Joyce Burland, PhD developed NAMI‘s Provider Education Program to provide health service providers with insight into the lived experience of mental illness. In the first class, we went over the key principals guiding the course and heard the personal and family mental health crisis stories of our volunteer panelists. Thank you, NAMI-Orange County volunteers! The following content comes from the handouts provided in the NAMI Provider Education Course Participant Manual 2013:
No-Fault Approach
- Hope and compassion
- Critical role of supportive families play
- Collaborative treatment team: family, individual, and mental health professional
Bio-Psycho-Social Model
The medical treatment of mental illness, crucial as it is, cannot be divorced from treating the emotional and social consequences of having mental illness in a society which heavily stigmatizes these conditions. Each of these three areas are equally important.
Biological/Physical
Medical Realm – Science-based knowledge
- Clinical Focus – Medical aspects of illness
- Symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis, medications
- Acute care, medical management of chronic illness
- Research
- Clinical Posture
- Positive, constructive
- Looking for potentials for improvement
- Alert for signs of relapse
- Willing to collaborate with other professionals
- Clinical Goals
- Improve outcome, reduce discomfort, prevent relapse
- Find the medical strategy to maximize recovery
- Increase knowledge
- BASIC SKILLS NEEDED
- Grasp of diagnostic and medical information
- Knowledge of medications and their side effects
- Recognizing early signs of relapse
- Knowledge of current research
- !DANGER! IGNORANCE ABOUT MEDICAL ASPECTS OF MENTAL ILLNESS
Emotional/Spiritual
Psychological/Humanistic Realm – Psychology-based knowledge
- Clinical Focus – Subjective emotions & feelings
- Inner experience, feelings
- Response to illness
- Self-regard
- Concern about the future
- Clinical Posture
- Empathetic, understanding
- Alert to signs of grief, stigma, demoralization.
- Aware of client’s courage and fortitude
- Patience with defense coping strategies
- Clinical Goals
- Foster a close relationship
- Create safety and protection for expressed feelings
- Increase self-esteem and connection with others
- BASIC SKILLS NEEDED
- Empathetic listening and responding
- Ability to feel another’s pain
- Ability to ignore stereotypes about people with SMI and their families
- Ability to take initiative in building relationships
- !DANGER! EMOTIONAL ISOLATION; BLAMING THE VICTIM
Social/Occupational
Rehabilitative Realm – Recover-based knowledge
- Clinical Focus – Self-Renewal/Re-entry into community
- Functional capacities
- Personal goals
- Adaptation to disability
- Sources of system/community support
- Long-term care
- Clinical Posture
- Realistic, hopeful, encouraging
- Willing to take initiative
- Alert to emerging talents and strengths
- Encouragement of positive coping strategies
- Clinical Goals
- Restoration of social ties
- Increased personal agency and self-determination
- Maximum personal fulfillment
- Maximum quality of life
- BASIC SKILLS NEEDED
- Negotiation
- Conflict resolution
- Guidance/coaching
- Knowledge of community resources
- Advocacy
- !DANGER! LACK OF HOPE; LACK OF SYSTEM RESOURCES
These three treatment strategies are interdependent
- Changes in any one of these areas can affect the other two
- No single treatment alone is sufficient for recovery
- No one strategy can ignore the benefits of the other two
~ NAMI Provider Education Course Participant Manual 2013
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