Caring: Home Caregiving for a Loved One with Emotional Illness

Is a loved one close to you dealing with an emotional illness like: depression, mania, senility, suicide, terminal illness, schizophrenia, child abuse or psychiatric emergencies? This book will help you care for them more effectively. The families of the emotionally ill are faced with a most difficult and painful task. Wanting to help, as they always do, they too often feel at a loss trying to cope with the frustrating, often self-defeating behavior of the people they are caring for. Along with genuine concern and love, therefore, families often feel guilt, anger, and resentment. This confusion of feelings interferes with the therapeutic process and prevents family members from realizing what they can do to aid recovery. When the care of the patient takes place primarily in the home, as it usually does, the need to understand is particularly urgent. What psychiatrist Fredric Neuman provides is a guide for the various people-including family members, paraprofessional therapists, and professionals-who are called upon to help those suffering from mental and emotional disorders. He gives no easy answers. Instead, he offers practical and useful advice that allows families and other involved persons to work with the primary therapist to determine treatment. Through the straightforward presentation of representative cases Dr. Neuman is able to shed much-needed light on the dark passages of emotional illness. The return to mental health is never simple, but there is hope. Caring will help those involved discover that hope through understanding.