Designing a Family Psychoeducation Program to Meet Community Needs: The NYU-Bellevue Project

Abstract

For better or worse, family members frequently become the primary caretakers of schizophrenic patients after discharge. Usually this occurs without the family's receiving accurate information about the illness, specialized training, or professional support. Four model psychoeducation programs, which provide families with information, skills training, and support, have demonstrated significant effectiveness in reducing relapse in schizophrenia beyond that attainable by drug treatment alone [1-4]. Psychoeducation programs thus make maximal use of the patient's family as an important resource in the management of schizophrenic patients in the community. Particularly in the current era of brief hospitalizations, in which patients are discharged before they have fully recovered, psychoeducation can initiate a collaborative relationship between professionals and families to ensure continuity of care and to provide for the patient's long-term recovery. Despite the efficacy of psychoeducation, documented by well-controlled treatment-outcome studies, local institutions have been very slow to implement such programs. Three constraints that can impede the adoption of any of the standard psychoeducation programs are: (a) institutional factors, ( b ) demographic characteristics of the local