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Carer Watch.com / Testimonies / Mental Health / I want a public health education campaign for schizophrenia

Name	Your Story
lisa	# Posted: 2 Jan 2008 18:22 Reply When my son became ill with schizophrenia I knew something was very wrong. At the time he was thirty years old and married with a child and had a skilled and very highly paid job. Seven years later when we found him in the night in the snow on a park bench he had lost everything. But even then despite consulting GPs, psychiatrists and counsellors we still had no idea what he was sufferring from and it was still another three months before we could get him into any kind of treatment. Given that one or two young people in every hundred will develop this disease why is there no public health education campaign so relatives and friends of people who get the disease can recognise it and get help at an early stage when the prognosis for successful treatment is so much better. Why isn't there a public health campaign that explains that the disease can be medicated and people can go on to lead useful lives much like diabetes. This veil of silence used to cover cancer and AIDs and so many other diseases but now for those diseases the fear and the ignorance is all in the past. The ignorance leads to fear and lack of treatment. Why is schizophrenia almost the last disease to get good public awareness and open treatment in the public arena.
frances	# Posted: 12 Jan 2008 10:42 Reply I can't understand why even when someone is diagnosed with schizophrenia it can be so hard to get help for them when they are going in to crisis
Excalibur	# Posted: 18 Jan 2008 08:44 Reply I can't understand why even when someone is diagnosed with schizophrenia it can be so hard to get help for them when they are going in to crisis I think one of the reasons is that many people with this disease resist treatment even if/when it is offered - for several good reasons. 1. there is probably no such single thing as schizophrenia - there are lots of different mental health problems that get labelled schizophrenia and they all seem to respond very differently to different treatments. 2. some of the treatments have very nasty side effects or are coercive in nature. Many make people worse, not better. 3. the person suffering has often lost the ability to make sound judgements about what is the best course of action - so they resort to killing the symptoms with drink or drugs, or crackpot alternative therapies like Scientology, which just compounds the problem. 4. there are complex issues around compulsion, and a long history of dreadful human rights abuses of sectioned patients. 5. Psychiatry is still an emergent science in as much as very few statements of fact about mental illness will stand up to critical analysis or be true in every case.
frances	# Posted: 24 Jan 2008 19:44 Reply I think one of the reasons is that many people with this disease resist treatment even if/when it is offered - for several good reasons. 1. there is probably no such single thing as schizophrenia - there are lots of different mental health problems that get labelled schizophrenia and they all seem to respond very differently to different treatments. 2. some of the treatments have very nasty side effects or are coercive in nature. Many make people worse, not better. 3. the person suffering has often lost the ability to make sound judgements about what is the best course of action - so they resort to killing the symptoms with drink or drugs, or crackpot alternative therapies like Scientology, which just compounds the problem. 4. there are complex issues around compulsion, and a long history of dreadful human rights abuses of sectioned patients. 5. Psychiatry is still an emergent science in as much as very few statements of fact about mental illness will stand up to critical analysis or be true in every case.[/i] I absolutely agree that these are all good reasons why a person experiencing schizophrenia might resist treatment. That is my point. When they are ill sufferers often do resist treatment. Which leaves their friends and relatives in a truly terrifying place. This is a campaign group for carers and the problems that carers face in this situation urgently need to be addressed. While being mindful of the autonomy, privacy and respect that is due to the sufferer there is a balance to be achieved with the wish to intervene for good reasons by the carer. I think the mechanisms to help carers in this situation need to be radically improved.
sharoo	# Posted: 13 Feb 2009 20:38 Reply Hi, Find the latest news about Depression, Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia. Discuss Mood Disorders topics with members of the Health Community. ==================== sharoo Manic Depression News and Discussion Forum

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