivers need education about the disorder, some knowledge of illness management techniques, and personal support. Family psychoeducation (FPE) is a powerful evidence-based psychosocial intervention that serves consumers and their families. FPE has proven efficacious in reducing relapse and hospitalization, reducing symptoms, increasing employability of persons with severe and persistent mental illness, and, in many cases, enhancing their families' well-being. Its success rests with a state-of-the-art education model for improving caregivers' understanding of their loved one's illness through learning what is known and not known about it and how to assess and cope with its manifestations. Here, in the first book of its kind, Harriet P. Lefley traces the history of FPE -- including the developments in mental health services and systems and theoretical approaches that inform it -- and the robust empirical evidence it now claims after a quarter-century of development and evaluation at major research centers around the world. Presenting first the approach's generic components, training models, and required competencies, Lefley then discusses the available variations, such as Family Education (FE), a brief manualized form of FPE offered by professionally trained family members that has some empirical support for knowledge gains and easing family distress. The result is a comprehensive, practical introduction to family psychoeducation that critically appraises the evidence and examines the model's place in contemporary mental health systems. This groundbreaking volume is an ideal training tool for graduate students of social work, psychology, and psychiatry and a valuable addition to the clinician's armamentarium of evidence-based practices for clients with serious mental illness.

Reflecting current understanding of the complexities of sexual activity among persons with chronic mental illness, the text draws upon the collective wisdom and experience of experts from a variety of settings. Clinicians, advocates, consumers, researchers, legal experts, and administrators all contribute to document the concerns about sexual behavior and the consequent health risks for this at-risk population. The research presented here is particularly timely in view of recent emphases on patient choice, recovery, and advocacy, and can be used to provide guidance to clinicians, mental health administrators, policymakers, advocates, and researchers.

The essays in this volume discuss racism and sexism as they affect mental health. In particular, they focus on training, diagnosis, treatment, and research, emphasizing the power relationships between individuals and groups that cause unequal access to mental health care. They offer perspectives on issues and their distinct effects on mental health: interracial adoptions, teenage motherhood, gender bias in mental health diagnosis and therapy, prisons used as substitutes for hospitals, homeless families, and increasing violence- in the home, on college campuses, and in the streets.